Samantha Eastes

October 16, 2021

Rubric and Meta Analysis Report

Purpose and Use of Rubric

Rubrics are an important part of education for a multitude of reasons. They are a critical

part in allowing students to understand the expectations and giving them something to aim for, as

well as providing teachers with a consistent and efficient way to evaluate students and their

progress. Dannelle D. Stevens (2005) describes four ways in which rubrics “make grading easier

and faster” (p. 73). These ways include “establishing performance anchors,” “providing detailed,

formative feedback,” “supporting individualized, flexible, formative feedback,” and “conveying

summative feedback,” (p. 73). I will specifically be looking at the three-to-five level rubrics

(circles) for my second grade classroom. Based on Stevens’s ideas, this rubric should provide

detailed feedback for my students. Circling the competency level for each descriptor will also

make it easier for my second graders to understand.

The purpose for the rubric will be to evaluate students and their personal narrative

writings. The standard they will be aiming for is 2.W.3.3 which the IDOE (2020) states as “

Develop topics for friendly letters, stories, poems, and other narrative purposes that – a. Include

a beginning. b. Use temporal words to signal event order (e.g., first of all). c. Provide details to

describe actions, thoughts, and feelings. d. Provide an ending” (p.13). This standard focuses

specifically on a small moment a student has experienced. For example, an experience in a cabin

while camping, rather than the moments all throughout the camping trip. Narrative writing is a

tough skill for second graders to learn. I chose this rubric since it will give students detailed
feedback on their work. Explicitly stating instructions is important for this age, so I want the

students to be able to know exactly what they need to include in their narratives. I also

constructed this rubric to make grading their personal narratives efficient for me. I have twenty

students, and therefore twenty narratives, I need to assess; I need to grade the narratives as

quickly and efficiently as possible. Stevens claims this rubric is “best suited to written

assignments,” which helped aid in my decision in which rubric would work best for my students

and me (p. 78).

Rubric: Construction

For my rubric, I chose to have four competency levels- beginning, approaching, meeting,

exemplary. This decision was based on the idea of distinguishing between students and giving

them a distinct level to be at. With more details in the rubric and various levels, I can better

understand my students’ strengths and areas for growth. According to Kenneth Wolf and Ellen

Stevens (2007) , rubrics should ensure the performance task is “observable and measurable” (p.

6). For my five measurable dimensions, I chose topic sentence, sequencing, evidence and

examples, transitions, and capitalization and punctuation.

These dimensions seemed the most important, since I can clearly and consistently

observe whether my students’ writings contained these parts, as well as the importance of them

in writing in general. The topic sentence is a crucial part of the narrative, since it introduces what

small moment a student will be writing about. Each specific descriptor per competency level is

shown in Appendix A. A large standard we have worked on in second grade is having a

beginning, middle, and end in writing. This is especially important for students to be able to do

within their own narratives. In their writings, students also should write a few specific examples

to further explain their small moment. I also included images of faces for each competency level.
For example, for exemplary, it shows an ecstatic looking face (Appendix A). I felt this was

appropriate for not only the age level I am working with, but also for ENL students. Students

who are still building up their vocabulary may not know what “exemplary” means, but will be

able to recognize a happy face vs. an unhappy face. The faces give the students a visual to aim

for.

Rubric: Colleagues Assessments

I chose to give my rubric to Holly, one of the two ENL teachers at my school. She has

been working at the school for several years and has collaborated with me before with my ENL

student. Along with my rubric, I also gave Holly the metarubric (Appendix C). Metarubrics are

important since they evaluate rubrics, whether they assess a new rubric or reevaluate old rubrics;

they increase the reliability and validity (Stevens, 2005).

Holly’s initial comments included the praise of using the faces with the competency

level. She mentioned how it was important for not only the general students but ENL students as

well to have a better understanding of what they are aiming for. She also included how she uses

images such as those within her own classroom.

Overall, the biggest suggestion Holly had for my rubric was distinguishing between a

level three and four. She included how a level three is what the students should be at, whereas a

level four has all of the components of a level three but is able to take it and apply the material to

the students’ own world. An example she pointed out was within my transitions section. She

mentioned how my level four should truly be a level three, since students this age should be able

to use a variety of transition words within their writings. A level four could still have

“connecting ideas seamlessly.” She also suggested using verbiage such as “...and has examples

to support,” to make the distinction stronger.

 Another large suggestion included making my rubric slightly more specific. For example,

rather than simply saying “there are little errors,” I need to define what that means. Holly

questioned whether I meant little as in a small error, i.e. a forgotten comma, or little as in not

many. For the evidence and examples descriptor, Holly also suggested giving a specific number

of examples. For this age, 1-2 examples would be expected, but 3-4 would be enrichment.

Approaching would have 1 example and beginning would have no examples.

Holly’s feedback ended with suggestions to potentially include an extra descriptor of

“overall” or “craft.” She included this since she knows how difficult it is for second graders to

write about one small moment. They tend to want to write about several moments and get off

topic. She mentioned how this descriptor would describe whether students were able to truly

stick to narrative writing, rather than storytelling. She also thought it would be beneficial, since it

could show whether students were able to use descriptive language to “paint the picture” and

help the reader imagine the moment in their heads.

Rubric: Reassessment and Overall Concerns

When looking at my rubric again, after Holly’s suggestions, I realized I had an oversight.

While I will circle the competency level for each descriptor and have a place to put the score, I

realized I never wrote down the score range to show what grade a student would receive. Holly

and I were both more focused on the actual writing of the descriptors. While it may not be a large

deal, I wanted my rubric to be as clear and easy to follow as possible. Since there were five

descriptors and exemplary would receive four points, I made the total score out of twenty

(Appendix B).

Another change I made was incorporating the specific amounts of pieces of evidence

within the evidence and example descriptors. I changed it to 3-4 examples as exemplary as Holly
suggested. I also changed my wording in the capitalization and punctuation descriptor from

“little” to “few” to be slightly more specific. I also changed my transition descriptor with

competency levels three and four. Previously, my exemplary level stated “A variety of

thoughtful transitions are used (ex: first, next, finally, etc.).” I changed that to be my meeting

level, and added “The ideas are connected seamlessly to give meaning throughout the whole

writing.” My intention in doing this was to follow Holly’s advice and show more distinction

between the two levels (Appendix B).

Overall, I feel as though Holly’s feedback was accurate and provided a lot of insight. I

trust her feedback and made most of the changes she suggested. My biggest concern with her

feedback was adding the last descriptor level. I understand the intent behind adding this

descriptor level, but my concern lies in that it may add bias to grading the writing piece. I believe

the goal of a well-constructed rubric is to eliminate the bias, which Stevens suggests. As long as

the rubric is detailed and covers the important aspects of the assignment, it may not be necessary

to add in an “overall” category.

Conclusion

Overall, rubrics are especially helpful to teachers since they make grading more efficient

and easier, remove bias, and allow teachers to evaluate their own teaching (Stevens, 2005). They

are an important tool for teachers to use regardless of the content area and grade level. Following

Holly’s advice allows me to make my rubric descriptors more specific and therefore, allows me

to have a more accurate understanding of where my students are at in their writings. Moving

forward, I will continue to think about how I can use rubrics to benefit myself and my students

and to reflect on my own teaching. I will continue to think about Holly’s suggestions and make

my rubrics more descriptive.

 References

McCormick, J. (2020). Indiana academic standards English language arts: Grade 2. Indiana

department of education. https://www.doe.in.gov/sites/default/files/standards/grade2-ela-

standards-dec-2020.pdf

Stevens, D.D. & Levi, A. (2005). Introduction to rubrics: An assessment tool to save grading

time, convey effective feedback, and promote student learning. Sterling, Virginia: Stylus

Press.

Wolf, K, & Stevens, E. (2007). The roll of rubrics in advancing and assessing student learning.

The Journal of Effective Teaching 7(1) 3-14.

https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/EJ1055646.pdf
Appendix A
Appendix B
Appendix C