Writing Rubrics for Your Consideration!

Submitted by Leecy Wise on Mon, 04/22/2019 - 14:09
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Good rubrics can provide a key tool (1) to help instructors give meaningful feedback and (2) to help students assess their own performance on their journey to becoming independent writers. 

You are invited to participate in a group discussion on rubric development for developing adult writers.

Below are links to three rubrics for your consideration. We will start with the first: http://home.snu.edu/~hculbert/criteria.pdf

Please determine the level of students that you will be considering. Next, examine each one and comment on the following as we develop a helpful dialogue around this critical issue:

Are criteria stated in student terms? In other words, would your students understand the expectations they are asked to meet?

  1. Are criteria grammatically consistent?
  2. Are there too many or too few criteria? 
  3. Are criteria stated in objective terms?
  4. Are the levels labeled in friendly/helpful terms?
  5. Are points awarded for each level? Should there be?

Finally, you are invited to dialogue with others here on how you might improve the first rubric listed below: http://home.snu.edu/~hculbert/criteria.pdf

On Wednesday, we'll address the second rubric. In the meantime, if you would like for us to comment on other rubrics, yours or someone else's, feel free to post him here.

Let's talk! Leecy

Comments

You are invited to continue to reflect on best practices in creating writing rubrics for adult learners, especially those enrolled in ABE and ESL programs, where reading levels should influence the statement in rubric criteria. On Monday, you were invited to comment on our first resource: Writing Rubric #1: http://home.snu.edu/~hculbert/criteria.pdf.

I'll add my thoughts in hopes that you will add your comments to those as well.

Are criteria grammatically consistent? No. The lowest level of the second criteria is not parallel with the other three levels. Some statement in other criteria also lack parallel construction. 
Are there too many or too few criteria? I wonder about the need for "Level of Content." What do you think?
Are criteria stated in objective terms? I would argue with the following terms as subjective: outstanding style,  used effectively, original thought/unoriginal, and serious errors. However, for the most part, criteria are objectively stated. 
Are the levels labeled in friendly/helpful terms? I would argue with using "Far Exceeds Standard" as a grading criteria. In my view, it is not fair to expect students to exceed or far exceed standards in order to be awarded 100% of the grade. 
Are points awarded for each level? Should there be? In this rubric, grades are stated as A,B,C, and D. That is fine in my view, as long as teachers do not award minus or plus next to each letter grade. As soon as points are awarded in addition to stated points, teachers and students lose the ability to grade objectively.

I will add question and comment regarding the level of language used in criteria statements. In this case, ABE, ESL, and, maybe, many ASE students would not understand much of the language used in the criteria. If rubrics are for students, and they should be, in my view, those statements should be simplified.Take the statement,  "Writing shows high degree of attention to logic and reasoning of points. Unity clearly leads the reader to the conclusion and stirs thought regarding the topic." Perhaps the criteria would be more universally understood as "You make logical points that support your main ideas in all of your writing." 

I hope you'll add you thoughts to these comments. Thanks! Leecy

It makes me sad to see Leecy talking to herself so I'm chiming in.

Are there too many or too few criteria? I would take out the criteria for Format. I would be happy with correct paragraphing, at least until students were doing well with the important components. I would also move Grammar and Mechanics to the end of the rubric to show it’s the least important consideration.

Are the levels labeled in friendly/helpful terms? I agree that Far Exceeds is an unfair expectation. Yes we should have high expectations for our students and having them meet the standards is a high expectation. We don’t need to set them up to fail by asking them to go beyond what is already a high bar. I disagree with the wording used in the headings, especially “inadequate”. Our students have probably been made to feel that way too often. I’m sure there are better words or phrases we can use.

Are points awarded for each level? Should there be? I don’t like the fact that letter grades are used instead of actual points. What happens when a student’s writing doesn’t meet all the criteria in a single column? With numerical points, a teacher can set a minimum number of points to “pass” and then help students work on the specific areas where they did not score maximum points.

I agree that the language used in this rubric is not student friendly.  If students are going to use a rubric as a road map for their writing, they need to clearly understand what is says.

I also found a grammatical error in the rubric. For Development under the B column, the word should be “woven” not “weaved”.

Thanks for chiming in, Di, and for commenting on different aspects of our first rubric I was getting lonely, for sure! :)

Regarding points, I certainly agree that teachers should "help students work on the specific areas where they did not score maximum points" as they move on to the next assignment. However, rubric experts strongly emphasize that there should be no "in-between" scoring. If the points are 100, 80, 60, and 0, students should never be awarded fractions of those, such as 85 or 70.2. As soon as that happens, the teacher would need to use a subjective interpretation of the criteria. That returns  the control back to the teacher.  Of course, some teachers have rubrics with many levels to allow more variety in points, but it's a whole lot of work to do that for every criteria, and I've never seen research that says it makes a difference. 

Thanks! Let's hope for more comments from you writing teachers out there! Leecy

Today, you are invited to assess the second rubric in our discussion: Writing Rubric #2: http://www.readwritethink.org/files/resources/lesson_images/lesson782/Rubric.pdf. I've added a question for you to consider regarding the level of language used.

  1. Are criteria grammatically consistent?
  2. Are there too many or too few criteria? 
  3. Are criteria stated in objective terms?
  4. Are the levels labeled in friendly/helpful terms?
  5. Are points awarded for each level? Should there be?
  6. Is the language used stated at the level of ABE, ESL, or most ASE students?

What do you think?

Remember that you are encouraged to add a rubric to this discussion, which you would like to recommend or to be critiqued by this community. Thanks! Leecy