I'm finding myself at a point of reflection as I continue teaching middle school writers.
Category: rubric
Reimagining Writing Assessment: A Reflection + Giveaway
In the opening pages of Maja Wilson's book, REIMAGINING WRITING ASSESSMENT, Thomas Newkirk gets the ball rolling with this statement, "Rubrics regularly fail to offer help to a writer because they focus on what writing has (features) not what writing does (effect)." Today I'm sharing my reflections as well as offering a giveaway to one lucky reader.
Looking at Student Writing
Comparing two writing samples may be as effective as scoring using a rubric
Rubric Creation for “This I Believe” Essays
I was at the computer this morning when my students created a pretty basic rubric for their final unit of study's essays. The following is what they created. They'll use it to self-assess their essays and I'll use it to give them their final grade of the school year.
A New Writer’s Notebook Rubric
Sometimes you have to let go of the reigns and allow your students to lead you, right. Well, I'm preparing to do just that tomorrow when I work with my students, during Writing Workshop, to create a new notebook rubric. (I've been using one that is slightly adapted from Buckner's Book since 2006.) In “Assessing… Continue reading A New Writer’s Notebook Rubric
A Couple “Techy” Rubrics
Earlier this week, I posted about the process of determining how to attach grades to chats and discussion forums. Before break, my students divided into two groups and determined the areas which should be evaluated when assessing the success of a chat or discussion thread. I took their ideas and created two rubrics. The chat rubric… Continue reading A Couple “Techy” Rubrics
Rubric: Memoir Unit of Study
When I woke up this morning, I realized I never created an assessment rubric for memoir! My first thought was :How could I forget to do that!??! My second thought was: The Publishing Party is this Friday and there's no rubric! YIKES! It's 6:02 a.m., and the problem is finally solved since I sat down… Continue reading Rubric: Memoir Unit of Study
Literary Essay Rubric
I was debating whether or not I should create a Literary Essay Rubric before I got to work this morning or once I was there. I opted for creating it at home and getting into work a little later. This is what I came up with:
Short Fiction Rubric
I finally sat down and created a short fiction rubric for the picture books my students are going to "publish" this-coming week. If you're in the market for a rubric that provides space for students to self-assess their performance, then click here.
Persuasive Letter Writing Rubric
A few folks have left comments asking for resources for teaching persuasive letter writing. I promised to post the rubric I created once it was finished. It's now complete and can be downloaded by clicking here. Once you to the landing page, just scroll down and click on the and downloading the PDF that says… Continue reading Persuasive Letter Writing Rubric
Personal Essay Rubric
Using the rubric I created for the personal narrative unit of study as a skeleton, I created a personal essay rubric a few days ago. I tweaked it with Kate yesterday afternoon and this is what I came up with for my kids. Again, there's a row so that each student can self-assess their writing… Continue reading Personal Essay Rubric
Mathematical Rubric Writing
Today my kids and I co-authored a rubric for the math project they're working on. While I wanted 4, 3, 2, and 1 for the scoring, three-quarters of them stated they wanted it to be on the check+, check, and check- system. Hence, we went with that. My kids told me they'd never written a… Continue reading Mathematical Rubric Writing

