Soooo... How Am I Supposed To Grade A Yearbook Class?

LYNN BARE Lynn Bare has completed more than 25 yearbooks. When it comes to grades, she had no idea what to do her first year. She had some help from the previous yearbook adviser, but admits that her grading was arbitrary. Fortunately, she found direction through the North Carolina Scholastic Media Association (NCSMA). A class about creating a staff manual included information on grading, which Bare used to develop grading rubrics. Her second year, a pair of siblings drove home the need for objectivity. “I had a brother and sister in the class who lived to make my life miserable that particular year. And their parents would show up. The son was a horrible speller and I kept having to take points off because he did ads, and he was misspelling the names of businesses and their street locations. The parents were really upset, and I just thought I’ve got to do something. So I started the rubrics when I took that class [through NCSMA], and then when I had those siblings, I tweaked them even more. She now uses rubrics for every section of their yearbook: student life, people, academics, clubs, sports and ads. Each rubric is customized for each section. “For student life, they’re graded on reading, captions, having correct names, getting quotes that add to the story, picture selection, having good action shots and making sure they do the index processes correctly,” explained Bare. “Anything like that, even down to making sure SOUTHERN ALAMANCE HIGH SCHOOL GRAHAM, NORTH CAROLINA

they have the correct information on the folio.” She adjusts the rubrics every year as necessary.

“Once my editors have their template, I go back and I adjust the grade sheet. Last year, every layout had to have some sort of package on student life and on sports. So if I were to pull last year’s rubric, you would see there were points allocated for having a package.” In previous years, they’ve tried to incorporate the 300-word story in their yearbook, and writers received points for embodying that style of writing.

LYNN BARE

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