Reflecting on your strategy
As you have gone through the sources on constructing a rubric, evaluating your work, and questioning the standard rubric, it is time to reflect on the conclusions you have come to. Before going into your classroom, decide on how you want to implement your expectations. If using rubrics to evaluate student writing is outside your comfort zone, consider using an alternative method to doing so, or a combination of multiple strategies. Peter Elbow’s grading contracts offers a chance for your students to focus on growing as writers rather than being bound by the qualifiers that rubrics stress. A combination of these might have students being given an advisory grade for the work they’ve turned in and expected to make corrections based on your feedback. Finding the balance of what works for you will take practice. No combination, or implementation of these strategies will be right for 100% of your students, but finding a happy medium can go along ways. Remember to stand behind your standards and make them clear to your students so they know what to expect, whether you rely on a grid-based rubric or a different modality of explaining your expectations.
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