Establishing Standards and Criteria for Grading
Wednesday, October 11, 11:45-1:15 in Buntrock 142
Barbara Walvoord, Fellow of the Institute for Educational Initiatives, Concurrent Professor of English, and Chair of the Assessment Committee, University of Notre Dame, Indiana
Barbara Walvoord is a nationally recognized expert on grading and assessment. She is the author of _Effective Grading: A Tool for Learning and Assessment_ (Jossey-Bass, 1998), and numerous other publications. In this Conversation, she will examine various ways to construct and communicate criteria and standards for grading, including rubrics, assignment sheets, and checksheets - their uses, advantages, and limitations. When does effective guidance become "handholding"? How do we establish healthy classroom attitudes around grades and standards? What are legitimate uses of a faculty member's "gut feeling" about a student's work? How do we leave room for creativity and surprise? Please join us for what promises to be an important and fascinating session.
Barbara Walvoord has consulted or led workshops at more than 250 institutions of higher education throughout the U.S., on topics of assessment, teaching and learning, and writing across the curriculum. She was the founding director of four faculty-development programs at research and liberal arts institutions (Central College in Iowa, Loyola College in Maryland, University of Cincinnati, University of Notre Dame), each of which has won national recognition. Her most recent publication is _Assessment Clear and Simple: A Practical Guide for Institutions, Departments, and General Education_ (San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 2004). She is currently principal investigator for a three-year Lilly Foundation grant to study the teaching practices of 500 teachers of introductory theology and religion at public, private non-sectarian, and religiously-affiliated institutions.
