Grading Standards 5 & 6

This week we're looking at each row of the grading rubric for the Individual Research Report (IRR) component of Performance Task 1 (PT1). We'll break down what a student needs to do to get a perfect score.  We'll start with the two easiest rows to grade.

ROW 5: Apply Conventions

This row grades the student's citations. The possible grades for this row are 1, 2 or 3.

To get a perfect score of 3 for this row, the IRR must:

• Have no mistakes in citation or attribution
• Cite each source correctly in the bibliography
• Employ consistent formatting throughout the bibliography

Before we dissect what each of these factors means, it's important to note that the College Board does not dictate the method of citation. Students can use MLA, APA or any other recognized method of citation and they will not lose points so long as they apply it correctly.

Every source that's used to gather evidence for the IRR must be appropriately cited in the bibliography. Every piece of evidence included in the IRR must be cited. Students lose points here if they include evidence from a source in their IRR but neglect to cite the source that their information came from. They can also lose points if the cite the evidence to the wrong source. It's imperative that students double and triple check their citations to ensure that they are all included and that they are attributed to the correct sources.

The last item is concerned with the students' formatting of their bibliographies. It must remain consistent throughout. For example, students can lose points if they underline the title of one article, italicize the title of a second, put the title of a third in all capitals, etc. Even if every citation and source is included and correct, messing up the formatting will knock a student's grade down to a 2.

ROW 6: Apply Conventions

This row grades the IRR based on spelling and grammar.

To get a perfect score of 3 for this row, the Performance Task must:

• Have few/minor errors in spelling and grammar

That's it. The more spelling and grammar errors the student makes in the IRR, the lower score. In my experience, the student can still get a perfect score even if there are a few spelling or grammar errors. However, they must be minor and there can't be a lot of them, maybe two or three at the most. The more errors and the more egregious they are, the lower this score goes.