The Polliwog Journal

I felt confined by a rubric this morning, more than ever. When I read the book Rethinking Rubrics in Writing Assessment by my friend Maja Wilson, I agreed with her premise but had not felt, in practice, the same angst she had felt when she conceived the book in the first place. I get it now, loud and clear.

In an attempt to differentiate for my multi-leveled-skilled (whatever) students in English 11, I offer three different essay options. This is a good thing, I think. I have always believed in choice and these options provide choice not only in topic but also in essay type: personal narrative, literary analysis, or persuasive essay.

When I began reading the essays with a very good but very generic rubric at my side, I started to know what Maja already knows. First of all, one size does NOT fit all. A personal narrative is not the same as a literary analysis or a persuasive essay. It doesn’t necessarily have a thesis, or not one easily extricated from the text as such. It has a controlling idea, but one that is less overt. In a personal essay, one may even be “writing to know,” which I always thought was a good thing. So maybe the point doesn’t even reveal itself in the introduction. This does not mean the essay is bad, unless I am measuring it against the rubric. And then no thesis in the introduction definitely earns demerits. One personal narrative I read scored a D on the rubric. It wasn’t an A. The ideas were too disconnected, there was no sincere voice, the details were unsupported, and more. But it wasn’t a D.

The rubric straightjacket got so tight by the third essay I looked at that I decided to struggle out of it for good then. It wasn’t helping me at all. It wasn’t giving me a focus or direction.

Unfortunately, over the years since their inception, I have come to think I need a rubric. I feel I must try to quantify or justify with categories any grade I give. If only I could give feedback without grades. But alas, that’s not how we play school. So while I think I’m justifying a grade, I wonder if it matters. Do students, even with a rubric, look at anything more than the grade?

Plus, I don’t think a rubric helps students improve in their writing. It may or may not show them why points were deducted. But my comments in the margins should be doing that.

I think I know the difference between good writing and not so good writing. I’ve been writing nearly all my life. I’ve been reading for even longer. And I ‘ve been reading and assessing student writing for over 17 years. I must know something by now.

So, without the confines of a straightjacket and perhaps even against the conventional wisdom, I am going to assess this group of essays with only my own sense of what makes quality writing. My comments are going to reflect what I think is great or not so great about each student’s work. I am going to assign some grade at the end as a reflection of that assessment, not because I want to but because I have to.

And if students disagree, then we can talk about it. If students want to revise, I’ll be glad to help. A rubric isn’t going to get us anywhere we cannot go without it.