Rubrics: Beyond

Assessment
A Look into Rubrics as Learning Tools
The Question

How can rubrics be structured

and implemented to promote
intrinsic growth mindset in
the classroom?
The Objective

The primary objective of this inquiry project was to use rubrics to promote a use
of rubrics as tools for students to use to achieve particular outcomes rather than
a tool for students to try and decipher why they got a particular mark from the
teacher. I believe by letting the students become part of the rubric creating
process, they will be more likely to know how to work towards higher marks and
as such will be motivated to do so.
 Dates: October 4th –
November 10th

Student Demographics:

• Grade 9
Logistics • Aged 13-15
• Achievement Levels between
55%-94%
• Mean Achievement for the
Class was at 71.3% at time
of project completion
Literature Overview

The next three slides will take a quick look at some literature I read to inform my
inquiry and provide a spring-board into research
 Dobbs and Leider discuss how language in rubrics
may lead to students underestimating their
performance in writing. As a result, students do not
seem to strive and achieve higher grades leading to
a self-fulfilling prophecy loop (Dobbs and Leider,
“A Framework for Writing 61). They praise the value in using “feedback that is
Rubrics to Support considered ‘wise’ [as it] can be more effective at
Linguistically Diverse refuting stereotypes for racial minority students”
Students” by Christina who often “felt that the language they were using
was incorrect” even if it would have been
Dobbs and Christine acceptable language in their day-to-day contexts
Montecillo Leider (Dobbs and Leider, 62). This work will be invaluable
as I teach a large population of Indigenous students
who have largely felt disconnected from Western
teaching institutions and traditions.
 “Negotiating the Political and Pedagogical Tensions
of Writing Rubrics: Using Conceptualization to Work
toward Sociocultural Writing Instruction” by Emily
Howe and Richard Correnti (2020) explores how the
promotion of sociocultural theories in rubrics can
“Negotiating the help address the issues with these rubrics and high-
Political and stakes assessments by making the focus shift from
‘objective’ and outcome-based to a “meaning
Pedagogical Tensions making” and “dynamic” writing and literacy
of Writing Rubrics” by classrooms which “seeks to create authentic
Emily Howe and rhetorical contexts” (Howe and Correnti, 336). I
hope to utilize their view of “three distinct but
Richard Correnti interrelated processes in rubric use” (Howe and
Correnti, 337), to better understand tensions
between standardized tests and socioculturally
inclusive classrooms
 This article took a quantitative research approach at
how students and teachers do “not share much in
common in their selection of focal points and
keywords” within rubrics (Li and Lindsey, 71). The
“Understanding authors then go on to break down the data into what
Variations between the students and the teachers were more likely to
place greater emphasis on in the rubrics, therefore
Student and Teacher providing a reference for what I should be aware of
Application of when presenting rubrics to students. I also found the
Rubrics” by Jinrong Li suggestion that it may be beneficial for “classes [to]
create rubrics for their writing tasks” (Li and
and Lindsey Peggy Lindsay, 75). This may be a strategy I will implement
with my classes if it proves to be beneficial to the
students after a trial run.
The Tension Between Preparing Our Students for Writing
and Preparing Our Students for Standardized Testing

There are inherent tensions between teaching writing in classes that

support student’s learning and teaching writing in classes that
prepares students to reach Standardized Goals.

Standardized tests serve many functions and are something that

must be addressed rather than ignored. In our current climate these
tests pose accountability onto teachers to ensure they are teaching
required elements of the curriculum and – at the diploma level –
serve as a gateway to achieving grades that could get students into
their desired post-secondary institutions.
Visualization of Tensions in
Rubric Functions

• This figure from “Negotiating the

Political and Pedagogical Tensions
of Writing Rubrics” by Emily Howe
and Richard Correnti provides a
visualization of the tension's
teachers need to navigate when
teaching to a diverse set of
students who do not necessarily
learn best under one
conceptualization of teaching. It is
therefore important that teachers
continually reflect on how they
implement rubrics to best suit the
needs of their individual students.
The Process of Inquiry
Procedure

• The process was a simple repeation of conferencing, creating, identifying,

and comparing:
1. Conference with the students to identify what the most important
parts of a given assignment were in their words.
2. Creating a rubric with the students that implemented their identified
important components.
3. Identifying what the most important words in each rubric was
4. Comparing created rubrics with others (PAT Rubrics, Teacher-Made
Rubrics, Student-Teacher Collaboration Rubrics)
Pre-Assessment

• Before beginning the process of creating an implementing a rubric

together with the students I performed an exercise which had the
students highlighting the words that they thought to be most important
on the ELA 9 PAT Writing Rubric. The process led to be more insightful
than anticipated.
• Students had trouble understanding the rubric as a tool. Rather, it was thought of
as a piece of paper that had their final mark in the bottom right-hand corner and a
few non-sensical words.
• When asked to identify the most important parts of a rubric, the students tended
to highlight complex words such as “judicious” or “insightful”. When asked what
these words meant, I found myself giving a vocabulary lesson.
• The largest take-away was that students thought complex words meant they
were important. They did not, however, know what they meant or what to do with
their writing to achieve the levels with these words.
Creating a Rubric with the
Students

• To create the rubric, I had a

conferencing session with the students
which followed a loose structure:
1. Give the students the assignment
description and allow them to read it
over with their peers.
2. Discuss with the students what they
thought I would be looking for in the
writing.
3. Create four distinct categories based
on these discussions.
4. Describe how each level of
achievement would be different from
the other.
5. Assign weights to each category
Utilizing the Rubric

• With the rubric created and the assignment given to the students, I noticed two
changes in how the students were completing the assignment:
1. Students were referencing the rubric when working on their assignment.
When I had assigned an assessment that was marked using the ELA 9 PAT
Writing Rubric, students did not reference back to the rubric.
2. Students were giving better peer feedback. When using the rubric we
created in class, the students were able to give specific feedback that
related to the rubric. When an assignment used the PAT Rubric, students
gave much more vague feedback that did not reference back to the
rubric.
Post-Conference

After the assignments were finished and marked, I had the students compare the rubric created
collaboratively
Students generally found thewith the class
Song Analysis andmore
Rubric the ELA PAT Writing Rubric. I found two trends:
Students who found the PAT Rubric more useful cited: “It
useful citing: “It told me exactly what I needed to do” and
had bigger words” and, “It looks more professional”.
“It had more useful categories for the assignment”.

These responses show me that the collaboratively created rubric leads the students to use the rubric
as a tool to work towards the completion of their assignments. The PAT Rubric, on the other hand,
tends to be seen as a formality. Something to be given back to the students with a mark on it.
 The area in which I will be doing the most inquiry
into in the future is in how to get students who did
not seem to see the value in a rubric as a tool. While
the PAT Rubric is certainly well suited to be used as
a tool for assessors to mark student work in a
standardized setting, the students could not identify
useful aspects of it in regard to guiding their
Areas for writing.

Further The students who did not see the collaboratively

Inquiry created rubric as valuable therefore still seem a
disconnect between assignment work and teacher
assessment. In a subject such as writing, it is
integral that students feel they know exactly what
and how to work towards creating their best work. It
is then important to continue to inquire into how to
get all students invested into the use of rubrics as a
tool to increase understanding.