Plant Science GTAs explore rubrics in WAC workshop
On April 2nd, 2026, we had an interactive workshop targeted at Graduate Teaching Assistants (GTAs). The professional development opportunity was hosted by the Writing Across the Curriculum (WAC) Antiracist Faculty Fellows program and the School of Plant Sciences (SPLS), housed within the College of Agriculture, Life and Environmental Sciences (CALES).
Led by Dr. Amritha Wickramage, an SPLS Assistant Professor of Practice and a WAC Antiracist Faculty Fellow, the session was designed specifically for Graduate Teaching Assistants (GTAs) looking to refine their grading practices. A dedicated group of five participants attended the hands-on event to experiment with rubric design and discuss how assessment actively shapes classroom equity and student learning.
Dr. Amritha Wickramage leads participants through an interactive activity on formative assessment and linguistic justice.
Breaking Down the Rubric
Through interactive group activities, attendees explored the distinct advantages and disadvantages of holistic, analytic, and single-point rubrics.
Dr. Wickramage also helped participants differentiate between formative assessment, which guides learning by providing timely feedback, and summative assessment, which evaluates learning at the end of an instructional period.
Workshop participants discuss rubric categories and grading criteria during a hands-on design session.
Addressing Linguistic Justice
A central focus of the workshop was linguistic justice in grading. Dr. Wickramage highlighted how traditional grading practices can sometimes force students to conform to a single and dominant standard of English, which can inadvertently devalue diverse linguistic practices. To counter this, the session introduced antiracist WAC strategies that challenge traditional assessment methods, make expectations transparent, and encourage student agency.
Putting Theory into Practice
To apply these concepts immediately, the attendees engaged in a hands-on experimentation segment. The GTAs analyzed a signature assignment rubric for a Plant Sciences course (PLS 170C3), a writing-emphasis course in the current General Education curriculum, collaborating to ensure the assessment tool was both effective for instructors and equitable for our students.
We celebrate Dr. Amritha Wickramage for her innovative approach and contributions to Writing Across the Curriculum education!