Janet Preston at Unity College uses the rubric attached below to grade short writing assignments; the rubric is based on one she saw at mathforum.org. Janet provides the following context (lightly edited): At Unity College, we have adopted a college-wide goal to incorporate writing across the curriculum. To bring a writing component into our classes, my math colleagues and I use writing assignments like the weekly problems provided at mathforum.org. The way it works is this: Every two or three weeks throughout the semester, I choose a problem or project, relevant to our topic at hand, that I think will
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This list of common comments on mathematics papers, with comment codes, can be used to avoid rewriting the same comment on several papers. The codes are useful for de-emphasizing less important comments so students will focus on more important written-out comments. Tex and doc files are included both so the list can be modified and to enable copy/paste of comments onto student papers. This list is intended for short papers; a list for longer papers would need more comments focused on structure. The “grader” versions are designed to help educators quickly skim to find the code for a desired comment.
Read more →By Susan Ruff Johann’s presentation on partitions was carefully crafted. The math was completely correct, the board work was neat and legible, the delivery was professional, and the timing was perfect. But the talk was so dry and formal that the other students quickly reverted to the blank look that suggests they have more interesting things to think about. In contrast, Karen’s presentation on generating functions gained and held the attention of many of the students. She successfully conveyed the beauty and power of generating functions . . . to the front half of the class. The rest couldn’t hear
Read more →This 18-page resource for math instructors addresses questions of how to teach communication in an undergraduate math seminar. Most of the document focuses on questions of grading and providing feedback to students on their writing. It was written for a workshop with M.I.T. math instructors preparing to teach communication-intensive undergraduate math seminars.
Read more →This assignment asks students to assess their participation in class over the course of the semester, supplying themselves with both a grade and comments. The self assessment is guided with five questions. Written by Mia Minnes for her Undergraduate Seminar in Logic at M.I.T.
Read more →Educators who find themselves writing the same comments on multiple students’ papers may find it to be helpful to use comment codes to simplify giving feedback and to de-emphasize less important comments so more important comments will receive more attention from students. This two-page pdf presents an example of such coded comments from a course on Micro/Nano Processing Technology. Some students also appreciate having the code list to use as an editing checklist.
Read more →Guidance for TAs for how to assign grades on a term paper draft. Includes a single-category rubric for the draft (based on effort and completeness) as well as a single-category rubric for the final paper (based on quality). This second rubric was used to supply an “advisory grade” in addition to the first-draft effort/completeness grade. From MIT’s Principles of Applied Mathematics.
Read more →This rubric for short writing assignments is used to help ensure that multiple TAs grade writing consistently with each other. From M.I.T.’s Principles of Applied Mathematics.
Read more →This form for critiquing and grading presentations is based on a student-generated list of criteria of effective math presentations. One instructor who used this form for grading commented that content should receive a heavier weighting in the grade so weaker students are encouraged to challenge themselves.
Read more →This two-page note provides guidance for commenting on mathematics papers. Suggestions are given for instructors who feel that most or all errors should be marked, and for instructors who comment primarily on small-scale errors such as wording. Suggestions include directing the student to develop a personalized editing checklist, encouraging the student to identify his or her own solutions to writing problems whenever possible, and using a commenting checklist as a reminder to consider larger-scale issues such as structure and to look for possible honest praise to provide.
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