Professional Documents
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Done - Thewritingrubric
Done - Thewritingrubric
Done - Thewritingrubric
W
ith state-mandated
accountability tests and
college entrance exami-
nations placing a
gmwing emphasis on
writing, teachers face the challenge of
ensuring that all their students become
proficient writers—even in classrooms
that serve students of widely diverse
abilities. Consider a 4th grade classroom
that incltides two young writers, Maren
and Katie.
Maren loves to write. She approaches
writing tasks assigned by her teacher,
Mrs. Smith, with a positive attitude
because they give her the chance to tell
what she feels or knows. Maren takes
time to plan what she wants to write,
carefully reading the rubric Mrs. Smith
hands out and thinking about the topic.
As she composes, she routinely stops to
read over what she has written and to
check it against the rubric. When she is
finished, she rereads her work and
revises words or sentences, adding or
deleting as she feels necessary to make
her composition sound better and to
match the nibric's expectations more
closely.
Katie, on the other hand, dislikes
writing. She does not believe that she is
a good writer, and she never knows
what to say when prompted to write, Although most people find the composing processes through self-
even when the teacher assigns a topic. writing process challenging, skilled regulation, a skill that Hayes and Flower
She does not view rubrics as helpful writers like Maren navigate this process (1986) identif) as essential in writing.
tools, and she promptly loses them successfully. As they compose, they According to Graham and Harris (1996),
when Mrs. Smith hands them out. When attend to the niles and mechanics of self-regulation procedures include goal
given a writing assignment, Katie language while maintaining a focus on setting, planning, self-monitoring, self-
quickly writes down a few ideas without organization, purpose, and audience. In assessment, self-instruction, and self-
devoting much time to planning or addition to their knowledge of the reitiforcement.
thinking about how her composition writing process, such writers also In contrast, students like Katie
sounds. She rarely bothers with revision. monitor and direct their own struggle with writing for a variety' of
Instructional Rubrics
and Self-Regulated Writing Without the writer's mindful involvement*
An important goal in writing instruction
is to help students develop the self- the writing process is like a ship withouta rudder-
regulation skills needed to successfully
manage the intricacies of the writing in motion, but out of control.
process. Instructional rubrics can
provide the scaffolding that students
need to become self-regulated writers. ning, before they can use the nibric tions, nibrics provide important informa-
A rubric artictilates the expectations independently. tion for students to use in revision.
for an assignment by listing the criteria, For example, Mrs. Smith might ask Editing. Etliting is polishing the
or "what counts," and describing levels Katie to make a todo list for her essay. fmished product—correcting spelling,
of quality from excellent to poor. After pointing out that the title of the changing punctuation, and resolving
Teachers commonly use assessment nibric—"4th Grade Rubric for a Mock gnimmar issues (Saddler, 200.^). Rubrics
rubrics to score and grade student work, Interview of a Person from History"— can guide this process by prompting
but instructional rubrics also serve indicates the first step of choosing a students to sift through their work to
another, arguably more important, role: historical figure, Mrs. Smith would note detect all varieties of problems or errors,
They teach as well as evaluate. that the Content criterion suggests that not just the kinds students t>pically
To ensure that students have some the next two steps should be "read the notice. WTien pressed, weak writers will
ownership of the nibric, instructional required que.stions" and "make up ques- scan their papers with an eye for neat-
rubrics are often created with students tions of my own." Mrs. Smith and Katie ness or periods at the ends of sentences
and are always written in language that could repeatedly refer to the nibric to but will notice little else. At this point in
students can understand (Andrade, build on to the to-do list, adding such the process, the teacher can ask Katie to
2000). Teachers provide instructional steps as "read books abt)ut my liistorical use the Conventions criterion of her
rubrics Gike the example in Figure 1, figtire" and "keep a bibliography of what rubric like a checklist: Correct capitals?
p. 50) to students before they begin an I have read." By checking tasks off the Check. Spelling? Check. Punctuation?
assignment to help them understand the list as she completes them, Katie could Check. And so on.
goals of the task and to guide them in take charge of her research and of her
self-<lirected planning and goal setting, writing process. Instructional Rubrics
revising, and editing. Revising. Good writers spend much and Feedback
Planning and goal setting. During this more time rewriting their work than The quantity and quality of feedback
stage of writing, suidents create a visual drafting it. In fact, the more skilled the that a writer receives througliout the
representation of their thoughts (First & writer, the more time he or she spends writing process can contribute to a well-
MacMillan, 1995), wliich should match in revision (Hayes & Flower, 1986). crafteil piece of writing. Recognizing
the objectives of the assignment. Ttiese Students who are still developing this, many teachers attempt to provide
vistjal representations may take the form writing skills or who have writing diffi- feedback through conferences. Teachers
of elaborate webs or sequencing charts, culties may not understand that revision camiot provide all the feedback that
or students may simply jot a few ideas on is an integral part of the writing process students need, however; sheer numbers
notebook paper. (Saddler. 2003). prevail against their best intentions.
A rubric can assist students in the Instructional rubrics can guide Help is at hand, though. Teachers can
plaJining and goal-setting process by students by identif^'lng strengths and develop reflective critics within their
clearly articulating the expectations for weaknesses in a text and providing classrooms by teaching students how to
4 3 2 1
Content My essay includes My essay includes 1 answered the 1 have too few ques-
answers to all the answers to all the required questions tions, or my questions
required questions and required questions. but made up fewer are trivial or irrelevant.
to at least five ques- including five of my than five of my own. The answers 1 included
tions of my own. My own, but some answers Some answers are are mostly incomplete
answers are complete are incomplete, 1 have a incomplete or incorrect. or incorrect.
and factual- [ have a bibliography. My bibliography is
bibliography. incomplete.
Organization My first paragraph 1 have an introduction. The questions and The questions and
introduces the person a body, and a conclu- answers are in order. answers are out of
interviewed and gives sion, but the introduc- but my paper has no logical sequence. My
highlights of the inter- tion (or conclusion) is introduction, no paper has no introduc-
view. The body of my too brief or incomplete. conclusion, and no tion, no conclusion.
essay answers the main idea. and no main idea.
questions in a logical
order, 1 have a conclu-
sion that gives a
wrap-up.
Word Choice 1 use a variety of 1 use a variety of words 1 do not use a variety 1 repeat simple words.
sophisticated words- correctly. of words, but 1 use 1 use big words
including new common words incorrectly, or 1 copied
and challenging correctly. words from my sources.
vocabulary—correctly.
Voice and Tone My writing is in first 1 use first and second My writing sounds My writing is a list of
and second person person, but my writing more like a list of facts facts in the third person
("1" and "you") sounds like a list of than a conversation. ("he" or "she").
and sounds like a questions and answers.
conversation. not a conversation.
Sentence Structure My sentences are clear, 1 have no fragments. My sentences are often My paper is hard to
begin in different My sentences are awkward. They vary read because almost all
ways, and vary in mostly well little in length, 1 have of my sentences are
length. constructed, with many sentences that incomplete, run-ons,
some minor errors. begin with the same or awkward.
word.
Conventions 1 use correct capitaliza- 1 made a few errors in My spelling is correct There are so many
tion, spelling, punctua- grammar and punctua- on common words. errors that my paper is
tion, and grammar. tion. 1 made a lot of errors. hard to read and
but the reader could understand.
understand what 1 am
trying to say.
52 EDUCATIONAL I.HADERSHIP/OCTOISLR 2 0 04