Grading Workshop:
Using Rubrics/Scoring Guides
Lisa Maruca
January 12, 2008
No one likes grading, but...
“Assessment is a
necessary part of
learning”
–Edward M. White
Fair Play
“We need assessment if we are to
improve, but we need to have
confidence that the assessment is
professional, fair, and honest, that
is, in sports terms, that the height
of the net stays the same.”(White
203)
Consistency
“Judgment is tough to do and
tough to take, but unless we do it
we are not professional …The
problem is to find ways of
assessing student work that are
fair, consistent, public, clear, and
responsible—grades that support
teaching and learning rather than
substitute for them” (White 203).
Discrepancies in Evaluation
Lead to:
• Student confusion
• Lack of progress
• Assumptions of professorial
arbitrariness
• Lack of trust in teacher-student
relationship
All of these undermine student learning.
Why use rubrics?
• Objectivity
• Consistency
• Clarity in creating assignments
Edward White again:
“By speaking in a casual and superficial
way about its very complex demands,
[an] assignment can suggest that an
equally casual and superficial response
is good enough. Until we attempt to
compose a fuller, more detailed writing
assignment, and devise a scoring guide
for the assignment, its complexities
and difficulties are not apparent.”
Why use rubrics?
They help students
• Think more rhetorically
• Learn to be better peer
reviewers
• Create concrete revision
strategies
Why use rubrics?
• Provide precision in feedback
• Clarify multi-factored, complex
assignments
• Track specific areas of
improvement
Why use rubrics?
• Easier?
• Faster?
Types of Rubrics
• General vs. assignmentspecific
• Numerical rating (1-4, 1-6) vs.
larger point scale (50, 100, etc)
6+1 Trait®:
Seven “traits”
•ideas
•organization
•voice
•word choice
•sentence fluency
•conventions
•presentation
Five levels:
•5 Strong
•4 Effective
•3 Developing
•2 Emerging
•1 Not Yet
ENG 1020 Grading Rubric:
1. The "A" paper has an excellent sense of the rhetorical
situation. Its aim is clear and consistent throughout the
paper. It attends to the needs of its audience and the topic
itself is effectively narrowed and clearly defined.
2. The content is appropriately developed for the assignment and
rhetorical situation. The supporting details or evidence are
convincingly presented. The reasoning is valid and shows an
awareness of the complexities of the subject. If secondary
sources are used, they are appropriately selected and cited.
3. The organization demonstrates a clear and effective strategy.
The introduction establishes the writer's credibility and the
conclusion effectively completes the essay: paragraphs are
coherent, developed, and show effective structural principles.
4. The expression is very clear, accessible, concrete. It displays
ease with idiom and a broad range of diction. It shows facility
with a great variety of sentence options and the punctuation
and subordinate structures that these require. It has few
errors, none of which seriously undermines the effectiveness of
the paper for educated readers.
Specific Rubric
Excerpt from Rhetorical Analysis Assn.
Writer’s Purpose (up to 10 points each)
*purpose of the paper is clear and is either explicitly
stated (thesis) or implicit
*paper content follows from the purpose and does not
stray
Reader friendly (up to 10 points each)
*paper contains enough summary
*paper contains enough quotations
Rhetorical Analysis (up to 10 points each)
*paper analyzes another text, ad or image, and does not
just summarize
*paper refers to appeals or other ways the
source
text makes a credible argument
Scoring: Numerical Rating
E.g, 4-6 point scale
• Are easy, fast, and intuitive to use
• May be associated with grades
• Can only use a few categories,
usually equally weighted
Scoring: Point System
E.g., Total Points of 50, 100, 200
• May work better with overall grading
(papers of different weights)
• Allows for a lengthier list of
expectations
• Allows for variable weighting of
sections
• Can be more subtle
• May take more time to score
Effective Rubrics
• Are concrete
• Use limited levels of rating (e.g., 1-4,
not 1-10)
• Include limited areas to cover
• Are possibly created and definitely
discussed by students
• Contain comment sections
• Are always in process (feedback loop)
What to avoid
•
•
•
•
Being overly vague
Being overly detailed
Not including rhetorical issues
Not responding to content in the
margins
• Using letter grades instead of
numbers/points too early in
feedback
Creating and Using Rubrics
1. Examine the course outcomes/
learning objectives
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to develop analytical and critical strategies for reading complex texts with varied
sources of information, multiple perspectives, and complicated arguments
to identify and analyze the structure of analysis and arguments in a variety of
texts and media, identifying authors’ claims, evidence, appeals, organization,
and style, and evaluating their persuasive effect
to consider the rhetorical situation for any given piece of writing, including
audience, purpose, and context
to conduct research by finding and evaluating print and electronic sources,
generating information and ideas from research, and synthesizing them with
respect to the topic and ideas of the writer
to write effectively in multiple analytical and argumentative genres, generating
a clearly defined topic and purpose/thesis, organizing and developing complex
content and reasoning, and using standard text conventions for academic
writing
to use a flexible writing process that includes generating ideas, writing, revising,
providing/responding to feedback in multiple drafts, and editing text and tone
for multiple audiences
to make productive use of a varied set of technologies for research and writing
Creating and Using Rubrics
2. Divide outcomes into assignments
(expect more with subsequent
assignments)
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•
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Weekly Summaries
Literacy Narrative
Rhetorical Analysis
Argument
Academic Analysis
Creating and Using Rubrics
3. List expectations in assignment
instructions
4. Use (select) expectations in peer
review
5. Use expectations in instructor
feedback
6. Use same list to grade papers
Voices against Rubrics
 Maja Wilson, Rethinking Rubrics in
Writing Assessment
 Bob Broad, What We Really Value:
Beyond Rubrics in Teaching and
Assessing Writing
Selected Bibliography
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Broad, Bob. What We Really Value: Beyond Rubrics in Teaching and
Assessing Writing. Logan, UT: Utah State University Press: 2003
Crank, Virginia. “Chasing objectivity: How Grading Rubrics Can Provide
Consistency and Context.” Journal of Teaching Writing 17.1 (1999):
56-73.
Goodrich Andrade, H.. “The Effects of Instructional Rubrics on Learning
to Write. Current Issues in Education 4:4 (April 17, 2001).
http://cie.ed.asu.edu/volume4/number4/. January 10, 2009.
Ketter, Jean S. “Using rubrics and holistic scoring of writing.” In
Stephen Tchudi, (Ed.), Alternatives to Grading Student Writing;
Urbana, IL: National Council of Teachers of English: 1997.
Simkins, Michael. “ Designing Great Rubrics.” Technology and Learning
20.1 (1999): 23-24, 28-30.
White, Edward. “Using Scoring Guides to Assess Writing. In Richard
Straub, ed., A Sourcebook for Responding to Stuident Writing. New
Jersey: Hampton Press, 1999.
Wilson, Maja. Rethinking Rubrics in Writing Assessment. Portsmouth,
NH: Heinemann, 2003.