the Writing Rubrics that will change your life

Grading writing was one of my least favorite parts of teaching. Sure, I could go through a student’s writing and pick apart the errors, but that did not help me put a grade in the grade book. It also didn’t help my students become self sufficient writers. So, I asked to Professor Google. I searched and found many different writing rubrics. I tried them, but none were exactly what I needed. They were vague and not student friendly. Additionally, using them to get a percentage grade required nothing short of algebra. I know who can relate if you have ever used some of those rubrics.

Out of this frustration, my writing rubrics were born. I designed the rubrics to guide my students into being autonomous, independent, learners. My goal is to shift the responsibility of evaluating writing from the teacher to the student. From the layout to the verbiage, everything is clear for students and parents. My rubrics are teacher friendly, student friendly, and parent friendly.

Since writing is the application of many language standards, my rubrics contain both writing and language standards. This provides for grading clarity and accountability. It also shows students the application language skills that may be taught in isolation.

The rubrics have student friendly language. It is important that students can understand and know what was being evaluated on each piece of writing. I included vocabulary students need to know such as introduction and closing. These terms will follow them from grade to grade. 

Are you saying there is quick, and easy way to assess my students' writing?

You got that right!

As we begin each writing, I hand out the rubrics and teach my students what is expected on the final product. The students glue these into their writing notebooks for future reference.

After the students complete their writing, I give them a rubric to do a self assessment on the writing. Students earn a number score for each skill. The guide at the bottom of the rubric informs students and parents what the score means. Students make any adjustments to their work and hand the paper over to me. I use the rubric to score the writing. Then, we meet to compare using the rubric to guide the conversation. Students justify and make a case for their score if it is different from mine. Likewise, I justify and make a case for my score. We must agree on each score. It is an amazing learning experience.

I know this will make your assessing easier. I make everything a time saver, so you do not have to type in both sides of the page. Just type once and it will appear on the other side. You can even customize your own rubrics by using the blank editable pages to type in the standards you are assessing on that specific piece of writing. Then, you can save the new PDF for future use.

The reviews are spectacular