Rubrics
22 02 2007All right I tried to read Williams. I thought hey my head is swollen up like a balloon, Williams has to seem better in this condition. Nope couldn’t do it. (look up mumps and that is what my head looked like, no I don’t have mumps I was immunized)
Anyway Assessment, woah what a heavy heavy loaded word. I typed it in to Google and it came back with about 210,000,000 results! Does it mean testing in the traditional sense? How about oral assessment-spoken tests? Obviously here we are talking about writing assessment. I know lets use Rubrics! These are supposed to be an objective form for assessing students writing. Now I love rubrics. As a student they let me know what my professor is expecting. As a teacher it lets my students know what I expect and shows them that they did not get a bad grade because “I don’t like them” but because they did not meet the criteria. The Wyngaard article has a slightly interesting rubric
Excellent Writing:
On reading the opening paragraph(or paragraphs), the reader gets hooked because the imaginative writing engages the reader’s curiosity and/or resonates within the reader. The reader is excited about this text and stops thinking about other things. The writing speaks to the reader in an original, and/or moving voice. It is transporting; the reader can’t put it down.
Good Writing:
The writing is interesting and solid. The writer uses a compelling voice and/or some originality but doesn’t engage the reader wholeheartedly. The reader might suddenly feel hungry right in the middle of the second paragraph and need to go to the kitchen for a cookie. The reader then comes back and enjoys the rest of the story.
OK as someone reading these narratives the difference between the first and the second could be the difference between reading my third narrative and my sixtieth. The two narratives could be the same but after reading dozens of them I might just need a cookie!
This rubric is flawed. Although I get what they are aiming at. They want students to go for that writing that hooks you from the start and you won’t want to put it down. However it is subjective not objective like a rubric should be. Now I may be weird but I can be completely fascinated by a microbiology textbook (FYI if you ever want to take a cruse never read about microbiology, but that is a different topic). Most others scream at this thought. Many others are intrigued by Jane Eyre and Other such novels (I on the other hand run screaming!) This rubric would give these different voices different grades just because of the subject matter.
A rubric needs to keep in mind that it needs to be somewhat OBJECTIVE!!!
OK done ranting.
Rubistar is a site that lets you look at, analyze and edit rubrics. A fun little tool to get your brain going on assessment!
