Coaching Essay and Essay Update

Amy Tait

GAD State Competition Essay Coordinator

Major Changes in Essay Competition

• Completely online using the USAD system

• All essay scores will be finalized before the state competition

• Judges will have about a week to score the essays

• Sample essays will be available for judges to practice scoring well in advance to verify accurate scoring before the competition

Benefits

• Easy to use

• No separate forms for scoring

• Easy to verify essays needing third scores

• No legibility issues

• Reduces/eliminates judge fatigue during scoring

• Track accuracy in scoring and handle issues immediately

http://USADTest.com

Each student and judge is assigned a Username and Password

Essays are secure.

Judges will need a seven character Activation Key to access essays

A list of available essays is displayed, divided by prompt

Essays may be printed for easier scoring

Essays are scored by selecting values from two pull down screens

Scores are not recorded unless the Save Score button is clicked

Once an essay has been scored, a judge may review and rescore only those essays he/she has already scored

Judges may score at their own convenience during the scoring

period.

How Score Is Determined: Part A

How Score Is Determined: Part B

Finalizing the Score

If the scores given by the two scorers differ by 200 or more points, then the essay will be read by a third scorer. The final score of the essay will be the average of the two closest scores.

Essay Competition Timeline

• Teams will choose one of these two dates to compete: • Saturday, February 9 at 10:00 AM• Monday, February 11 at 3:00 PM

• The entire team must write at the same time• Students will be given the prompts on paper which will also

serve as their scratch paper. These papers must be collected by the proctor

• In a district where two teams may compete (due to the wild card slots, for example), both teams do not have to compete at the same time in the same place

It is still undetermined what will be done if a student is sick or cannot compete with the rest of the team.

Essay Competition Timeline

• Someone other than the coach must proctor• The prompts will be different each of the dates but

two will be from the USAD and one written by the GAD Essay Coordinator.

• Have additional computers available in case of issues

• The timing is on the student screen• There will be a practice session in advance

In Case of Emergency…

• If there is a problem with Saturday’s writing session, use the Monday time slot

• If there is still a problem on Monday, we will resort to written essays

• The proctor will have printed copies of prompts, paper, and pens/pencils as well as an envelope to overnight the essays to the Essay Coordinator

• These written essays will be copied and overnighted to the judges for scoring

Alternates

If an alternate is necessary at state competition…

• Alternates will write their essays the Friday night of competition during the General Assembly

• The same rules from the other two sessions will apply

• Judges will be on hand to score alternate essays

Scoring Timeline

• Judges Score Essays: February 13 - 18

• Essays Needing 3rd Scores: February 19

• All scores entered and completed by February 20

Answers to Other Questions

• There will be a 60 minute window for each competition time.

• We will arrange a practice session a week in advance of the competition

• Try to have extra computers available in case there is a problem with one

• The student screen counts down the time remaining.• At this time, students cannot change prompts without

signing out and signing back in, but USAD is working on changing it.

• Proctors will have detailed instructions

Essay Judges Training

USAD Essay Training Materials

General Information

Participants• High school students (grades 9-12)• Teams of six to nine• Teams consist of at least

– 2 “A” or “honors” students– 2 “B” or “scholastic” students– 2 “C” and below or “varsity” students

• Students compete within their GPA category but all essays are scored according to the same standard

General Information

Essay Event• Students respond to one of three essay prompts. Either

two prompts will focus on the Super Quiz and one will focus on the selected literature, or two prompts will focus on the selected literature and one will focus on the Super Quiz

• Students have 50 minutes to pre-write, plan, organize, draft, and write a final version of their essay

• Most all of the prompts will require students to write an expository essy. Prompts may also solicit a persuasive essay.

Materials

• You will be given a packet of information to refer to while reading these essays. This packet will come from the USAD Resource Guides and will contain only the information necessary to accurately judge the essay topics assigned.

• Please familiarize yourself with this information before reading the essays.

Beware of Biases

• Please be conscious of biases when reading the essays.

• Try to avoid letting biases cloud your judgment• If you feel you will not be able to provide an

unbiased assessment of a particular essay, do not score that essay. Let the Essay Coordinator know so the essay can be assigned to another scorer.

Scoring Procedure

• Each essay will be read independently by two scorers, and the average of these two scores will be the student’s final essay score

• All scorers must score each essay in accordance with the assigned rubric

Scores

80% of Final Score =

• Focus/Scope• Organization• Content/Development

20% of Final Score =

• Language/Style• Conventions

When Scoring essays online, be sure to have a copy of the essay rubric available to ensure accuracy!

The Rubric: Focus/Scope

• How thoroughly the student addresses the given prompt

• How successful he/she is in establishing a clear thesis or purpose

• Student should make a specific point about a specific topic and maintain this focus throughout the essay

• Requires judgment on the student’s range of understanding of the given topic

The Rubric: Organization

• Assesses the manner in which the student presents his/her ideas to the reader

• Calls for judgment on the clarity, logic, and sequence of the ideas presented and the degree to which these ideas are developed and sustained within and across paragraphs using transitional devices

• Assesses the quality of the student’s introduction and conclusion and the effectiveness of these paragraphs in presenting and reinforcing the student’s main point(s).

The Rubric: Content/Development

• Assesses the quality of the students ideas and the degree to which they are fully developed through facts, examples, anecdotes, details, opinions, statistics, reasons, and/or explanations

• Assesses the relevancy of the information presented to the overall focus of the essay

Determining the First Score:

The Rubric: Language/Style

• Assesses the effectiveness and appropriateness of the student’s choice, use, and arrangement of words and sentence structures

• Use of language should serve to create an effective and appropriate tone and a consistent and powerful voice

• Language should communicate ideas clearly and effectively

• Consider choice of words, range and specificity of vocabulary, as well as sentence variety

The Rubric: Conventions

• Assesses the correctness of the grammar, mechanics (spelling, capitalization, punctuation), usage, and sentence formations

Determining the Second Score:

Off-Prompt?

• An off-prompt essay is an essay that does not address the given prompt in any manner. An essay that attempts to address the given prompt, but does so in a limited manner should not be considered off-prompt, but should instead be scored harshly for Section A: Focus/Score -- Organization -- Content/Development

• Mark the “Off Prompt” box. These essays receive a zero score.

Illegible, Insufficient, or Blank?

• Mark the “Nonscorable” box.

• The essay earns a zero score.

Anchor Paper Prompt

“The will is never free--it is always attached to an object, a purpose. It is simply the engine in the car--it can’t steer.”

-- Joyce Cary (British author)

Discuss the perspective that any one of the psychologists, philosophers, or religions included in this year’s Super Quiz would have regarding the above quotation, and compare and

contrast that perspective with the viewpoint any other psychologist, philosopher, or religion would likely have on the

matter.

Anchor Paper AWeak

• Does not compare and contrast the view; simply compares the view with the views of a single philosopher

• Fails to maintain consistent focus throughout• Essay not clearly organized around a central point• Weak introduction -- lacking emphatic thesis statement (does not

indicate what their views are)• Conclusion lacking in substance• Evidence is superficial, confusing, and does not provide

substantial support for student’s claim• Lacks some control of sentence structures• Phrasing is simplistic; vocabulary somewhat limited • Some serious grammatical problems

Anchor Paper BExcellent

• Impressive comparison of Skinner and Satre’s views• Focus is consistent throughout; clearly and logically organized• Discussion of actual quotation is somewhat minimal (not

specifically discussed in introduction)• Conclusion restates thesis and wraps up essay• Smooth transitions• Substantial information on the theories for support• Strong command of language; appropriate and varied vocabulary• Word choice and word order occasionally awkward• Adept in sentence structure and mechanics• In a couple of instances, sentences lack parallelism (rather awkward

use of participial phrases)

Anchor Paper CFair/Good

• Lacks focus but does discuss viewpoints• Introduction does not mention Freud or Rousseau and main point is

unclear• Body strays from topic and meanders into own perspectives• Adequately organized overall with relatively smooth transitions but

organization is lacking within each paragraph• Some pertinent information is provided by stunted by lack of focus:

needed to be more clear and concise• Arguments weakened by excessive qualitifications and sometimes

contradictory information• Grammar, usage, and mechanics mostly sound with a couple of errors• Word choice adequate but awkward at times• Natural, almost conversational style but overuses rhetorical questions,

undermining their effectiveness