I'm grading the kids' creative endings to The Giver, and after much deliberation about how to balance the nitty-gritty (mechanics) with the touchy-feely (creativity, effectiveness, style, voice), I came up with a combo-rubric of sorts. I can't seem to paste the document here, so I'll just describe it. The top half is a chart with 4 columns labeled: "Based on this piece, the writer is..." "a novice (just learning)" "an apprentice (shows some skill, but needs work)" "a master! (very few mistakes)". There are 6 rows: "paragraphing," "capitalization," "spelling (including homonyms,""consistent verb tense," "complete sentences (no run-ons or fragments)," and "correct formatting." The bottom half of the page is a empty box labeled: "The effect of this piece on the reader (Ms. Paull)." I'm pretty happy with this as far as teacher-friendliness. I'm not marking any mistakes on the writing itself, which saves time and also satisfies my goal of not wanting to bleed ink all over the kids' work. The chart allows me to give the kids specific feedback on their mechanics. I'm trying to reserve the bottom box for positive or judgment-free comments. If anyone would like to try (or adapt) the rubric, let me know.
Now I better get back to that grading...
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I really like this. It seems like the next step, if there could be one, would be a conference on one of the grammatical issues that may be in the writing that the writer could then edit and focus on in their next writing piece. You probably already do this though.
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ReplyDeleteI love the positive approach you're taking responding to student writing, and I'm curious to hear how it affects students' attitudes toward writing. Your post brings up an interesting debate about whether to assign a letter grade to a published piece of writing.
ReplyDeleteI've often struggled with the subjective nature of assessing a piece of writing and that is why I use rubrics; it's an attempt to make the process more objective. When I graded my students' narratives, I used a generic six traits rubric that addressed most of the skills I taught in my mini-lessons: show don't tell, writing with details, using vivid word choice, and writing a catchy beginning to grab the reader's attention. It's true the rubric addressed items I didn't teach directly, but I gave students revision checklists and we talked about checking their drafts for those things.
Ultimately, I believe it is important to assign a grade to published pieces of writing. Students spend a great deal of time and effort writing these pieces and I think their final grades should reflect that. Strengths should always be highlighted, but I also think it is our job to point out weaknesses in a piece of writing. Naturally, I try to provide this constructive criticism during the revision process, but I often comment on areas for improvement during grading as well.
Writing is a complex process that requires many skills. Students may not be great writers when they enter my classroom, but I can give them the skills to add to their writing toolboxes. They can use those skills to produce higher-quality pieces each time we write.
I’d love to see the rubric you used for your Giver piece. I might be able to adapt and use it this year.
I like the terminology that describes the writer's level; it is so much more positive. I use some 5-star cookie terminology (expert, practitioner, beginner) for notebook evaluations. Do you assign a grade for a level that goes into teacherease for the writing? or would that defeat the positive attitude? I do assign a grade...so I'm not sure if the terminology is just making me feel better and not the students. It is easier to talk about thought, "I'm almost an apprentice..." etc. Should I do a couple of evaluations so the students could see where they fall, and then do an evaluation with with the level grade also? What are others doing? I'm sending this anonymous as it said my url had illegal somethings....? DC dianecunha@communityprep.org
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