Rubrics

Note: The English Journal is celebrating 100 years of publication. In this particular article, today’s English teachers talk about an article from the Journal that caused them to act.

Name of Article: “On the Uses of Rubrics: Reframing the Great Rubric Debate: by Eric D. Turley and Chris W. Gallagher (March 2009).

Teacher who read it and acted on it: Karin Jozefowski, Superstition High School, Mesa, Arizona.

Quote: “…but as Turley and Gallagher aptly noted, rubrics should be more than a prescriptive tool. They should be a negotiated language for discussing quality in writing if they are to incite and inform dynamic dialogue in the classroom. Turley and Gallagher acknowledge and honor the slippery subjectivity of assessment by viewing rubrics as a flexible tool when created by students and teacher collaboratively. Since my reading of that article, every writing assignment in my class reflects, directly or indirectly, on the four guiding questions they posed because they offered more than a framework for assessing writing. They offered a framework for teaching writing as an active learning process.” P. 22.

Comment: The rubrics probably change for each writing assignment. As the author states, the changing rubrics become an excellent tool for teaching writing. RayS.

Title: “An English Journal Article That Made a Difference: A Forum.” Compiled by D Zancanella. English Journal (January 2012), 19-26.