Week+13

__**Week 13**__

The focus of this week's class was on assessment and grading student writing. We read and discussed articles about the use of rubrics in the classroom, feedback on student writing, and the use of portfolios in the classroom. We also examined example rubrics from Smagorinsky and the PSSA Writing Rubric to see what aspects of these rubrics we liked and disliked when thinking about grading our own students' work.

During our discussion, students raised several concerns/questions about using rubrics and grading student writing. These concerns/questions are summarized below:
 * //As teachers, if we are expected to give letter grades, what is the alternative to using a rubric?//
 * //Are rubrics used solely to help teachers justify a grade that they give to student writing?//
 * //How can a rubric be created so that what we value as teachers (in terms of student writing) receives more weight?//
 * //Are teachers likely to break the rules of the rubric because teachers have a certain grade in mind for a student paper (gut reaction)?//
 * //If a teacher uses a rubric, does a rubric allow for students to earn credit for evidence of improvement in their writing?//
 * If a teacher has the ability to design the rubric and does not have to follow a standardized rubric required as part of the curriculum, then this teacher could be able to create a fair rubric that not only helps students to understand the expectations of the assignment and how they will be graded but also to show what the teacher values in terms of writing.

We also continued our discussion of feedback on students' writing from previous weeks and we discussed approaches for helping students learn grammar rules in the context of their own writing. We also talked about the place of portfolios in the writing classroom.