0 1 2 3 4 5 Grammar Vocabulary Pronunciation Coherence Fluency This kind of scale forces us to look at our speaking in more detail student’s than is allowed by an overall impressionistic mark. It also allows for differences in individual performance: a student may get marked down on pronunciation, but score more highly on use of grammar, for example. As a result, the final student’s mark out of a total of 25 may reflect his or her ability more accurately than a impression will do. But we are still left with the problem of knowing exactly why we should give a student 2 rather than 3 for pronunciation. What exactly do students have to do to score 5 for grammar? What would make us give students 0 for fluency? Subjectivity is still an issue here (though it is less problematic because we are forcing ourselves to evaluate different aspects of the students’ performance). One way of trying to make marking scales more objective is to write careful descriptions of what the different scores for each category actually represent. Here, for example, is a scale for assessing writing, which uses descriptions: 5 Exemplary 4 Strong 3 Satisfactory 2 Developing 1 Weak Ideas / Original treatment Clear, Evident main Some attempt at Writing lacks a Content of ideas, interesting ideas idea with some support but main central idea; developed from enhanced by supporting topic may be too development is start to finish details. May general or minimal or non
0 1 2 3 4 5 Grammar Vocabulary Pronunciation Coherence Fluency This kind of scale forces us to look at our student’s speaking in more detail than is allowed by an overall impressionistic mark. It also allows for differences in individual performance: a student may get marked down on pronunciation, but score more highly on use of grammar, for example. As a result, the student’s final mark out of a total of 25 may reflect his or her ability more accurately than a impression will do. But we are still left with the problem of knowing exactly why we should give a student 2 rather than 3 for pronunciation. What exactly do students have to do to score 5 for grammar? What would make us give students 0 for fluency? Subjectivity is still an issue here (though it is less problematic because we are forcing ourselves to evaluate different aspects of the students’ performance). One way of trying to make marking scales more objective is to write careful descriptions of what the different scores for each category actually represent. Here, for example, is a scale for assessing writing, which uses descriptions: 5 Exemplary 4 Strong 3 Satisfactory 2 Developing 1 Weak Ideas / Content Original treatment of ideas, developed from start to finish Clear, interesting ideas enhanced by Evident main idea with some supporting details. May Some attempt at support but main topic may be too general or Writing lacks a central idea; development is minimal or non
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