This week in brief

Monday, March 24
No events scheduled


Tuesday, March 25
No Reflections

8:00 PM – Faculty and Guest Recital
Wallenberg Hall
Sangeetha Rayapati, voice; and Rebecca Turner, guest vocal artist


Wednesday, March 26
3:30 – 5:00 PM – Free Workshop for “From Parchment to Pixels: The Year of the Book”
Art Museum, Centennial Hall

4:00 – 5:00 PM – Walk-in Hours in the Dean's Office with Jeff
Academic Affairs Office, 116 Founders Hall


Thursday, March 27
10:30 – 11:20 AM – Convocation – “Stereotyping and Prejudice” – Dr. Steven Stroessner
Centennial Hall


Friday, March 28
3:30 – 5:00 PM – Year of the Book “Book Studies” Lecture Series/ Friday Conversations
Tredway Library, 2 nd floor, south end
Dr. Jon Hurty, Professor of Music and Director of Choral Activities

8:00 PM – Faculty & Guest Recital
Wallenberg Hall
Brian Vlasak, composer; Regina Cole, saxophone; Yasmin Flores, clarinet


Saturday, March 29
4:30 PM – Student Recital – Flute Quartet
Wallenberg Hall
Christie Morton, Robin Asay, Beth Trudelle, Elise Croner

8:00 PM – Student Recital – Heather Lofdahl
Wallenberg Hall

8:00 PM – Seth Meyers
Centennial Hall


Sunday, March 30
10:30 – 11:30 AM – Sunday Morning Worship
Ascension Chapel – Founders Hall 

5:00 – 6:00 PM – Sunday Catholic Mass
Ascension Chapel – Founders Hall 

7:00 PM – Celebrating Women in the Arts
Wallenberg Hall

Volume 5, Issue 23• March 24, 2008

Augustana Center for Teaching and Learning

Grading Rubrics

In Effective Grading: A Tool for Learning and Assessment, Barbara Walvoord and Virginia Johnson Anderson introduce Primary Analysis Traits (PTA's) as a label for scoring rubrics used to assess student work. They believe strongly that the use of PTA's makes grading more consistent and fair, saves time with the grading process, helps to diagnose student strengths and weaknesses very specifically, and can be used to track changes in student performance over the term.

Designing PTA's at the beginning of your course organization helps to better relate your learning goals and how you wish to measure them. Setting a rubric up begins by deciding on components you wish to measure related to the learning goals for the course. An example given in the text is a “statistical investigation with components of identifying the problem, developing a hypothesis, obtaining a random sample, measuring variables, analyzing data and presenting conclusions.” (Walvoord/Anderson, pg. 221) Once the components have been defined, the instructor assigns grades or points to levels of learning within the rubric. Walvoord and Anderson's book is filled with excellent grading rubric examples across many disciplines supported by thorough discussions for each.

How can faculty at Augustana learn more about grading rubrics and share successful rubrics with others? We plan to create an archive of grading rubrics on the ACTL Moodle site and will soon be soliciting these from the faculty. These rubrics will be categorized on the Moodle site as a reference for all faculty. In addition, the resource “Effective Grading: A Tool for Learning and Assessment,” by Barbara Walvoord and Virginia Johnson Anderson, Jossey-Bass Publishers, San Francisco, 1998, can be found in the Teaching and Learning section of the Tredway Library.