As elementary school teachers, we've all used rubrics to score our students' writing pieces. How has that been going for you? Do you like the rubrics that you have been given to work with?
Rewriting Them is Worth It
For years, I've been revising and rewriting the rubrics that come with our 3rd and 4th grade writing curricula. I rewrite them for two reasons: 1) They contain hard-to-understand jargon and pie-in-the-sky wording. No kid can read them. 2) The rubrics contain negative language that points out the faults in the writing rather than showing students what they can do to improve.
5 Reasons I Use Rubrics with My Students
One: Rubrics are Objective
We aren't always aware of our biases. A student's personality, behavior, handwriting, effort or lack thereof, and neatness, as well as the topic of the piece, can all subconsciously affect how we score a student's essay or story. It's important for the rubric to provide very detailed and specific criteria to which we can assign a numerical score.
Two: Rubrics are Consistent
Consistency across teachers, across the different moods of different days, and across grade levels is important so students can develop the understanding that their writing, not their selves, is being evaluated, and fairly at that. Two different teachers using the same rubric should score the same piece in a very similar to identical way.
Three: My Rubrics Are Specific
You've probably come across rubrics with language such as, "sufficient use of grammar/vocabulary" and "minimal control of conventions." I believe that children should be given more specific criteria, such as how many new vocabulary words to include in their writing, rather than just indicating "sufficient." Similarly, I think assigning a specific number of grammar and spelling errors per paragraph or per piece for each level in the rubric is helpful for both student and teacher. Alternatively, as above, the rubric might describe whether the convention errors interfered with readers' understanding.
Four: Students Know What's Expected of Them
Show and discuss the writing rubrics with your students in advance of the writing assessment, not only afterwards. One of my main teaching goals is to set clear expectations for students, and let them know exactly what the expectations are. I do this by showing them a written model of a piece similar to the one they are being asked to produce, and I show them the way they are going to be scored by discussing the rubric before they begin.
However, I wouldn't barrage them with the whole rubric at once if you're with elementary students. See next paragraph.
Five: Use the Rubric to Teach
A clear, well-written rubric is valuable as a teaching tool. Craft your mini-lessons and writing instruction based on the points in the rubric. For example, my writing rubrics evaluate 1) focus, 2) organization of ideas, 3) idea development, 4) language/vocabulary/sentence structure, 5) English conventions. Each one of these five categories provides several writing workshop mini-lessons, as well as whole-class instruction points, and shared writing opportunities.
Use Kid-friendly Rubrics
Quality, kid-friendly rubrics are important because students can understand the criteria. In addition, they offer objectivity, consistency, specific criteria, clear expectations, and a source of lessons. I hope you agree that using rubrics that kids can read helps them succeed. You can rewrite the ones you have, or see if mine will be of help to you. Below are some high quality, ready-made, kid-friendly rubrics for opinion, informative, and narrative writing.
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