Coaching Essay and Essay Update

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Coaching Essay and Essay Update

• Amy Tait
• GAD State Competition Essay Coordinator

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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

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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

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http//USADTest.com
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Each student and judge is assigned a Username and
Password
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Essays are secure.
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Judges will need a seven character Activation Key
to access essays
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A list of available essays is displayed, divided
by prompt
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Essays may be printed for easier scoring
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Essays are scored by selecting values from two
pull down screens
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Scores are not recorded unless the Save Score
button is clicked
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Once an essay has been scored, a judge may review
and rescore only those essays he/she has already
scored
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Judges may score at their own convenience during
the scoring period.
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How Score Is Determined Part A
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How Score Is Determined Part B
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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.
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Essay Competition Timeline

• Teams will choose one of these two dates to
  compete
• Saturday, February 9 at 1000 AM
• Monday, February 11 at 300 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.

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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

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In Case of Emergency

• If there is a problem with Saturdays 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

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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

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Scoring Timeline

• Judges Score Essays February 13 - 18
• Essays Needing 3rd Scores February 19
• All scores entered and completed by February 20

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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

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Essay Judges Training

• USAD Essay Training Materials

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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

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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.

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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.

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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.

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Scoring Procedure

• Each essay will be read independently by two
  scorers, and the average of these two scores will
  be the students final essay score
• All scorers must score each essay in accordance
  with the assigned rubric

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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!
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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 students range of
  understanding of the given topic

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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 students
  introduction and conclusion and the effectiveness
  of these paragraphs in presenting and reinforcing
  the students main point(s).

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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

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Determining the First Score
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The Rubric Language/Style

• Assesses the effectiveness and appropriateness of
  the students 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

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The Rubric Conventions

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

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Determining the Second Score
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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.

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Illegible, Insufficient, or Blank?

• Mark the Nonscorable box.
• The essay earns a zero score.

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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 cant steer.
• -- Joyce Cary (British author)
• Discuss the perspective that any one of the
  psychologists, philosophers, or religions
  included in this years 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.

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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 students claim
• Lacks some control of sentence structures
• Phrasing is simplistic vocabulary somewhat
  limited
• Some serious grammatical problems

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Anchor Paper BExcellent

• Impressive comparison of Skinner and Satres
  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)

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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