Now that you understand how the Grading Assistant enhances the student writing experience and lightens the grading workload for teachers, you’re ready to assign a custom Grading Assistant-linked assignment!
To create and assign a customized Grading Assistant-linked assignment, you can follow these steps:
- Select Browse & Assign at the top of your dashboard to access the Assignment Library.
- Under Assignment Types, select Writing.
- You can either create a custom Grading Assistant-linked Quick Write or Guided Essay. Select Create your own underneath the assignment type you'd like to make.
- After selecting the assignment type, you'll begin to add your prompt or sources for students to use during their writing. For best practices around using custom prompts with Grading Assistant, check out this section!
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If you’re creating a Quick Write, you'll select the Grading Assistant and choose the specific Grading Assistant rubric you wish students to follow.
💡When you select the rubric you wish to use, you’ll see tips on how to format your prompts to get the best results from the Grading Assistant!
- If you’re creating a Guided Essay, you'll select the Grading Assistant as the grading method. You’ll also choose the genre of the assignment. Grading Assistant-supported genres are marked with a wand!
❗ While you can customize the rubric and add additional items, the Grading Assistant will only be able to grade the preset rubric items with a wand next to them.
- Once you’re done customizing the assignment, select Continue at the bottom of the screen.
- On the final page, you can select which class(es) you want to receive the assignment, set a start and due date, and add a name for the assignment.
You can assign to the whole class by checking the box next to your class name, or assign to individual students by expanding the Choose Students drop-down menu and selecting specific names.
Things to keep in mind while creating prompts to use with Grading Assistant
We recommend assigning one of our pre-made Grading Assistant-powered prompts with Grading Assistant! These prompts have been designed specifically for Grading Assistant to provide helpful feedback.
You may also use a custom prompt, but there are some considerations to keep in mind to ensure the best results for each Grading Assistant type.
Argumentative Essay
- Assign a full essay with one clear-cut opinion question.
- Include sources with the prompt or have students complete research to find credible evidence.
- We don’t recommend Grading Assistant for assessing mastery of language skills or correctness.
- We don’t recommend adding extra requirements to the prompt. Instead, you can add custom criteria to the rubric to grade manually.
Example Prompts
| Works well with Argumentative Essays | Not suited for Argumentative Essays |
|---|---|
| Should wild animals ever be kept in captivity? Are online friendships as valuable as face-to-face friendships? Write an essay arguing whether or not the voting age in the United States should be lowered from 18 to 16. Which shapes an individual’s personality more: nature or nurture? |
Write a paragraph . . . . . . bold your thesis statement . . . |
Literary Analysis Essay
- Assign a full essay with one clear-cut question to analyze one or more specific texts.
- Despite the name Literary Analysis, Grading Assistant can give useful feedback for essays analyzing non-literary texts.
- Keep instructions simple and brief.
Example Prompts
| Works well with Literary Analysis Essays | Not suited for Literary Analysis Essays |
|---|---|
|
Write an essay analyzing Orwell’s use of foreshadowing in Animal Farm. What effect does it have on readers? Read the two articles. Write an essay analyzing how each author examines the ways artificial intelligence processes information differently from humans. How does the narrator change over the course of the story? |
Write a paragraph . . . Write a letter . . . Write a story . . . Write an article . . . |
Expository Essay
- Assign a full essay with one clear-cut question.
- For best results, include sources with the prompt or have students complete research to find evidence.
- We don’t recommend Grading Assistant for assessing mastery of language skills or correctness.
Example Prompts
| Works well with Expository Essays | Not suited for Expository Essays |
|---|---|
|
Why is false information on the internet dangerous?
How does physical activity affect mental health?
How did the invention of the light bulb change everyday life?
Write an essay explaining the risks and benefits of nuclear power.
|
Write a paragraph . . .
Write a letter . . .
Write a story . . .
Write a personal essay . . .
Describe an experience . . .
|
Argumentative Paragraph Rubric
The Grading Assistant’s Argumentative Paragraph rubric evaluates whether a student has produced the core functions of an argumentative paragraph. For best results:
- Ask a single, clear-cut opinion question.
- Have students write one paragraph with a claim and supporting evidence.
Example Prompts
| Works well with Argumentative Paragraph Grading Assistant | Not best for Argumentative Paragraph Grading Assistant |
|
Do young people learn more from their peers than from adults? Write a paragraph to support your opinion. Should humans try to live on other planets or stay put on Earth? Do you agree with the following idea? Hot dogs should never be eaten with ketchup. |
Write an essay... Write a story... Share your thoughts and opinions about... What would happen if...? Choose an example of __ in the text and explain... |
Text Analysis Paragraph Rubric
When using the Text Analysis Paragraph rubric, the Grading Assistant evaluates whether a student has produced the core functions of a text analysis paragraph. For best results:
- Ask a single, clear-cut question.
- Have students write a paragraph with a topic sentence supported by at least two pieces of evidence.
Example prompts
| Works well with Text Analysis Paragraph Grading Assistant | Not best for Text Analysis Paragraph Grading Assistant |
|
Based on the article "Digital Detectives," how can individuals detect false photos? Write a paragraph and support your response with at least two pieces of evidence from the text. How do Fitzgerald's descriptions of the weather create suspense in this chapter? In "Las Cebollas (Onions)," why does Esperanza lie to Isabel about knowing how to sweep? |
Write an essay... Write a story... Share your thoughts and opinions about... What would happen if...? Quote one line in the text... |
Quick Check
The Grading Assistant’s Quick Check evaluates whether a student has answered the prompt and followed directions in their response. The Quick Check will only take into account instructions in the Prompt field—it won’t look at sources, rubric items, or word count.
Quick Check is best suited for our Grading Assistant Daily Writing prompts! You can also create a custom prompt, but we don’t recommend using it for assessing correctness or skill mastery, such as:
- Skill practice
- Checks for understanding
- Essays
When using Quick Check on an assignment, you may want to ensure the class grade is accurate for the relevant class. When assigned to an elementary class, Quick Check feedback will provide elementary-appropriate feedback comments.
Example prompts
| Works well with Quick Check Grading Assistant | Not best for Quick Check Grading Assistant |
|
If you could make one thing in the world free of charge to everyone, what would you choose and why?
|
Write a list with three items, using commas correctly.
|
State Test Rubrics
- Make sure your prompt or task matches the rubric you've chosen. If, for example, you assign an argumentative writing prompt with an expository rubric, you may see odd results or inconsistent terminology in feedback.
- We don’t recommend adding extra requirements to the prompt. Instead, you can add custom criteria to the rubric to grade manually.
- We also recommend mimicking the format of real test prompts to the extent possible.
For example, here's an example of a real released test prompt for the Texas STAAR Informational (Grade 8) rubric. You could create a great custom prompt by 1) swapping the first part of the prompt (outlined in orange) with a new article and task, then 2) keeping the second part of the prompt (outlined in green) as-is.