Home | How It Works | Stats Login | Register         Case: Evaluating a student's essay My students must go through the six steps of the writing process (I guide them along the way) and I use a rubric to evaluate their work. Many teachers at my school evaluate their students' rough draft, as opposed to the final copy. When evaluating written work, are we providing a grade to the student's rough draft or final/clean copy? Solution: (Rates are posted for this solution!) I personally grade the student's rough draft and provide them with feedback; I treat the rough draft as if it were the final, so that the students rise to my standards. However, I only put a grade on the essay as a communication piece for the student. Basically like a "if you turn this in as the final draft, here is what you will get" kind of message. The grade is often lower than what the student wants, so this motivates them to re-visit the essay and make revisions. It also requires them to study and understand the rubric in order to improve. NOTE: I do not count the rough draft grade as the final essay grade in the gradebook. Like I said, it is used only as feedback for the student, so I will enter it as a classwork grade so they can see their improvement from rough to final draft.