Welcome to Sarah's classroom! You will be assessing her students' work using a rubric of your very own creation.

Below is the writing assignment Sarah gave her ninth grade English students.

The prompt:
Connect three of the four short stories by a theme of your choice. You must incorporate at least one passage in supporting your thematic connection. Be sure to properly cite passage support. In preparing, consult your topic sheet, the short stories, and notes. (Short story titles include "Eleven" by Sandra Cisneros, "The Secret Lion" by Alberto Alvaro Rios, "The Scarlet Ibis" by James Hurst, and "A Private Talk with Holly" by Henry Gregor Felsen).

The writing context:
Students completed this task in class and according to a "5-20-5" guideline; they had five minutes to prewrite, twenty minutes to write, and five minutes to revise and edit.

First, based on this assignment, discuss the higher order concerns and lower order concerns you might include on the rubric. Remember that, as Sarah mentioned in her discussion, rubrics best serve for future instruction when they are focused on a manageable number of criteria, and of course, when they focus on higher order concerns (such as content and organization) versus lower order concerns (such as spelling and punctuation).

Next, as a group, create a rubric for assessing this assignment. Discuss your ideas and explain your final decisions. (You may consider using Rubistar, an online rubric creation website: www.rubistar.com).

Once you have created a rubric for assessment, take on your final task by clicking: Assess Student Work.