Excerpted from Writing Portfolio Activities Kit.
Designing Rubrics to Fit Assignments
- Emphasizing Requirements of Assignments
- Students should see rubrics as "red flags" that highlight the important components of a paper. Rubrics remind students what to watch out for, what to revise if necessary, and what will be considered in the assignment of the paper.
- Varying Elements of Rubrics
- When constructing a rubric, you may choose to vary it for various classes and even for different assignments within the same mode.
- For instance, the Short Story Rubric is more suitable for student-written short stories, as it is concentrated on elements of the story – setting, characterization, plot/conflict, theme, tone/mood, etc.
- The Narrative Vignette Rubricis more generic and was designed to accompany a slice-of-life narrative – a narrative vignette. Besides its more fundamental nature, it is evident that it follows a comparative study of similar assignments. This rubric not only provides for peer interaction but also for the child author's assessment of the writing process involved.
- Adapting Rubrics for Individual Assignments and Student Needs
- The point is that the rubric is a learning tool for both students and teachers and should be varied when necessary to address the assignment as well as the students' weaknesses.
