Implementing Rubrics to motivate students who struggle with Writing |
The purpose of my study is to find other strategies to implement during writer’s workshop to help support unmotivated writers. One way, to fill in the gaps of writer’s workshop for low self-efficacy writers, is the use of rubrics. Rubrics are a scoring tool that outlines expectations for a given assignment (Stevens & Levi, 2005). Steven also notes that a major advantage of using rubrics for writing assessment is it gives students feedback on their writing and it saves the teacher time on grading (2005). Andrade, Du, Wang also agree that rubrics can be used to help teach students to evaluate their own writing piece (2008). Baker, Cooperman, and Storandt also agree that rubrics clarify expectations and help students score more independently. They also agree with Stevens that it helps teachers grade students writing pieces more uniformly (2013). In a research study conducted by Rula Diab and Luma Balaa (2011), they found “[that] because students were involved in the process of rubric development, they were more empowered and motivated to learn” (p.59). They also found that “students generally revealed quite positive attitudes and reactions to the use of rubrics in teaching and assessing the critique assignment” (Diab, Balaa, 2011, p.59). Andrade, Du, and Wang (2008) also found that students who used a rubric that they created for a writing assignment produced better quality writing.
Overview of the Project Prezi Presentation
Implementing Student-Created Rubrics Research Paper
The standard being addressed by creating the rubrics was L1.2a which is; Demonstrate command of the conventions of standard English capitalization, punctuation, and spelling when writing. Capitalize dates and names of people.
Overall, my students enjoyed the process of creating and using their rubric to help them during writing. As a teacher, I am thrilled to see their attitudes about writing have increased. I am more thrilled that their conventions are improving as well. Through informal observations during this study, I did notice more students needing less help with writing conventions during writing conferences. Many used the rubric before conferencing with me. I was able to focus more on the organization of their writing piece and more content related issues. I was happy to see my students using the rubrics independently. I have seen great outcomes with implementing rubrics during writer’s workshop. I have decided to keep and to continue using the rubrics during writer’s workshop. I think it was also a great time of year to implement the rubrics. We started this process in third quarter, and continued into fourth quarter. My students were more mature at this point of the year to understand where they needed help during writing. In the beginning of the year, there were more elements to writing that they needed assistance with, like choosing a topic. I have seen the benefit of using student-created rubrics, and I will continue to use them.
Overall, my students enjoyed the process of creating and using their rubric to help them during writing. As a teacher, I am thrilled to see their attitudes about writing have increased. I am more thrilled that their conventions are improving as well. Through informal observations during this study, I did notice more students needing less help with writing conventions during writing conferences. Many used the rubric before conferencing with me. I was able to focus more on the organization of their writing piece and more content related issues. I was happy to see my students using the rubrics independently. I have seen great outcomes with implementing rubrics during writer’s workshop. I have decided to keep and to continue using the rubrics during writer’s workshop. I think it was also a great time of year to implement the rubrics. We started this process in third quarter, and continued into fourth quarter. My students were more mature at this point of the year to understand where they needed help during writing. In the beginning of the year, there were more elements to writing that they needed assistance with, like choosing a topic. I have seen the benefit of using student-created rubrics, and I will continue to use them.