After class on Thurday I thought about how my high school English classes were structured. The main thing I remember were the rubrics. I couldn't go a paragraph without referring back to it! It's sad that a lot of my creativity was taken away by rubrics. I got so worried about grammar and such that my papers lacked a certain style that I couldn't create. Now, I still worry about rubrics that when a teacher assigns a paper I met with them! I feel so lost because I don't have a rubric to follow! It's almost as if I'm too hesitant to be creative...when now is the time to be. Perhaps it's just me that reacts that way? I'm just so used to following a rubric for a paper because high school writing relied on them so much.
Another issue I had was actually reading what I was writing on paper. Again, I was so focused on the grammar that I didn't focus on getting my thoughts down correctly on paper. I think that's one of the major issues facing students today. It's hard to teach them how to get their ideas onto paper and make sense. Sometimes, I still struggle to do so even as a college student. I have all these ideas in my head and have to figure out a way to organize. I think that brings the rubric back into play. The rubric created this structure to which I followed. The plan was there and I followed it. So the question I have is:
Do you think rubrics help or hurt students?
How could they be changed in order to help students more if you think they hurt them?
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I have always had mixed feelings on the topic of rubrics. On one hand, rubrics make writing a paper a lot easier for me. Like you said, I would constantly be looking at the rubric to make sure I checked off every requirement. This paid off in the end because I could ultimately predict what grade I would get. On the other hand, it definitely restricts ones ability to be creative. The rubrics in high school stressed correct grammar, punctuation, and essay structure more than the topic of the essay.
I also find that I have disorganized writing and that it is difficult to stay right on track in some writing assignments. This is where rubrics can actually be useful. Giving the framework for a paper in the rubric will make it easier than an open-ended essay. I was amazed and stupefied when I took English 015 and realized that I could write about anything I wanted. I think high school teachers especially should assign more open-ended assignments to prepare their students for college English courses.
Yes! I agree with how rubrics could help to predict what grade one received. I have the same problem with disorganized writing. I seem to jump off topic at times and I don't even notice it! That's why I really try to meet with the professors because sometimes it takes another person to realize something I can not. Rubrics were always a guide for me to follow and now I'm my own guide!
Also, I definitely agree with high school teachers assigning more open-ended assignments for papers. Students need to be exposed to different writing topics/styles/ideas throughout their school experience!
I feel its both a matter of the professor and the context in which the writing is done, but sometimes you still don't know until it's graded - I have had mixed success with the form of grading.
When I took English 202, I had to write an Ethnography, it was supposed to be a technical writing paper, but after conducting my research I said to hell with the rubric because my ethnographic research deteriorated right before me. So I wrote a very stylistic (not at all technical or mechanical) piece on how my ethnography was utter failure - I recieved an A. My professor praised the paper for writing out of the box and not turning in some half-assed attempt, as apparently most students did.
That is one case where style and sincerity were held in higher regard than the rubric - should it have been?
Should we follow the rubrics like machines or try to breath a little life in our writing?
This is an interesting question—do rubrics help creativity or limit it? There’s research that shows genres, whether they be poems, news articles, or even genres work both ways. They help invent us as well as help us invent. The rubric just makes the form explicit for us. Is there ever a time we are composing without having some sense of genre?
And how does our desire to know how we will be assessed--a sense of fairness--drive the impetus for rubrics? If you follow the formula, you'll get such a grade. if you don't follow the formula, then you'll get a lower grade. Does grading drive our use of rubrics?
And then as Jeff points out, rubrics *can* fail. This is always an interesting question--where and how to do rubrics break down? Does strict adherence to a form actually corrupt the form?
Like Cortney and DAvid, I like a variety of types of writing for students. Exposure to different kinds of writing is what characterizes writing development in college. What do you think that you get out of learning different ways of writing? How is that related to learning content?
I think rubrics are a double edged sword. On one hand it gives the student a clear understanding of how they are going to be graded, provides instructions on what they are to accomplish and how. However, it also does stifle creativity by making a checklist of items they have to fit all the material neatly into. All things considered, I like rubrics because they ensure that i stay on topic, hit the points I need to and allow me to understand the grading.
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