Starting the Process of Student-created Rubrics with my Students

I began implementing the action process of having my students create rubrics for their writing on December 1^st.  From the conversation I had with my literacy specialist and from the data I collected and analyzed, I decided to start the process with the trait Concept of writing/craft.  I decided this because, the data I collected showed my students needed to learn more in the basics of concepts of writing.  They needed to focus on getting more letter sounds in their words, having consistent size and shape of their letters, having more consistent word spacing, and knowing where and when capital letters should be used. 

I began the process by making four examples of good work and poor work, which I put up on my smartboard.  Right away one student said, “Who wrote those bad words.” One piece was written perfectly with all the words spelled correctly, the letters had consistent size and shape, the word spacing was good, and capital letters were in the right places. Another piece was written totally opposite of previous and the other two were in-between; one closer to the good piece and one closer to the poor piece. I told the students we were going to be judges who get to review samples of work and then decide what makes one piece of writing good and the other one not so good.  I told them we are going to score the best writing with a 4, the poorest writing with a 1 and the other ones we had to decide if it was a 3 or a 2.  So, we reviewed the examples of good and poor writing and had a class discussion about their observations.  Before our discussion I let them look at the writing for a minute then, I had them turn and talk to their Critical Friend (CF)—(Super serious partner) about what they noticed.  As we discussed the writing I wrote their responses down on chart paper.  I was pleased that the students were easily able to pick out the best writing and the poorest writing right away.  As we talked about why they thought the good piece was good and deserving of the 4 they were able to say they could read it and the words are spelled right.  When we talked about the poorest writing deserving a 1 the students were able to say it’s hard to read, the words are pushed together, the letters aren’t the same size, and the words aren’t spelled right.  As the discussion continued I helped them transform their vocabulary to use words like consistent when talking about size and shape, and proper spacing when talking about words and letters being pushed together.  When we continued to discuss and judge the other pieces the students began to notice smaller detail and used words like some and more, and they noticed where capital letters were being used and not used.  After the discussion I told the students we would be putting our list of “what counts in our writing” on the examples on the smartboard for tomorrow and we will talk about why our criteria is important to the quality of the writing…for today, think about what counts in your writing as you write today and everyday.