When my I's and II's write essays I usually start with 10
points and take off 1 full point for a mis-conjugated verb
(yo tiene o yo teno quince annos) and a half point for
smaller errors-- i.e. no se without the accent--no accent on
this computer, sorry. I let mistakes like this go: Mis
parientes son de Georgia. Mi madre es de Dalton y mi padre es
de Altanta.

But when I taught intermediate English to non native speakers
I found it was easier to just grade an essay or dialog on
overall clarity based on what they should know. Here is a
dialog I got from a lower intermediate student:They could get
up to 10 points. Do you like car? Yes I like. How is it?
It's blue. (And so on with errors like this..it was about 10
more lines.) That was a "B" so I gave it 8.5/10. (Had i
counted errors and taken off .5 per error it would have been
lower than 8.5/10.)

It's not a A because they should know to use "the car" and "I
like it" (both basic errors and topics we'd covered)-- but
the literal translation como es doesn't hurt the grade
because we hadn't covered how to translate como es.

A C- dialog was: You want car? No, thank. I want other car..
bigger green car. Is very beautiful this car.. you like? That
was 6.5/10; it's much harder to follow due to the student's
incorrect basic grammar.

But my way isn't the only right way :).. in French my French
teacher graded our essays that said: Me llamo Sarah. Tengo
veintidos annos y soy de Georgia by first deciding the over
all essay was a "B-" and then later figuring out how many
points to give to a B- essay..say 15/20. The problem I see
with system that is students will get upset if you can't tell
them exactly why the essay was only a B- and not an A+.. but
on the other hand it's much easier than counting up 3 mis
conjugated verbs and 7 smaller errors in an 8 sentence essay
and trying to give that a point value..

So try different ways to grade and see what works for you..
buena suerte!

On 11/03/09, TrishW wrote:
> I'd like to know how others grade paragraphs and essays. I
> am teaching a high school Spanish class for homeschoolers
> for the first time.
>
> I thought of assigning a total point value and then docking
> a quarter point for each missing accent and spelling
> mistake and one point for incorrect verb conjugation. Any
> other thoughts on this? Thanks in advance!

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