Monday, April 18, 2011

The Life of a Test Grader

Martha is a single mom, with a four year old daughter named Emily. Martha is just trying to get by day to day. This morning, at 6:00 AM, as Martha was getting ready for her job as an Achievement Test Grader in a state far, far, away, her babysitter called and said she couldn't watch Emily today. 

After three phone calls, she finally reached her sister, who agreed to watch Emily for the day. The only problem was her sister lived 20 miles away, so Martha barely had time to get there, and then make it to work on time.  

As she rushed around the kitchen, eating a piece of toast while she picked up, Emily spilled her cereal all over the floor. Five minutes later, after cleaning up the spill, Martha glanced at the clock and realized she was going to be late. She grabbed a cup of coffee to go, snatched up Emily and bolted out the door. She put Emily in the car, and jumped in her seat. As she reached across to buckle the seat belt, she spilled her coffee down the front of her shirt. "Oh @#$#@@#$," she thought. 

She unbuckled Emily and ran back in the house to change. She searched high and low, but there was nothing clean to wear. She grabbed her cleanest dirty shirt out of the laundry, shook it out, and slid it on. Once again, she and Emily headed for her sister's house. Naturally, she hit a construction zone two minutes from her sister's. After sitting for 10 minutes, she finally got through. She sprinted in, gave Emily a kiss good bye, and headed off to work. She had 11 minutes to make the 20 minute drive. 

She was lucky, the construction only held her up for 5 minutes this time through. Unfortunately, her head pounded with a migraine from the stress of the morning. And work hadn't even started yet. 

She reached work, late again. She stopped by the pop machine, but didn't have any change for her daily dose of Diet Coke. As she rounded the corner, there stood her boss, with a mean look on his face, and her daily stack of tests to score. "Late again, I see," he said with a scowl. "Don't even think about taking a break until you get this school's tests scored."

With her head pounding, no Diet Coke, and no time for Advil, Martha reached for the first test. Martha, the test grader opened your test. 

How will you score?
Image from http://www.flickr.com/photos/kandyjaxx/173120800/

39 comments:

Jessica W. said...

It sounds like Martha's going to be a Pickey-Person.

She's having a bad day from the start, so it sounds like she is going to give the tests lower scores because she's tired and grumpy.

I think I will have to be really specific about the extended responses, like making sure I restate the question. Also make sure I answer all parts of the question. I will also make sure she don't have to look for the answer, it's going to be clearly stated.

Ashlee J said...

I think Martha would probably grade my extended responses on the test by neatness because after the day she has already had I don't think she would really care what we put if she can't read it.Also I think Martha will probably read over the extended responses by how they're worded like if it is close but not exact.

Sara A. said...

I think that is a test grader is having a bad day then they will not give a good grade to the person that took the test. I think that if I was having a bad day and I had to grade 100 or more papers in two hours or however long that I had to work then I would not give the person a good grade because I'm tired stressed and I wan' to go home. So tough luck Billy-Bob or Sue or anyone's test I'm gradin' because I'm not givin' credit for some little response even if you did get two out of four points I'm givin' you a one.

I think that if you don't get the answer right out of the passage then you aren't going to get a good score and you aren't going to be happy. So if I was you I would try my hardest and get all of my answers out of the passage. So try hard and do your best and Martha wont give you a bad grade because you have what the rubric has.

Vince.N said...

I think I will score good because I am going to write neat, underline, spell words right, and reread. Also I am going to work hard all the way to the OAA day.

Seth V. said...

If Martha was grading my paper after all of her troubles happened I think that my test would make her feel a little bit better than she was. I have confidence in myself that I will do good on the OAA this year. So I think that my score will cheer Martha up.
I hope that there is no Martha out there though that is like this post though. If there is a Martha out there that really is a test grader and has had a bad morning like this one has I hope she gives me a good grade.
When my test gets scored I hope I have a person that has had a great life and a great morning so I don't get a horrible grade.

Micah Hines said...

I'm going to be honest if Martha the test grader graded my test I would get a bad grade. I would get a bad grade because I don't have the best hand writing so Martha would just score the question a zero because she could not read it.

If I had good neat hand writing then I'm sure that I would get a good grade. I'm sure of this because I would check over it and underline and do everything I could do to make it my best work.

I hope a nice person grades my test. Someone who had a nice day and won the lottery. So I would get a good grade.

HeathJ22 said...

It doesn't sound like Martha will be in the best mode ever to me.

I would not want to be in the shoes of the person who is getting his test grader by Martha. I am going to make sure my test is the best thing ever. I going to try my best this year and get a better score on my test.

Megan B. said...

It sounds like Martha was having a very bad day. First her daughters babysitter called and said she couldn't come so she had to take her to her sisters who lived 20 miles away then her daughter spilled her cereal so she had t clean it up then she spilled her coffee all over her shirt and had t get one out of the dirties. By the time she got to work she was late and wanted a diet coke but she didn't have any change to bye one the her boss yelled at her and said she wasn't allowed to take a break until she had all the tests graded.

If I was Martha and had to grade it I would first grade the 4 point questions then the 2 point questions. I would grade multiple choice questions last because there would be a machine to grade them so they would be the easiest. I would go through them carefully so I wouldn't make any mistakes so I wouldn't have to do them again.

When the boss yelled at Martha and I was her I would of told him everything that happened and if he didn't listen then I would of said that I quit and left. Martha's boss sounds like a horrible and mean person, I hate being late but I hate getting yelled at for being late when I have a good excuse even more.

Rhianna Lucas said...

I think that everyone needs to write everything down in their extended response. We need to make everything clear, because you never know. You might be getting a mean test grader like Martha. We need to put everything ounce of brain into this test.

We need to go back in the text, prove our answers. Back everything up with supporting detail. We need to make it easy on Martha so she doesn't give us an F. We need to number our paper. If it's a two point question then we need to number it one through two. If it's a four point question then we need to number our answer document one through four.

All we got to do is make it easier on Martha(or any other test grader). We have to make our answer clear. And most of all write neatly. Seriously, we are in the sixth grade now. We shouldn't be writing like first graders. Honestly if a test grader can't read a word in your extended response then you never know, you might miss a point.

Cade V. said...

I think I will score fairly well depending on the mood the grader is. According to Martha, I hope my test isn't at the bottom. Her boss is upset with her because she was late for work. She's having a bad day, she spilled coffee all over her.

I will show my work, reread what I write, check over for mistakes, check for skipped questions, and etc. On extended responses I need to give specific details, don't make the grader think what you really meant and give her/him a hard time.

Nick U. said...

I think this year when we take the Ohio Achievement Assessment I think I will do better than I did last year. I know I will do better than last year because we as a whole class have been working hard for the Ohio Achievement Assessment.

I hope Martha is not in a bad mood when she grades my test because I would like to pass like last but with a higher grade.

Lindsey H. said...

I think if a test grader had a bad day and she was scoring my test and I made a careless mistake she would probably score it wrong.

If I was a test grader and I had a rough morning if you made a careless mistake I would not be in the mood to look to see what you did wrong I would count it wrong.

I think on the test next week from everything that we have learned from Mr.McGuire and Ms Bowlby that we do checks and trust me the checks help a lot. The checks help you to see if you made a careless mistake or not and I would check just to be on the safe side.

I think on the extended responses that the test grader will want neat hand writing if they cant read it they don't score it but they have to score it but it would big fat 0.

Since the begging of the year I think I have improve SO SO much, I never thought I would have came this far but Mr.McGuire and Ms.Bowlby has done a wonderful job. At the beginning of the year I would probably had made a lot of careless mistakes.

Austin P. said...

I'm going to have to say I will not get a good grade with Martha the test grader because I don't do every thing the test tells me to. I don't like doing every thing it tells me to if I don't do every thing so be it. Also I would not get a good grade because I don't write very good.

Brooklyn E. said...

Honest truth I don't think I would get a good grade and better yet what if your paper was the last one in the stack of OAA'S Martha would probably just rush right throw it and give that person a bad grade just so she can go home and relax and with the OAA'S Just a week away. The OAA grader is probably rushing around right now trying to find a babysitter and other things.

Ok, so say Martha babysitter did not cancel on her and every thing was going good and once she gets to grading the test and she gets finished and it on your paper and its the last one what do you think is going to happen she is going to give you a great grade or a horrible one that would be the baddest score you ever got in your life?

Caitlin W. said...

I believe that I will score at least a 400. I don't known for sure what I will get on my OAA test. If Martha was grading my OAA (Ohio Achievement Assessment) test, she will probably would mark my correct answer wrong when they are correct. The reason why she mark my correct answer are wrong because she is putting her effort down like not willing to give her best to grade the test correct way.

If the babysitter showed up, she might be a little different from what I say up in the first paragraph. For a example she will get to work at the right time and she won't be late. She might won't put her effort down if the babysitter showed up and she won't to much of rough time.

Shala S. said...

It sounds like Martha is not in a very good start today and I wouldn't want her to score my OAA. I wouldn't want her to because if my test is one of the last ones in the stack I would want to make it as good as possible, but Martha might not care about the long sentence I put on our test document. Especially if I had no numbers on my paper saying where I got my answer. I would make it easy for her so that wont happen.


I think I will score good on the OAA (Ohio Achievement Assessment). I know I will score good if I restate the question, and not make her have to look for where I got my answer. I am going to make it clear so it is easy to grade.

Belle H. said...

I think that I will get a good score on the OAA. I think I will get a good grade because I have neat hand writing, so it will be simple to read. Another reason I think I will score on the OAA is I have been working hard on the practice OAA's

If Martha was grading my test she would probably mark the correct answers wrong. I don't think she would do it on propose, it just since Martha had a bad morning she probably wouldn't give her best effort on grading the test.

Tyler H. said...

I think it would probably be easier to have advanced or accelerated score on the test. I think if I had Martha grading my paper it would be hard to even get proficient. She has been having a bad day and her boss tells her that she can't have a break until the tests are graded. I would make sure I have my best answer choices, extended responses completed, neat and restated.

Since Martha has been having a bad day then you better hope you did your best on the test because you might have Martha grading your test. You never know who could be grading your test. I think I could be around advanced.

Mark S. said...

If the person grading my test has a bad dad, I will probably get a proficient score because when I do extended response question all I do is look for the key points, label, and underline.

If she/he also has a headache, they're going to want to be done with the test. I don’t think that they would want to deal with a two line four point extended response question.

Austin D said...

If I am thinking about what the test grader will think about my paper.

If Martha might be my luck test grader then I will need to underline and do everything all of the teachers have taught me this year.

Chase W. said...

I think I will score pretty good but it depends on the mood the test grader is in. Usually I score proficient. The reason why I think I will score good is because I am going to underline and writing neater. So I hope Martha is in a good mood so I can get a good score.

Heidi Vining said...

Well I guess if Martha has had a morning as bad as that and she has a headache and she opens up the sloppiest test in the world I think she would be about to crack, I mean really I think I have decent enough handwriting that she wouldn't have anything to complain about on my test but if she where to grade that sloppiest test in the world then he\she would get a bad grade, but I think I would get a good grade.

Lisa B. said...

If Martha is grading my Ohio Achievement Test I think that I will get a good score, if I use neat hand writing and make things easy to read and understand.

I hope that Martha is not in a bad mode when she is grading my test.

Cassie D. said...

I think that if Martha or whoever went to grade my test she would not have a problem reading it but if you consider the obvious she is in a bad mood and most likely she would not try and look for little print or the answer that is not there. I think that I will probably get a good grade on the test now that I have read this but before I read this I would probably have gotten a really really bad grade because I like to write very very small, especially in a limited space. I think that this piece of writing has really inspired me to do my absolute best writing and work because Martha was obviously not in a great mood that morning. I hope it inspired a lot of you people getting ready to take the achievement test just like me!!!

Hayley said...

Well Martha sounds like a nice person but with the morning that she has had I think that she will give lower scores because she has had a bad morning because As she reached across to buckle the seat belt, she spilled her coffee down the front of her shirt.

Then his boss said "Late again, I see. Don't even think about taking a break until you get this school's tests scored. Then she can't even get Advil to stop the headache so I think that she will definitely give a lot of really really really low scores.

If I was Martha I would go through them and go 0 0 0 1 1 1 1 2 2 2 4 and I would not even pay attention to what they wrote because she has had a bad day so far and it will only get worse and then I would go home and SLEEP and then do it over again. I would really want to get it over with.

Alison G said...

Well Martha is having a really bad day so she probably wont want to grade test all day. So if the answer isn't exactly right then she will mark it wrong. When I'm having a bad day I don't feel like working either so I just slop things down. I'm sure she don't care what grade we get. So if she don't feel like marking it right she probably wont. So I probably would get a bad score if she graded my test. Because She don't feel like taking the time just to grade test I mean seriously no one would if they were having a bad day, Because you have to grade the same test over and over. I would get FRUSTRATED!!!!!!!

Jared B. said...

If Martha scored my test, I would probably get a low score because she is tired and mad. If Martha was in very bad mood and scored other students tests they would probably have low scores.I'm not sure if my test would be a good score after Martha graded it, but If she is in a good mood I would get a passing grade. But the main thing to do is make your hand writing good so Martha can read it.


I just hope she is in a very good mood when grading my test

caleb said...

Well Martha she should be a really nice person Martha she looks bad in the morning and Martha she should get a big long sleep. She should get some sleep when she is done. Martha she should a lot of sleep.

Dylan H said...

I think if someone had a morning that bad I think anyone could get a bad test score. I know if my mom ever had a morning that bad, she wouldn't go to work.
Really it would matter what kind of a person graded my test. If its a super specific person that wants the wording to be 100% the same then almost everyone would get a bad score, but if its a person thats not like that and had good morning then people would not miss as many points.

The worst possible thing that could happen would be that a super specific person who had a really bad morning (Like Martha's morning.) would probably give much less points. Really how many points some one would get would be a combination of what kind of person graded your test and how good/bad their morning was.

Jakob S. said...

I think that when Martha opened my test she would be like "why does it have to be sloppy," because I have really bad hand writing. If there was a person like Martha grading my test I will make sure that I write really good. I think that if I write really sloppy that a person like Martha would not even care she probably would give me a zero because she wouldn't be able to see my hand writing.

If I was Martha I wouldn't grade the test's I would guess like 0,0,1,1,1,1,2,2,3,3,4,4 because I wouldn't be able to stand having that bad of a day and grade a sloppy test that would make me want to guess on want that person got on his extended response.

Emily said...

I think this year when we take the Ohio Achievement Assessment I think I will do better than I did last year. I know I will do better than last year because we as a whole class have been working hard for the Ohio Achievement Assessment. Also I know that as hard as the teachers have been working that pushes us a little. It also sounds like Martha was having a very bad day. First her daughters babysitter called and said she couldn't come so she had to take her to her sisters who lived 20 miles away then her daughter spilled her cereal so she had t clean it up then she spilled her coffee all over her shirt and had t get one out of the dirties. By the time she got to work she was late and wanted a diet coke but she didn't have any change to bye one the her boss yelled at her and said she wasn't allowed to take a break until she had all the tests graded. I think Martha will probably read over the extended responses by how they're worded like if it is close but not exact. I would want to make it as good as possible, but Martha might not care about the long sentence I put on our test document. Especially if I had no numbers on my paper saying where I got my answer. I would make it easy for her so that wont happen.When the boss yelled at Martha and I was her I would of told him everything that happened and if he didn't listen then I would of said that I quit and left. Martha's boss sounds like a horrible and mean person, I hate being late but I hate getting yelled at for being late when I have a good excuse even more.If I was Martha I would go through them and go A+ A+ A+ A+ and I would not even pay attention to what they wrote because she has had a bad day so far and it will only get worse and then I would go home and SLEEP and then do it over again. I would really want to get it over with. I hope that Martha is not in a bad mood when she is grading my test.

Alex H. said...

I think when Martha has had a morning like that she probable does not even want to be a work let alone grade a whole pile of test's.But I think she will grade the test's because she said she had a babysitter so she needs money to pay the babysitter.

So I am hoping I did good on the OAA(Ohio Achievement Assessment).I also just hope that there is know one grading my test and had that kind of a morning.If there is I hope they don't give a bad score because they just want to get finished grading.

If that was me I would have never picked that job .If I was in that small of space and had that many test's to grade plus that kind of morning, I would have want to go home and relax on the couch.

DawnB said...

I think that when Martha goes to score the tests she will not be in the greatest mood to grade the big O.A.A test. She would not want to have sloppy hand writing or any other thing that she could not read while she was grading.

I think that I will do fine on the test.Because I have been working hard and teachers have been teaching us a lot and getting us to know everything that we need to know. But I hope that this year I will do much much better than I did last year.


If I was Martha I would go crazy,because if I had to be stuck in a room full of test that I had to grade the whole entire day I would not be really happy.Because since Martha had to be stuck in there for a whole day full of test then imagine of me in there trying to grade test all day long,I would go crazy.

Tylerw222 said...

If all of that stuff happen to me I would not went to work and grad the test I hope she dos not get my test because she might get mad and she might mark them all wrong

Andrew M. said...

I think that if the test grader really had that bad of a day, I'd probably get a bad grade. For one thing I'm not very good at extended responses. Plus with all that stress and its still morning, my chances of getting a good grade are very small. Even with the possibility of a morning like that for my test grader I still have a lot of confidence that I will get a good grade on the OAA.

I think that I will do a good job on the test. But after a morning like that (for the test grader) and being crammed in that tiny office with hours of grading to do I wouldn't be too happy either. I think she'd probably give me a 2 or a 1 maybe even a three. But I don't know. I'll just have to wait and see.

Kyra S. said...

I believe that Martha will be very tired and grumpy this means she might be a picky person to be grading papers. if Martha came to my paper with a pounding headache without her diet coke tired and ready to go home and lay down I would be going crazy because for all I know she could just be putting F's on them. So what I would need to do is be very specific and write neatly so that Martha can read it. I believe that I will test well because I will give my all and do my best I will absolutely give 110% on the OAA test.I'm going to be very confident and get a lot of rest so that I will not be tired when I take the test.

Blaize R. said...

I'm not so sure I would want Martha to grade my test. Knowing my luck my test would be at the very bottom of the GIGANTIC stack of OAA test's and I would make one careless mistake on a four point question and she would mark it as a Big Fat ZERO.

I kind of feel bad for Martha because her baby sitter couldn't watch Emily(her four year old),she had to drive 20 minuets to her sister's house, Emily spilled her cereal all over the floor so she had to clean that up witch took her five minuets, Martha glanced at the clock noticing she was going to be late and bolted out the door putting Emily in her seat and as she reached across to buckle the seat belt she spilled coffee down the front of her shirt, so she had to unbuckle Emily an ran back inside to change,then she hit a construction zone two minuets from her sitter's house,and then she sprinted in her sister's house after waiting for 10 minuets kissed Emily an headed off for work she had 11 minuets to make the 20 minuet drive.

Poor Martha was late again. I hope she doesn't grade my test or it will be a big fat F.

Nicholas K. said...

I think I will score a 400-450 on the OAA. I will have to write as neat as possible. Or Martha will not be happy and I will have a bad grade.

If Martha was having a good day she would take it easy on grading the test scores. It is really important that you try your hardest. If you don't Martha will not get what you wrote and you will get a zero.

Anonymous said...

I know this is 2.5 years later, but I found this b/c my daughter is taking the OAAs for the first time and is in the terrible "Third Grade Guarantee" year. I respect all of these students opinions, but it absolutely scares me that these kids have to worry this much about a test that has such random meaning and scoring. We really need to re-think what is happening in education in Ohio.