Now is your time to shine! With your newly created rubric, assess the student writing below. As you decide on how to assess each piece of writing, be sure to discuss considerations.

When finished, reflect on your experience by discussing the following prompts:

1. What was difficult about crafting the rubric? What considerations are important in doing so? What further information about Sarah's students have helped and how so?

2. What was difficult about using the rubric to assess the two writing samples? What are the limitations of employing rubrics in terms of providing useful feedback to students writing?

3. Consider the traditional approach that many of Sarah's colleagues take in assessing student writing: editing for surface errors and assigning grades based on these errors. How would the student responsible for the first sample have fared under such an assessment system? Therefore, what are the implications of such a traditional approach?

4. How might you use the completed rubric you just created to guide future writing instruction?

5. One best practice of creating rubrics is to create them with your students. Discuss the strengths and limitations of such an approach.

6. Depending on the nature of the assignment, you may choose to assess student writing in a variety of ways. How do you plan to assess student writing in the future and why?