Writing Rubrics as Formative Assessments in an Elementary Classroom

Abstract

This qualitative study with second and third grade students investigated what happens during the co-construction of a writing rubric between students and teacher for persuasive writing, based on mentor texts. It also sought to explore what happens when elementary students use a student-generated writing rubric during the writing process and how a student-generated writing rubric might influence students’ writing. Video-recordings, observations of the lessons and interviews with students about co-constructing the rubric captured the process used to co-construct the rubric. Observations of the students using the rubric, interviews after using the rubric, and a survey about using the rubric were administered. Pre-assessment and post assessment writing samples were compared. Co-constructing a rubric gave the students multiple exposures to the elements of the persuasive genre, which increased their understanding and produced improved persuasive reviews. The third grade focus group demonstrated the ability to self-assess their writing with the rubric, some students needing more scaffolding than others. The implications from this study are that a co-constructed writing rubric can be a tool for student engagement and understanding of a genre and self-assessment.