I like their writing...

One of the things I asked my master teacher recently was what model does the school use to teach writing. The response was that they use the six traits. We had just discussed this in class at Juanita and it was interesting response. Routman refers to the six traits as a rubric, not as a teaching tool that helps you teach students become confident writers. My master teacher even had the six traits copied onto a 4 x 6 card for me and laminated. I looked at the card and had my own thoughts but kept them to myself. I then sat at the back table where we graded a set of writing samples from our students. She had a rubric and told me she taught them how to write this sample using the six traits.

As think about the rubric we used that day in reference to Routman’s own ideas of a rubric I began to ask questions about how I graded the writing samples that day. The rubric was not very student friendly, but it did fit Routman’s definition of a content rubric. I was also informed that the students had the rubric to refer to. I then asked if the students had a piece of writing to refer back to that was exemplary and if the writing was modeled before-hand. The answer was no to both. They had the rubric and they had a direct instruction lesson to teach them how to write the sample. I sat there grading using the rubric with my master teacher next to me and my heart was heavy. Only a few of the students in the class received a 4 on the writing sample, which was the highest score, and more than half received a 3 and lower. What made my heart heavy was that I saw such great potential in the writing I was looking at for ALL of the students to receive a 4.

I had yet to read the article written by Peter Elbow at this time. However, I resonated with the idea of evaluation over the idea of ranking. As I think back on the numbers I placed on the rubric that day, there was not a piece of useful information in the number. I even watched as the students received them back and their faces became drawn. One student even looked at the score and then placed his head on the desk. How are these students supposed to become better writers when there is no evaluation? I also resonated with the idea of being determined to like the writing that comes across my desk. It is not the same as evaluating, as Elbow points out, but I found that day that when I was looking for the good in the writing I could see where the students could really improve the writing. I could see the possibility of what the writing could be. Maybe this writing sample was not perfect. Maybe the end result would not be either, but with more evaluating, small group writing sessions, and a chance to conference with the students the writing had great possibility.