Teaching Tips from Williams Colleagues

On Grading Papers

As with most aspects of teaching, there is no one right method for providing feedback to students on their papers.

Below are examples for how Bill Darrow (Religion) grades papers for his Religion 101 course and for how Peter Montiel graded papers for his Economics 467-517 tutorial.

Religion 101

When Darrow gives out an assignment, he also hands out expectations.

Darrow states that “There are four variables .. that are the measures [for the grade]: nuance and development of organizing theme, deliberateness and tightness of structure, interaction with the figures and texts that are the subject matter and finally, writing and style at the sentence and paragraph levels. The A- paper was outstanding on the first three and good on the fourth. The B paper was satisfactory on all four.”

Here is an example of an A- paper and a B paper, both with Darrow’s comments.

Economics 467-517T

Montiel hands out this template for his grading.

Here are two papers from the same student, both with the comments that Montiel provided: an A paper and a B paper.

Tips On Lecturing and Teaching

Thomas Garrity and Frank Morgan in the Math/Stat department presented some lecturing tips for the American Mathematical Society. While aimed for research mathematicians, most of the tips are independent of discipline.