The best use of rubrics for K-2 writing activities

A lot of teachers use rubrics both for helping students to see what success looks like, and also for getting a big picture of student progress.

I just took a quick sweep of Pinterest and found all kinds of rubrics, from teacher made anchor charts drawn with colored markers,

to “example” rubrics

to “example” rubrics,

to complicated charts with descriptions of various skill levels.

Rubrics, like anything else in life, can be used in ways that are thoughtful and helpful, or they can be a waste of time, or even harmful in certain circumstances.

How rubrics can be thoughtful and helpful:

• A rubric can invite students into the challenge of doing their very best work.

• A rubric can help teachers in grading fairly.

• A rubric can help to make clear what the grade level expectations are, in detail.

• Some rubrics can help to chart progress over time.

• Rubrics can help inform teachers of what needs more instruction or review.

The most thoughtful and effective teachers will always ask “How can I do better at instructing this child?” when seeing students who aren’t performing well on the rubric. They will take it as a challenge rather than a static condition.

How some rubrics can be a waste of time:

• Some rubrics contain skills above grade level that teachers shouldn’t be taking time to assess.

  • (for example, all six traits of writing in K-2 – not important!)

• Some rubrics have so much clutter that it’s hard to separate the important from the trivial.

• Some rubrics are too vague, which makes measurement too subjective.

My personal take on posting rubrics for students is that every child should be expected to have a final product that meets the highest standard. Why would we accept anything less? If that doesn’t seem possible, then we haven’t done a thorough job of teaching the skills that students need to have to produce the highest level of work, or we haven’t demanded it of them.