My 8th grader made me rethink how I grade essays

My student Jamie asked me why I took off points for spelling when the content was good. She said 'you always tell us ideas matter more than rules, so why do you grade like rules matter more?' That hit different because she was right. I redesigned my rubric that night to give 40% to content and 20% to mechanics. Anyone else had a student point out something obvious you were missing?

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oscarmurphy3mo ago

Dude, has a student ever just completely called you out like that? I had a kid last year tell me my rubric was basically a "typo tax" and I felt so stupid. It was like, wait, I've been punishing kids for being bad at spelling when they actually understood the whole book? I totally redid my grading too, made it so mechanics are a separate thing we work on over time instead of just docking points.

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blairstone3mo ago

Ask @oscarmurphy if separating mechanics changed how you grade the content itself, or just how you weight it? I'm curious because I've found that when I stopped docking points for spelling, I started noticing other patterns in student writing that I had been overlooking before - like how they organize their arguments or use evidence. Did your students' overall writing quality improve once the pressure about mechanics was off?

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