JOURNAL SCORING GUIDE
A journal is a piece of
writing that is ostensibly meant only for yourself. As such, I really don't think I have any business reading it --
and I won't. On the other hand, the journal
may very well be the most important writing you will ever do. With that in
mind, I do grade it very heavily even though I will not actually read it. To do this, I will simply grade you during
journal time according to the following THREE criteria:
1. You begin your journal
promptly at the beginning of the period without being asked.
2. You write the entire
time until I say stop, with only brief pauses to think.
3. You do not talk at
all during the entire journal period.
Each day we journal, you
either meet all three requirements or you lose credit for that day. At
interim time and again at final grade time, I will simply take the number of
days you do well and divide it by the total number of journals. This average is
your journal grade. For example, if we write 20 journals in a nine weeks, and
you do well on 15 of them, your average would be 15/20 or 75%. These may be
easiest points to get or lose in our class. I've seen average students raise
their overall grade with good journaling habits; I've seen great students lose
their A with poor habits.
Of course, this grading
method is based largely on faith -- faith that you are writing something
worthwhile. If you are not sure what this means, I have provided some
guidelines below.
reflects the writer's
attitude that the journal is an important part in his/her development as a
writer
contains all required
responses
makes extensive use of free
writing and unassigned writing
reflects higher level
thought with creative ideas and approaches
is well-developed with
significant depth
has strong voice
demonstrates extensive
risk-taking in a wide variety of formats
is written regularly