Teacher talk about rubrics and student work

(Vol. 2, No. 1 - Winter 1998)

Teacher Talk

Read the rubric and the student work

Seventh grade teachers at Williams Middle School are gathered around a table in the library, scrunched up in the junior-sized wooden chairs. The long, low table is covered with paper, drinks and snacks. The moderator calls the group to order and reviews the rules or "protocol" the group will use to discuss a teacher's assignment and a piece of work produced by one of her students.
The handout includes two poems about Fall, a "rubric" or guide intended to let students know what they must do to earn a certain grade (1-4, with 4 the highest mark) and an actual 7th grade student paper written by "Jackie."

As the presenter passes around copies of the work, she describes the purpose of the assignment: to help students practice a language arts "open response question" -- the kind of question students must answer on the state KIRIS examinations. For most of the teachers, it's the first time they've ever sat together and critiqued an assignment created by another teacher.

The purpose of the activity is to help teachers reflect on why they ask students to perform a particular task, how well they've designed the task, and what they expect to get in return. This group "examination of student work" can also provoke conversations about "how good is good enough" and what standards teachers use to measure student achievement.

Here's just part of the teachers' conversation:

1st Teacher: I was sort of confused when I read the rubric. You said give an example. But I wasn't clear whether you meant an example from our own experience or from the poems.

Presenter: I wanted more added insights.

1st Teacher: What does that mean? What more could she have given?

Presenter: Yeah, I know. My expectation isn't clear.

2nd Teacher: She did exactly what she was asked to do by the rubric. She gave good examples.

3rd Teacher: It's a 4 in my book.

4th Teacher: No, it's a 3.

5th Teacher: Yeah, a 3. Too many spelling errors.

4th Teacher: A 4 almost just has to make you go "wow!"

3rd Teacher: I go by the rubric and she met the rubric. It's a 4.

Presenter: I do think there's a weakness in the rubric. It didn't draw out what I wanted. She didn't give me the insights I wanted.

3rd Teacher: She said she thought it was fun and it was sad. What else do you want? I think a 4 would be (a good grade) for our kids at Williams. That would sustain them.

Assistant Principal: Making the rubric fit their abilities may make some sense in the short term, but if we don't show them what a 4 really is-what the standard really is-then we're doing them a disservice. You're not going to have a Williams-level rubric on the KIRIS test.

Presenter: If we can get them to answer the question we ask, we're pretty far ahead, and she did answer the question. But I appreciate what's been said. When you look at the (assignment I gave) through the eyes of a 7th grader, I can see that she probably did what I asked her to do.

Another Teacher: That raises another question, which is how do the students know what a good paper looks like? Your rubric says that a 4 has "excellent" examples, and a 3 has "relevant" examples. What's the difference? How do they know the difference? And you say they must show "an understanding of the question" but you really don't ask a question.

5th Teacher: You would almost need to show them what a "4" paper looked like.

Presenter: It would be interesting to do this with your 7th graders, and maybe change the rubric to make it more clear, and see what you get. I would really like to get to a point where the kids develop the rubric themselves which could help them understand what a good paper is.

Moderator: We're out of time. I have seen this discussion done with a smaller group. With a smaller group and with more time, you can dig in even deeper. As you can see, this process really makes us think about the work we ask students to do. Thanks to everyone.

To eavesdrop on another group of middle school teachers talking about their assignments and student work, visit this MiddleWeb page