Rubrics--Friend or Foe?

I have rubrics on the brain.

I'm not sure why, but when reading through the essays this week, I kept thinking of rubrics--holistic or analytic . . . doesn't matter. When I taught, I most often used holistic rubrics. They helped me grade, and they gave the students an idea of what I was looking for. A win win.

Or so I thought. While taking Assessment last semester, I wrote some new rubrics, analytic ones, all neatly and succinctly aligned with the state standards. It was painful, but I think they turned out pretty good. While reading them over, I thought back to my vauge little holistic rubrics and thought I had made huge grading mistakes in using them.

But as I analyzed a couple of my old rubrics, I realized they were actually quite good. The aligned with the standards and the objectives of the assignment--though I didn't know it at the time. And they gave the students some idea of what they had to do, but they weren't prescriptive of what they needed to do for each level (grade). Now I'm thinking that was a good thing.

Britton et. al. writes

to put it simply, if rather crudely, I see the developed writing process as one of hearing an inner voice dictating forms of the written language appropriate to the task at hand. (465)

Flower and Hayes write

A writer in the act of discovery is hard at work searching memory, forming concepts, and forging a new structure of ideas, while at the same time trying to juggle all the constraints imposed by his or her purpose, audience, and language itself. (467)

I'm wondering what they effect of an analytic rubric, handed out before the assignment, has on Britton's "inner voice" and Flower and Hayes' "juggling of purpose, audience, and language." Do the imposed constraints of such a rubric hinder the student's voice? If the rubric already sets up (and gives value to) purpose, audience, and language, does that affect the student's juggling and take away from the process of discovery while writing?

Brands writes that

writing, too, is an exercise in inclusion and exclusion, a lesson in decision making and choice. It is the basis on which we make these selections that determine cognitive style and writing. (707)

Again, I wonder if the parameters set up by a rubric, while on the one hand helpful to students in making the types of decisions Brand is writing about, are actually not helpful at all? If the decisions are already made for the student in the rubric, then what role does the student play? And how can they find ownership and invention in what they are writing when they are merely following of checklist of what needs to be included? Britton writes that effective writing is spontaneous (463). Does the rubric remove the spontaneity? At what cost?

I'm not saying that rubrics are evil or bad (at least, not all of them). A rubric can be helpful to me as a teacher as well as to the students. Practically speaking, however, I wonder if there is a way to blur the rubric lines a little. Maybe give the students an assignment with one of the vague, holistic rubrics I used to use. The students would have an idea of what I'm going to be grading or commenting on as well as how much each part will be worth (if they are not equal).

Then, after writing, I can grade with the analytic rubric (though I'm still not convinced that's the best way to "grade" writing, but it is the current reality). When the students get their writing back, they can see where they stand and be given the choice to revise or a higher or different grade. That obviously puts a huge responsibility on the shoulders of the student . . . where it should be. Students then have some basic guidelines but can use more detailed ones for revision. Maybe it all boils down to freedom--for each student to write in a way that suits him or her . . . and maybe that means a rubric and maybe it doesn't (though I lean toward the non-rubric school I think).



I don't know. And I'm not sure anyone else knows either. But I do know how I think of writing as a process and how crucial it is for students to be engaged and empowered with their writing. And I wonder what role the rubric plays in that--a double edged sword at times, that's for sure.