Final Thoughts

Your rubrics are in, and what a rich variety of reading and writing activities they will assess! Many focus on some aspect of character analysis -- for example, how a character solves a problem, the reasons why a character changed, or a comparison of different characters. One rubric assesses students' predictions of what will become of the main character after the story ends.

Some of you plan to use your rubrics to assess reading notebooks and journals, as well as content area research papers. One fifth-grade teacher has even created a rubric for poetry writing. I noticed that most of your rubrics include criteria for assessing the correct use of punctuation, grammar, spelling, and paragraphing.

Here are a few last-minute tips about using rubrics this September. Be selective and sparing about introducing new rubrics — avoid presenting too many in too short a time. Begin by developing one or two rubrics to assess the learning activities that you most value, and encourage your students to use them to assess their own work. You're likely to find that when students participate in the process, their work improves.