College Writing Final Self-Evaluation
Assignment: Use the Scoring Guidelines on page two to assess your growth and your performance for the fourth quarter. Methodically use the criteria spelled out for each area (class participation, progress toward goals, journal and overall performance). Give yourself a grade for each area and support it with specific examples. Connect your performance with the criteria in the rubrics and use quotes or examples from your writing, conferences and class as examples.
Support your assessment clearly so it doesn’t appear you are giving yourself the grade you want rather than the grade you deserve. Be thorough. Do not ignore less positive behaviors such as private conversations in class or missing journal entries. Your honesty will make the rest of your assessment stronger.
Also, use the Scoring Guidelines to assess the course. The first part assesses the effectiveness of the curriculum guide, the course description, the website and/or your notes from the beginning of the year. Remember to point to a specific best, most useful or most effective; a specific worst, least useful or least effective and a specific suggestion different than the worst/least. The second part is a short evaluation of the class. Be sure to also point to a specific best, worst and suggestion. Remember this course is constantly evolving, for example, you might pay special attention to the poetry activities that were spread out through the semester this year rather than in a single unit. Your ideas will be used to improve the course. (Remember to closely follow the Scoring Guidelines below.)
Requirements: Come to the exam period with at least a rough draft of your self-assessment. If you type slowly begin typing before the exam day (or type your journal entries and staple or paste them into your journal). At the end of the period share, hand in or email me your example papers, your journal and any other evidence that will support your assessment. I will check your assessment against them.
Process: Each area (starting with Class Participation) will be assigned as a journal assignment. Highlight the descriptions on the criteria sheet (Class Rubrics) that fit your performance to determine a grade for that area. In your journal entry assess all aspects of your performance using the scoring guidelines on the back of this page. Repeat this process for each area. Use your own midterm as a model for what to do again and what to do better this time. You may prefer to type these entries and staple a copy of each into your journal
Evaluation: The final will be assessed in two ways. First, if your self-assessment is effective you will get the grade you have given yourself. Second, you will receive up to 20 points for the class evaluation and up to 20 points for each of the other four areas: journals, class participation, goals and overall grade. The number of points you receive will depend on how thoroughly and clearly you connect you specific behavior to the specific criteria spelled in the rubrics. Assess yourself for each of the behaviors spelled out on the Scoring Guidelines on page two.
Early Senior Self-Evaluations Due: June 3; Regular Senior Self-Evaluations Due: June 6
Early Self-Evaluations Due: June 5; Regular Self-Evaluations Due: June 7
Must be Typed: Typically 3-5 Pages
Final Exam Self-Evaluation Scoring Guidelines
The Class Participation Assessment should accurately evaluate how often you volunteer (3 pts), with specific examples (1 pt), how often and well you listen (2 pts), how often and well you help others improve their writing (3 pts), with specific examples (1 pt), the degree to which you have private (off-task) conversations (2 pts), the percentage of time you come to class (don’t forget about days tardy or absent) on time, prepared and ready to work (2 pts), growth or improvement in class participation (2 pts) with examples (1 pt.) and give an overall grade consistent with the descriptions in the Criteria for Class Participation Grades (3 pts).
The Progress Toward Goals Portfolio Assessment clearly states each of the five goals. It should accurately evaluate each goal in a separate paragraph using significant, satisfactory, fair and very poor (1 pt each) with explanations for each goal that point to specific examples of progress in specific pieces of your writing from ANY course this quarter. The explanations quote or summarize the applicable section and discuss the effectiveness of each in terms of the goal (1 pt each). The assessment states whether you have attached five pieces of writing that demonstrate the progress (2 pts). Give an overall progress toward goals grade that is consistent with the descriptions in the Criteria for Progress Towards Goals Grades (3 pts).
The Journal Assessment should accurately evaluate your journal for the quarter including overall organization – secure journal, dated entries etc. (2 pts), number of entries excluding those written in class (2 pts), specific length in pages (2 pts), percentage of 26 assigned entries completed, (2 pts) number and quality of extra entries that go beyond assigned entries with examples (2 pts), entries that take risks, demonstrate thinking or persistence (2 pts) with examples (1 pt), growth or improvement in the journal with examples (2 pts), ability to meet deadlines for reading and handing in journals (1 pt), comments from a classmate and/or from a conference with the writing assistant (2 pts). Give an overall grade consistent with the descriptions in the Criteria for Journal Grades (3 pts).
The Overall Assessment should accurately list the individual assessments (class participation, progress toward goals & journal) listing the grades (6 pts). It may evaluate other areas of growth mentioning specific areas of improvement (4 pts) over the quarter or include any other pertinent information, mention other contributions or specific future writing goals (4 pts). This is the place to discuss any change or improvement that you have experienced in your writing. The overall grade must follow logically from the individual assessment grades and the other pertinent information (6 pts).
The Course Evaluation should offer an example of how the Intensive Freewriting at the beginning of class was well done or useful (3 pts), an example of a weakness in the Intensive Freewriting (3 pts) and a suggestion (different than the weakness) for improving the Intensive Freewriting (4 pts). It should evaluate the class stating the best or most useful part of the class, (3 pts), the worst or least useful part (3 pts) and a suggestion for next semester (different than the weakness) (4 pts).