Foundations and Assessment of Education/Edition 1/Assessment Table of Contents/Assessment Chapter 1: Feedback/Article 1 Reader Responses

What Student Writing can Teach Us

Reader Responses
Before I read this article I didn't think it was that important to use rubrics. Rubrics seemed helpful when doing my work in college but could elementary students know how to use them? According to this article they can and have. I was not giving students enough credit for being able to manage their work.Jnemo001 (talk) 02:31, 8 August 2009 (UTC)

Article 1 had a number of helpful insights about various issues concerning teachers. Section 1.6 deals with the question of whether or not the best teachers are highly qualified. All too often, people look at being "highly qualified" as nothing more than a set of academic degrees and credentials. The author of this section points out that such degrees are in fact important for being highly qualified. At the same time, the author makes the point that such credentials are not enough and contrary to common perception, being highly qualified goes beyond this. The author lists a number of features for what it means to be highly qualified. To be highly qualified, a teacher needs to be very passionate about his/her work, know the content of what they're teaching, avoid a boring classroom environment, know how to build repoire with students, challenge students, and demonstrate the fruit of their success with strong test scores. In this section of the chapter, the author was effective at showing how being "highly qualified" presupposes these traits, going beyond the common notion of what the phrase means. Mbrowder (talk) 13:24, 14 June 2009 (UTC)

From this article I got that rubrics are vital in a teacher's overall grading process in order to achieve some level of equality in their grading. The problem occurs when deciding what the points on the rubric should or should not be. I think that it is a very valid point that assignments should be graded on their strengths and weaknesses rather than a strict rubric. All students are different and have different styles of writing. Though different, one might not be better than the other. This type of grading allows for greater grading equality and subjectiveness. Abeck017 (talk) 02:45, 31 May 2009 (UTC)

This article really made me think about the different uses for a rubric and its importance in teaching the student and the teacher. I had never really thought about having a student's work as a tool to inform the teacher about places for improvement; however, it makes sense that by reading the work, not only can the student see the mistakes, but the teacher can learn ways to improve as well. Rubrics are used because they are subjective in nature, but this can also be a challenge. They do not offer a great deal of useful feedback when only a single number is given without comments. I really liked Figure 2 in the article. It incorporated aspects of the standard rubric with teaching points as well. If educators (and those grading the student's work) were to use more 'rubrics' like the one in this article, I think the success rate and writing quality would greatly increase! Khedl002 (talk) 17:41, 29 May 2009 (UTC)khedl002

This article was very interesting. I do believe that many teachers and educators battle the thought of a rubric. It is important for educators to have an objective approach to graded any and all work. I would agree the second option the author presented was a better rubric to use. I have always found in my experience that I did not agree with many of the ruberics I have come across. I believe that a simple ruberic can be one of the best in certain situations. I think it is great for anyone grading a childs piece of writing to focus on the strengths and weakness. I would agree this approach ha a clearer outline in the rubric compaire to the first where many were giving scores ranging from 2-4. To conclude I do agree with a use of a ruberic because it gives students that ability to gain more points and also receive positive feedback on assignments. Sston008 (talk) 16:54, 28 May 2009 (UTC)

I found this article to be effective in describing an alternative to traditional assessment and feedback to student writing. Most educators have provided feedback with a traditional strict scoring rubric. Scoring with a traditional rubric often leaves little wiggle room and leaves teachers struggling to find the appropriate score for a specific trait. Utilizing a rubric which identifies an individual student's strengths and weaknesses, based on what they wrote, provides feedback that the student can understand. Identification of strengths builds condfidence in the writer while identification of weaknesses allows for productive discussions that can lead to better writers. I have participated in fifth grade writing workshops where the teachers stressed the grading rubric used by DOE to grade the writing test. To most students this rubric is little more that a list of numbers. I believe that the addition of the rubric identifying student strengths and weaknesses would allow students to become more confident in their writing, which would lead to higher scores. Overall, I believe that this is an excellent article that is well written. I intend on sharing it with my co-workers. Acrow005 (talk) 19:56, 27 May 2009 (UTC)

I enjoyed reading this article because it discussed the difference between using a strict grading rubric, and using a rubric while also identifying strengths and weaknesses in the students writing. I think the latter is the better grading system, as students can see their grade(s) but also determine the positive and negative aspects of their writing to help with their future assignments. If all teachers begin to use similar grading strategies, I believe they will see a vast improvement in the grades and test scores of their students. This article was very well written and I like how the author gave a description and example of each rubric used. Each main point was followed by many descriptive examples. Afett001 (talk) 14:37, 27 May 2009 (UTC)

I found this article to be very informative because it gives two types of rubric ideas for educators. As detailed as the figure one grading rubric was, the second figure gave students ideas and strategies they could use for future writing assignments. I believe students could possibly perform better if they know what they did wrong or what could be a stronger point in a paper. Students could also find ways they can make their writing stronger using bulleting and receiving the strengths as well as weaker points of their paper. I was pleased the rubrics were posted within the article as it helped the reader understand the difference between the two rubrics more clearly. I would have preferred to have the second figure as a rubric when I was in grade school. I also would have found it helpful to have been given tips to write better, or my strengths and weaknesses of a paper, not just a letter grade and a "greatjob." Overall, this was in interesting article.Lwill031 (talk) 19:04, 27 May 2009 (UTC)

While reading this article I came to realize again one of the benefits of being a Physical Education Teacher. In physical education our rubrics are very cut and dry. When I am assessing the skill of skipping in 1st graders, it is very easy for me to assess if they can perform the skill. This article gave me a better understanding of the use of rubrics in writing assessments. When a student is given a single score whether it is "1", "2", or "4", I believe they still need written or verbal feedback that they can use when they are either editing their work or for their next writing assignment. Jtmitchem (talk) 22:27, 28 May 2009 (UTC)

I found this article to be very interesting. I agree, the second rubric seemed to be more helpful for the student to grow and learn from their writing assignments. I also think that using the two rubrics together would work nicely, as one was quite specific in what was/was not missing and the other was more informative to the student on how to improve and what to work on. Since I am going to teach art, the second rubric would become more beneficial in an art classroom. Rules in art are not strictly black and white, as a lot of writing rules are. Art is subjective, therefore a strict rubric would not be helpful in grading artwork. The second rubric in the article gave more lead-way and gave teachers a chance to explain to students what they can do to improve their work, as well as strategies and goals to use to improve. Hcogg001 (talk) 23:31, 28 May 2009 (UTC)

I enjoyed reading this article because it was clear, concise and depicted two types of rubrics. I liked the second rubric because it seems to be more detailed than the first rubric. Using rubrics is a good way for assessment and scoring. Assessing a student's ability is not something you can briefly skim over or watch. Having some sort of rubric to place each point is a great way that a teacher can separate their standards for the assignment. Although rubrics are a great way to separate the points in a paper, master a skill, etc., I think written feedback needs to be a part of the process. In order for students to understand what does and does not meet standards, rubrics can be used as a starting point for scoring, but really need to be followed up with feedback so that the student is not left wondering about specifics. Scarlett1 (talk) 06:06, 30 May 2009 (UTC)

This article really made me think about some of the past papers that I have written and how my work was graded based on a ruberic. Some may have been effective and some were probably like the one in this article and would not have very good inter-rater reliability. The first ruberic in the article look like a standard ruberic where a teacher will pick a score based on certain traits. However with this ruberic, the Content and Organization as well as the Style and Fluency were all grouped together and fell under a one certain number. If I am understanding this ruberic correctly, a student can only get one score, for both Content and Style, which should be graded separately. The second ruberic that was proposed seem to be very effective. It was very clear on what requirements were met, and which ones were not and even gives a place for the teacher to write what instructional strategies that this particular writer could benefit from. I think that this ruberic will help the student and the teacher by giving them both the understanding of what the student understands, and what the student needs to improve on as well as what the next steps will be in order to improve. Alucy001 (talk) 15:03, 30 May 2009 (UTC)

After carefully reading this article I realized how important it is for all teachers to pay detailed attention to each student writing assignments. It teaches that all students are not at the same level of writing skills expected. I found the first rubric style to be too strict not benefiting the student in any way. In the first style rubric there was way that it would notify the student of what areas where in need of work in the future to obtain a better score. I think that the second rubric style allows teachers to help students identify their strength and weaknesses better in their own work. This style of rubric should be followed by direct feedback from the teacher to allow students to better understand what their work is lacking in and what the teacher is expecting. Students writing can also inform the teacher about his or her way of teaching as well. If the teacher finds that many students are lacking in a specific area of writing then the teacher should go over that topic. There may have been a chance that the class did not understand the topic as well as the teacher thought. Reviewing the area that was not understood can help raise the witting skills and better their scores in the future using the second rubric scoring style along with direct feedback from the teacher. Bpenn005 (talk) 15:35, 30 May 2009 (UTC)

I found this article to be very informative to future educators. It was clear that the second rubric was more beneficial to the student than the first. While reading rubric one I felt that I couldn't make a choice between giving the student a 2 or a 3. It would've been hard for me to decide and it wouldn't have given the student any idea on how to make her paper better or what made it enjoyable to read. The second rubric seemed to fit just right. It was balanced and incorpated ideas/strategies for the student to use on future writing assignments. I believe that we need to constantly think of ways to make rubrics better. We know they are beneficial to the education profession and we need to keep working on them to make them as helpful as possible to both educators and students. Hcomb003 (talk) 15:59, 30 May 2009 (UTC)

I sighed a deep breath following the analysis of this article. I thought it was brilliant that they used the original rubric as a foundation to improve upon. The new model not only assesses the writer but offers advice as to the next step to improve on the student's weaknesses. Criticism proves more constructive when it's supported by solutions versus mere statement of problems. Since I was homeschooled, my mother was not exposed to these rubrics to asses my writing levels. Like the fourth grader in the example, I have a difficult time with organization in writing, yet I tend to have the facts and be able to convey them. I've always received feedback from this fault, but seldom have solutions been offered. "You need to work on your organization" has been the story of my life. I've managed to teach myself several techniques to aid my growth in this area. I just feel that had I been exposed to this rubric model as a young child I could've addressed the problem earlier. Instead, it has manifested itself into a monster that scares me out of writing. Anyhow, I'm excited to observe the continual evolvement of these rubrics. With each step we're getting closer to more accurately assess and ultimately assist the student in his or her learning experience.Rpaige (talk) 17:47, 30 May 2009 (UTC)

After taking ECI 432, or Instructional Strategies for Teaching Language Arts for Prek-6, I found this particular article interesting and informative, since it dealt with assessing student writing. The opening quote, “If you read carefully, a poem will teach you how to read it”, is something teacher should keep in mind when they are assessing something as subjective as writing. Although I feel many teacher have made progress as far as grading writing assignments, they still do many common mistakes, such as focusing more on correcting student mistakes than using strategies where students can fix their errors themselves. Another issue that caught my attention the author, Mark Overmeyer, commented that many of the teachers in his district spend a large amount of time on scoring and cross-scoring. I am very pleased that teachers have raised their expectations for student writing and performance level. However, it does disturb me that so much time is dedicated to just the scoring of writing samples and teachers struggling with certain scores. I believe that it takes several hours to make an authentic assessment of student writing. At the same time, I also see educators becoming exhausted after just grading a few writing assignments and then unintentionally giving a lower or higher score on the rest of the class’s papers. This problem can most likely be solved by keeping the main goal of writing assessment in mind; look at student writing as a way to develop strategies so that students can write better. Once teachers and students start to know what their strengths and weaknesses are, they can use a variety of skills to become better writers. Adart001 (talk) 19:14, 30 May 2009 (UTC)

This article is a great way for teachers to realize that there is always room for improvement. That is the thing that I love the best about learning about education, realizing that there have been advancements in grading and teaching that will help teachers to keep within the guidelines but also be able to evaluate writing as an individual work. It helps the teachers and the students when there are guidelines so that there is a framework to assign a grade, but the adjustment in the rubric gave the ability of the teacher to grade the work to reflect the writer's strengths and weaknesses instead of just assigning a number. Jnewh001 (talk) 19:28, 30 May 2009 (UTC)

There were numerous issues touched on in this article. One of the most essential is that there is always room to improve and so everything especially a teacher's grading should be reviewed often by peers. Although this article had very practical advice for the use of rubrics to grant students appropriate feedback, and avenues to advance from that feedback, I could not help but ponder my own thoughts on rubrics themselves. As a math teacher, I do not usually use rubrics except on projects, however even still I find them limiting. As the author mentioned when giving a student a single score, it is hard to give a student appropriate credit due to the vague or broad nature of a rubric. Rubric are utilized to make grading objective, but in order to do so, they must be broad and usually vague to encompass all possibilities. In my opinion, not matter how well written a rubric is, it is still lacking. Even in rubric that are broken down into categories, there is always something missing. In my experience, to have a thorough category rubric there are almost limitless possibilities for categories, when you are force to bind yourself to only a few of the most essential categories, then you are so binding the prospective from which you will grade. Overall, rubrics are very useful, and practical for providing feedback, however there will always be a few papers/ projects that really stretch the bounds of a rubric. Scrai010 (talk) 21:13, 30 May 2009 (UTC)

I think that there is a lot that teachers can learn from the writing of there students. First off, it shows the students strengths and weaknesses as a writer. It can also show what material needs to be covered more with in the classroom. There are several other things that both the student and the teacher can learn from analyzing a students paper.Rcoll029 (talk) 02:42, 10 August 2009 (UTC)