Rethinking Rubrics in Writing Assessment

by Maja Wilson

The conventional wisdom in English education is that rubrics are the best and easiest tools for assessment. But sometimes it's better to be unconventional. In Rethinking Rubrics in Writing Assessment , Maja Wilson offers a new perspective on rubrics and argues for a better, more responsive way to think about assessing writers' progress. Though you may sense a disconnect between student-centered teaching and rubric-based assessment, you may still use rubrics for convenience or for want of better alternatives. Rethinking Rubrics in Writing Assessment gives you the impetus to make a change, demonstrating how rubrics can hurt kids and replace professional decision making with an inauthentic pigeonholing that stamps standardization onto a notably nonstandard process. With an emphasis on thoughtful planning and teaching, Wilson shows you how to reconsider writing assessment so that it aligns more closely with high-quality instruction and avoids the potentially damaging effects of rubrics. Stop listening to the conventional wisdom, and turn instead to a compelling new voice to find out why rubrics are often replaceable. Open Rethinking Rubrics in Writing Assessment and let Maja Wilson start you down the path to more sensitive, authentic style of writing assessment.

Genres: Teaching, Education, Writing, Nonfiction, School

136 pages, Paperback

First published January 20, 2006

Reviews

[BookChampions · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is an effective treatise on a radical way of assessing student writing, but it shouldn't be as radical as it is. I'm not certain it will be as persuasive as Wilson may hope it will be amongst teachers who have never felt uncomfortable with using a rubric or grading student writing. And the lack of practical take-aways will frustrate some readers desperate for an answer. And under 100 pages?

And yet...I found the book a wonderful example of teacher-research, an engaging blend of theory and personal reflection, and exactly the sort of thing I need to tie up the loose ends of my thinking around the Writing Workshop approach at the high school level (so beautifully articulated by Penny Kittle) and the inherent joy and meaningfulness of portfolio assessment. Only now does Linda Christensen's no-grading approach to teaching writing (which she discusses in Teaching for Joy and Justice) seem actually possible! This argument is a missing piece in so many great teaching texts which try to sidestep around the issue of assessment altogether, or if they do address it, tack on a chapter (usually an uninspired one) at the end of the book.

Even while Wilson never gives us a step-by-step guide to renovating our classrooms, she wrestles with the question in a collaborative way with the reader. Her revelations may ultimately be few, but they are HUGE ahas for me: shifting responsibility in the assessment process to students; oral feedback and assessments during the writing process in class! are way more important than anything we tell them after the process is over; the significance of students actually finding what they write meaningful and an investment in the rhetorical purpose and audience and how this is crucial in resisting the need for assessments that rank student work.

Near the end of her book, she writes: "Unless we begin experimenting in our classes with assessment in ways that honor our values about the complexities of the writing and responding process, we will never be in a position to call for the kind of paradigm shift that [...] is possible." Here here for subversive teaching and for experimentation in education. I'm impressed by WIlson, stimulated by these ideas, and ready to see what happens in my own classroom this year.

[Dan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Rethinking Rubrics by Maja Wilson is a testament to the power of conversation, with students at the heart of an authentic writing curriculum.

[Mrs.Tucker · Rating 4 out of 5]

My knowledge of rubrics and the history and research behind them grew ten-fold because of Wilson’s text. It helped me affirm my skepticism of forcing student responses into generic language. I wish there were more practical ways of applying her realizations/suggestions; however, I also bought her second text. I am hoping there are some alternatives or further guidance.

[Caron · Rating 3 out of 5]

Overall, Maja Wilson's book, Rethinking Rubrics in Writing Assessment, is thoughtful and insightful as she challenges the nature of rubrics that attempt to standardize students' writing. Like Wilson, I think rubrics are a tool to evaluate student work quickly and efficiently to meet the demands of a modern society that requires teachers to grade large quantities of student papers. Rubrics though, need to be
utilized cautiously as a student's final work product is often valued more than the initial creative process of writing, revising, and editing. She reminded me that teachers often marginalize the "worth" of student papers by issuing one numeric grade with little personal response or feedback. Students are human and crave more than corrective feedback to fix errors - -a teacher's job is more than
responding to students' mistakes - -and deserve more constructive responses that encourage "new insights" and reactions to pieces that reflect their toil, triumphs, and tribulations. As an adult writer, Wilson states, "I pay more attention to the [reviewers] comments...and to what I know about the reviewer." She encourages writing teachers to continue to engage in valuable discussions about writing that do not stop within the reductive constructs of a rubric's categorical boxes. In her world, she prefers to assess student work through several conferences and conversations. In my world of the "43 minute English
period," the conference and portfolio process becomes a major struggle due to time constraints. "Thank you for coming, would you like comments with that piece of work? Oops, sorry, we're out of time..." At the end of the book, she offers suggestions on how to grade and evaluate student work without the burden of always feeling compelled to rank order student writing. My one criticism of the book - I wish
Wilson would offer more practical suggestions on how to evaluate students' process and progress in the classroom. Her ideas sometimes feel like theoretical musings rather than concrete ideas to implement in the "real classroom." Perhaps, this idea will become the foundation of her next book...

[Steve · Rating 5 out of 5]

Given all the madness in education these days, this book spoke to me and I've been recommending it to all my teaching colleagues. Wilson writes engaging prose yet manages to pack a lot of history, scholarship, experience, and good pedagogy into a compact book that you could read in a day or a week with no trouble. But then you should ask others to read it and talk about it with you. Anyone who teaches writing will find this compelling and thought-provoking, but other educators, pre-service teachers, concerned parents, school board members, superintendents, and education policy makers should read it and consider its implications for the course we are on. It not only skewers standardized assessment but also offers a hopeful, humane alternative.

[Dona · Rating 5 out of 5]

I really liked this book. I especially liked how Wilson pointed out that when professional writers' works were scored using a rubric, they scored lower than the students who also responded to the prompt. She gives the sad, biased history of the origin of multiple choice tests in America in a chapter called "There is a Cow in Our Classroom: How Rubrics Became Writing Assessments Sacred Cow." And how about this insight, which can be applied to more than just the teaching of writing, "Factors in a complex system "swirl together" chaotically rather than build on each other in a linear, deterministic pattern of cause and effect."

[Mary · Rating 4 out of 5]

I always love reading a professional book where some of my instincts are affirmed. Rubrics (IMHO) can lead to stultifying language. Others have complained that Wilson does not offer an alternative to rubrics. But I think she's clear. Teachers must honor the rhetorical purpose of each writing and respond first to the ideas and the convincing (or not) nature of the writing. Rubrics don't allow for that. Respond as a reader first in writing or in conference.

[Sarah Zerwin · Rating 5 out of 5]

"As long as grades or other forms of ranking are the ultimate goal of writing assessment, we will not truly be able to claim assessment for teaching and learning." (Wilson, p. 87)

Yes! This is a really smart book about assessing writing. I've strayed from rubrics in recent years but haven't really been able to articulate clearly exactly why. This book helps. Lots to think about here.

[Stuart Macalpine · Rating 3 out of 5]

Thought provoking and good to explore a voice arguing against the use of rubrics in writing. Lots of the content is based on strawman-arguments, but a few points ring true and there is definitely a position that needs expression.

[Meg Petersen · Rating 5 out of 5]

I honestly didn't think I had much to learn from this book, but I was wrong. Very smart, well researched and readable treatment of not only rubrics but all aspects of assessment. Highly recommended.

[Mr. Caudillo · Rating 5 out of 5]

Maja's work is revelationary. After reading her book, you'll discover that rubrics are so much more an apparatus born of social dilemmas than you ever thought. It's not a pretty history, how writing assessments took on their modern form. The journey is marked by discrimination and an obsession to rank students.

Rethinking is more than a story of how we got to where we are; Maja offers practical instructional strategies that honor writing for its rhetorical purpose over petty issues that rubrics emphasize. Beware, these strategies challenge the status quo. How do we preserve fidelity for writing that is vulnerable, authentic, and truly unique? How do you assess a student based on their ability to "move" you with their writing? Moreover, how does one teach students to "move" their reader? Maja explores these questions and provides useful insight that any teacher of writing can employ in their class.

If you teach writing in any capacity, add this book to your to-read list; move it up near the top, in fact.

[Matt · Rating 5 out of 5]

An essential literacy resource that should be read by all educators, PreK-12.

I wrote a longer review on my blog: https://readingbyexample.com/2017/06/...

[Allyssa Graham · Rating 1 out of 5]

Many anecdotes to help the reader understand the downside to utilizing rubrics. Had to wait to the last chapter to get an idea ox what to do instead and even that was incredibly minimal, or ideas that I’m already aware of.

[Kris · Rating 5 out of 5]

I can't believe it took me so long to start reading this book - because once I did, I couldn't stop. Fascinating. Fabulous.

[Jason · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book confirmed the feelings I was having about using rubrics to "grade" student writing. Wilson provides an interesting history on the development of different methods of writing assessment and places rubrics in their context. I appreciate her personal stories of experiences with students in the classroom. She also provides some good alternatives to rubrics, but this section of the book could have been expanded. I'd also like to have some research on how Wilson's methods panned out after time. Did her students perform just as well as other students on the state writing test (which uses a rubric!) or the ACT/SAT? Just curious.

[Amethyst · Rating 4 out of 5]

Reading this book really did make me rethink how I use rubrics to assess writing. I enjoyed the criticism of how and why rubrics are created and how they do not always reward what we want most from our students: ownership and thoughtful revision of writing. I like her alternative approach and, although I don't think it's always practical in today's environment, I have experimented with implementing it to some extent.

[Betsy · Rating 5 out of 5]

In a perfect classroom, yes, there wouldn't be rubrics. I do agree that the purpose of writing instruction and assessment is not to standardize students' writing. Her arguments for rethinking rubrics are convincing; however, there seems to be a lack of how to grade writing in place of rubrics.

[TJ Wilson · Rating 4 out of 5]

I love the way Maja's articulated approach to dispelling the rubric-necessity myth. I wish the book was a little more specific on how to approach nonrubric grading and incorporating in the English department.

[Christine · Rating 4 out of 5]

Yep I knew something was really bugging me about the rubrics we have been using....do we really just want to look at the product of writing and evaluate it based on very shallow categories or are we really wanting to honor the process of writing!

[Jen Compan (Doucette) · Rating 5 out of 5]

I found myself proclaiming, "Yes! Wow!" throughout this whole book. Philosophically, I agree with virtually all Wilson says.

Rubrics often hinder instead of facilitate. Rubrics confine both reader and writer alike. We owe it to our students to find a better way to assess.

Tremendous read!

[Marsha · Rating 3 out of 5]

Thought-provoking book for teachers and students who judge/are judged by rubrics. This book opens up a whole new "can of worms" for the school districts. Highly recommend this book.

[Jb]

I will never use another writing rubric again. So. help. me. God.

[Katie]

Professional text - rubrics on writing.

[Devan · Rating 3 out of 5]

Great in theory, but does need more ideas on what "to do" instead of rubrics. There was some interesting insight into the history of writing assessment.

[Diyah]

i need this book for reading

[Jessica Klap · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book pressed a lot of what I see happening in my department. It leaves me in a place that is conflicted... I am intrigued and stuck in thought. I appreciate the challenge.

[Morgan · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book is a good read for writing teachers because it explores the difficulties of grading subjective works, but the book also doesn't go beyond its title. Wilson explains why it is a good idea to rethink rubrics, but she doesn't offer an alternative to grading with a rubric. You probably were already doubting rubrics if you picked up this book at all, so I don't think it does much to push the readers thinking. I do, however, feel even more uncertainty about using rubrics now than I did before, so in that regard the book is successful, but I also still recognize rubrics as a necessary evil in a lot of circumstances and don't have a lot of alternatives to replace them with.