During my teaching career as a language arts teacher, I have used the strategy of teaching with a rubric countless times. I used rubrics for independent reading projects and as assessment tools. I like to use rubrics within the classroom to set an expectation of what kind of class work I would like to receive. Often, I have examples of work from previous years to show students. Last year, while teaching tenth graders, I used several rubrics. The honors classes were reading The Tragedy of Julius Caesar, and they had a rubric for their final assessment. All my classes were given rubrics throughout the year for unit assessments and their annual Five Cs Essay.
The honor classes wanted very precise answers. How many sentences do we have to write? How many pages does it have to be? How many points are you deducting for one grammar mistake? They were being very specific and had asked questions that I did not consider. Within the rubric, I included that you needed 8-10 sentences per paragraph and a minimum of two pages. A few years ago, I attended a writing professional development with other high school language arts teachers and local community college English professors. The English professors often discussed their dislike of rubrics. They stated students focused too much on the five-paragraph structure and the rubric. They continued to state that it stunted student’s growth and creativity. They were correct from my perspective.
I believe some students may work best with rubrics, but others worry so much about the point system and how many sentences they have to have that they forget about the writing assignment. I personally like a rubric because I am going to include all the bullet points within the rubric to seek the highest grade possible. Do I like using rubrics while teaching? Yes, I think it is a guide for success, but it should be used accordingly. Every essay or writing assignment does not need rubric, especially after the standard has been set. What are your thoughts? Do you use rubrics in your classroom?
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