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Samantha Watts Professor Amy Piotrowski LAE 3333 2 December 2013 Case Study During my observations and grading of Mr. Filaloss class papers, I have noticed that his students all tend to struggle with the same issues. Interestingly enough, the class as a whole shared in a universal struggle in their writing process. The first batch of papers required the students to write an argumentative essay arguing whether the main character of The Metamorphosi was a sympathetic or unsympathetic character. Most of the papers demonstrated an underdeveloped thesis, or lacked a thesis and entirely, and lacked supporting details for their argument. These students weak theses were apparent in the beginning and concluding paragraphs of their essays, as some students seemed to switch arguments midway through their paper, seemingly forgetting what their original point was, and becoming confused when addressing the opposition. The students lack of detail was evident in the body paragraphs, as some students demonstrated good arguments but regularly failed to support with in text examples, or if the students did support their argument with in text examples, they failed to elaborate on their examples. However, these issues are typical of the age group we were grading, and are easily resolved through practice and awareness. One thing that I found very interesting, and worth praising in the students papers was their enthusiasm. A lot of the students seemed very eager and passionate about arguing their point, which made the papers more interesting to read. This is also something I noticed in the

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other batch of papers that I had to grade, about whether or not the students preferred working in a group or alone. The students seemed to enjoy the topics, and were engaged in their papers, one student in the second prompt that I graded even titled their paper The Lone Wolf. These students took ownership of their writing and that was something that I kept in mind when grading, which may or may not have resulted in my grading the papers in a forgiving manner. When I was grading the papers, I graded them as if the student was going to receive my comments, so I was sure to high light what the student did right, and give positive feedback. If I saw something wrong with what the student wrote I would mark it and then make a suggestion for how the student could revise it, and at the end of each paper I included a short synopsis of what I noticed. Mr. Filalos visit to class was very enlightening, as I have never really gotten an inside perspective on the behind the scenes of school life, especially the fatigue involved with grading mass numbers of papers. As an aspiring teacher, I am aware of the amount of papers that I will assign, but it had not yet occurred to me that I will also have to sit down and grade all of these papers, especially when it comes to the FCAT writing. The scoring fatigue that Mr. Filalos mentioned is a little intimidating, and it definitely puts into perspective what will be expected of me as a teacher. Mr. Filalos visit made me think about my own classes, and capabilities, and how I will manage working with so many students in a year. As a student I hated when teachers would assign work that they didnt grade, but now I understand that it was not out of laziness, but sheer exhaustion that certain assignments didnt get graded, especially when it comes to holistic

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scoring, and having to keep all of these separate aspects in mind when grading a paper, which can lengthen the process. I like holistic scoring, in that it gives a clear guideline to what is expected in a paper, but this also poses an issue, because it places restrictions on student papers, and what constitutes a great paper. In a way, holistic scoring takes away some of the scoring power from the teachers, because they have to grade in a certain way. But, this also means that all students will be graded in the same way, and students know what is expected of them. So, although holistic scoring can restrict the instructor when it comes to grading a students paper, it gives a clear outline of what is expected, and leaves no room for misunderstanding, so it is an overall effective means of assessing student work.