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University of Virginia, Dept. of Psychology
About this course: I led three 20-student discussion sections in an independent supplement to a 250-student lecture course in child development.
About this document: TAs graded all papers in this course, although the lecture professor set the paper topics. Since only I had experience grading, before each of the two papers, I set up a meeting for all of the TAs, in which we wrote the rubric for each paper (a revision of one I had used elsewhere). Once papers were in, we met again to grade and discuss a sample set of papers for calibration (so students would not receive different grades based on who their TA was). Students were told about these grading criteria in advance, and received a copy of the rubric with their graded papers, annotated with the specific points they had gained or lost. In their evaluations, a majority of students felt grading criteria were clearly explained, and grading was fair (see Student Evaluations).
Note that this rubric is for a child observation. Students received the following support to write the paper:
- The professor’s assignment, detailing the desired structure and content
- Sample graded papers from past semesters
- General paper-writing guidelines I prepared to aid students (especially freshmen or students outside the major)
- In-class discussion of the paper.
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