Innovating Rubrics: Inviting Dialogue With and About Student Writing Caitlin Martin – Indiana State University #4C15 #F38

Background Research & Teaching Experiences at Miami University (Oxford, Ohio) Teaching Experiences at Indiana State University (Terre Haute, Indiana)

Rubrics as Instructional Tools Instructional rubrics are “co-created with students; handed out; used to facilitate peer assessment, self-assessment, and teacher feedback; and only then used to assign grades” (Andrade, 2005, p. 27)

Community-Based Assessment Pedagogy “students take control of all the writing and assessment practices of the class, including. . .the creation of assessment criteria, rubrics, and writing assignments” (Inoue, 2005, p. 210) “Rubrics and their assessment practices should. . .be sites for reflection as well, so that the rubrics can spur richer ways to evolve as writers, assessors, and theorizers of language (Inoue, 2005, p. 210)

Fostering Better Writers Strong writers are strong assessors Most students need guidance to effectively assess their own work (Huot, 2015).

Easing Learner Anxiety “Collaborating on the expectations and clarifying them up front could help students understand the objectives of the project and feel more confident about how to proceed” (Adsanatham, 2012, p. 160) “Inviting students to create the grading criteria may be a way to increase engagement and reduce potential apathy to an assignment” (Adsanatham, 2012, p. 160)

How do rubrics invite dialogue with student writing?

How do rubrics invite dialogue about student writing?

How Do We Make Rubrics Effective Instructional Tools?

Dynamic Criteria Mapping Instructor beliefs and values Student beliefs and values Program, Department, or Institution Beliefs and Values

Value over Convenience Number of assignments in a given course Number of students in each course Number of total students per semester Students’ prior experiences Rubrics (can) become Living Documents

Methods for Collaboratively Developing Rubrics Innovation 1

Describe an “A” Paper An “A” paper is one that meets all the requirements of the rubric. It is clear and well-written. It actually addresses the prompt. Uses MLA style correctly Cites sources when they are used Has a thesis Has an audience Grammar

Group Brainstorm “What should this paper be graded on?” Meets the prompt Effort Improvement Argument Knowledge of topic

Explaining Assigned Criteria Provide students with assigned criteria, ask them to explain what these are Explain strong/average/weak illustrations of the criteria

Connect to Learning Objectives What did you have to do to complete this assignment? How does it relate to our course goals? What does successfully meeting these goals look like?

Collecting Ideas Reading student responses to activities Understanding their ideas Negotiating wording differences between students or groups

Selecting & Responding “Why didn’t you use any of mine?”

Students Respond to Rubrics Innovation 2

Some responses to a single criterion “There is a clear audience and purpose for the assignment, which informs the choices the author has made in terms of structure, organization, style, and content” “I think that my paper reflects who I am as a person and is organized, because I separated the paper by parts. The first part discusses how I act in the morning and as the paper moves on, talks about how I act at night. The style of my paper is a lot different than most styles” (Cecilia) “the clarity of my audience has hopefully progressed through my drafts and while it may not be perfect it has certainly improved” (Jonathan) “My audience is peers and those who can relate directly to my experience. My writing is influenced by this seeing as it is casual” (Cassidy) “I feel like I always write and not to one specific person or group. I just write and I think it shows through in this piece” (Sara)

Why? Creates a classroom dialogue Promotes self-assessment Eases teacher-feedback process

Link To Relevant Resources Innovation 3

Why? Gives students the ability to problem-solve before they submit their papers

Final Thoughts Rubrics can save time grading and responding, but they require a lot of effort in the build-up to be meaningful. These are only three ways to innovate rubrics that have worked for me—I’m sure there are more, and I’d love to hear your own strategies!

References Adsanatham, Chanon. (2012). Integrating assessment and instruction: Using student-generated grading criteria to evaluate multimodal digital projects. Computers and Composition, 29(2), 152-174. Andrade, Heidi Goodrich. (2005). Teaching with rubrics: The good, the bad, and the ugly. College Teaching, 53(1), 27-30. Broad, Bob. (2003). What we really value: Beyond rubrics in teaching and assessing writing. Logan, UT: Utah State University Press. Huot, Brian. (2015, February). Keynote address presented at Indiana State University Assess for Success Conference, Terre Haute, IN. Inoue, Asao. (2005). Community-based assessment pedagogy. Assessing writing, 9, 208-238.