The New Art and Science of Teaching Writing. Robert J. Marzano
This allows for transparency about how the students are doing so they can be advocates for their own learning. Rubrics share these three components (Glass, 2017a).
1. Scoring criteria: These refer to the specific elements to assess—such as thesis, reasoning, and evidence—grouped under overarching categories like Idea and Development. Each element includes a brief overview of the skills associated with it. For example, Thesis might comprise, “Introduce claim through thesis statement, focus on a debatable topic, and use subordinate clause to set up the argument.”
2. Criteria descriptors: A description accompanies each scoring criterion along a continuum of quality to indicate levels of performance. Teachers use these descriptors to assess students’ writing. When students self-assess, these descriptors enable them to recognize the desirable standard of work they must present and how they can improve.
3. Levels of performance: Levels indicate how well a student has performed either numerically, for example, on a six-, five-, four- or three-point scale or with words, such as advanced proficient, developing, basic, and below basic, or advanced, proficient, partially proficient, and novice. Sometimes teachers use a combination of both (5 = advanced). Teachers should avoid evaluative terms like outstanding, excellent, competent, or poor. When scoring, assign whole numbers, or half numbers if a student’s proficiency is between two levels.
Figure 1.6 features an analytic rubric for an argumentation essay for secondary-level students; figure 1.7 (page 20) shows an opinion writing rubric for the elementary level.
Figure 1.6: Argumentation writing analytic rubric, secondary level.
Source: © 2017 by Kathy Tuchman Glass and Nicole Dimich Vagle.
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Source: Adapted from Glass, 2012, pp. 114–115.
Figure 1.7: Opinion writing analytic rubric, elementary level.
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As stated earlier, rubrics include a descriptor about how students perform against each scoring criteria item. Since a comprehensive written piece comprises myriad items—such as dialogue, logical sequence of plot, setting, characters, and so forth for a narrative—students can use the rubric to ascertain to what degree they have met expectations for each one. Teachers, however, might need to communicate a single score based on the rubric. If this is the case, they can calculate the mode or median (see figure 1.8, page 22). As Susan M. Brookhart (2013) advises in such a situation, “If you do need one overall grade … and must summarize an assessment with one overall score, use the median or mode, not the mean, of the scores for each criterion” (p. 114).
Source: Glass, 2018, p. 45.
Figure 1.8: Process to determine median and mode.
Using Teacher-Created Targets and Scales and Implementing Routines for Using Them
Once teachers create the scales or rubric, they can generate a checklist to articulate the characteristics that students should include in their writing pieces (see figure 1.9 and figure 1.10, page 24, for a secondary and primary example). Although they lack a rubric’s descriptions or a scale’s learning targets for each level of performance, checklists can serve as a useful guide to students as they write because they detail the requirements of an assignment.
It is incumbent upon teachers to be transparent in their expectations. Preparing and presenting the criteria against which teachers will score students at the outset of writing readies them for achievement. For this purpose, teachers can conduct the activity we outline in What do you think you know? (element 15 in chapter 6, page 89) to introduce students to a proficiency scale, rubric, or checklist that articulates the writing goals. Doing so creates a sense of ownership as students move forward fully aware of what their teachers expect them to eventually produce. Plus, it paves the way for using these mechanisms as instructional tools formatively during each lesson in the unit. To this point, teachers routinely refer to specific items on the scale, checklist, or rubric to set the purpose for learning, constantly reminding students of a lesson’s targeted goals. Because clearly defined learning goals are essential for designing any unit, lesson ideas within this book all emanate from these pieces. For example, students measure worked examples (element 9 in chapter 4, page 55)—student and published writing samples—against the criteria, and complete a revision sheet aligned to the criteria to self-assess and review a peer’s writing against the expectations (element 18 in chapter 6, page 100).
Figure 1.9: Argumentation writing checklist (secondary).
Source: Glass, 2017b, pp. 34–35.
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Figure 1.10: Opinion writing checklist (primary).
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When teachers use scales or rubrics to identify what they want students to know and be able to do, it enables them to squarely focus learning. Utilizing them as instructional tools sets students up for success as expectations are well-defined and students can track their progress against clearly defined goals.
Element 2: Tracking Student Progress
With proficiency scales or rubrics in place, the teacher can help provide each student with a clear sense of where he or she started relative to a topic and where he or she is currently. Figure