It never fails. We create a fabulous written assignment and provide the students with a clear, concise rubric, and when we receive the work, it is far from what we expected.

In the last quarter, I gave my students a written assignment and provided them with a rubric. I told the students that the rubric was there, but I failed to go over this with my 6th graders. My 7th graders were used to rubrics, and they knew what to expect, but I failed my 6th graders. I even failed those 7th graders I have that I didn’t teach last year. I should have reviewed my rubric and provided them with a clear example of what I was looking for as the ideal essay.

When I teach Text Dependent Analysis (TDA) for their state standardized test, I generally go over the rubric with them. In fact, we read it, talk about it, and I show them an example of each. I want them to be prepared. Why not do this from the beginning of the year?

Students need to learn the language of the rubric. They need to know what is expected of them and from their writing. We need to give them clear examples of what we want and do not want. I’m sure that I have become too comfortable in all of this over the past few years that I have forgotten this step. I used to select bits from students work and display it without context or name and have the students pick it apart based on the rubric. In fact, in doing so, a student who was adamant that his essay should have been an “A” and not a “D” decided to rewrite his paper after hearing his classmates feedback. He saw his paper in a different light when other students shared where his paper fell short on the rubric. (I should mention that this was not his entire essay, only his introduction which I had marked him off for being vague and lacking a clear thesis.)

Teaching students how to read and to understand the rubric can benefit them when it comes to writing, even on standardized tests. It can provide them with a road map of what is needed in their writing. I often share with students that sometimes a solid 3 out of a 4 is okay. A 3 on a rubric most of the time is average. The 4 is exceptional. Exceptional writing is one that has style and voice- something that students in middle school struggle to create. They write just as they speak, and finding a formal voice and style can be difficult as they add in interjections at the beginning of sentences and create simple sentences where they could write fabulous complex and compound complex sentences. Rubrics can allow students an opportunity to view their work with a critical eye and correct it prior to submitting.

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