preassess and formatively assess students to determine instructional moves they might take that meet the needs of individuals and groups of students.
In order for students to compose any piece of writing, they need to learn general writing skills aside from the characteristics of a specific genre, such as determining task, purpose, and audience; revision (figure 1.4, page 14); editing; and even generating sentences (figure 1.5, page 15) along with spelling skills for primary and elementary students. Therefore, combining several proficiency scales forms the overall focus for any comprehensive writing assignment. Visit marzanoresearch.com/the-critical-concepts to request a free download for examples of other proficiency scales in the document titled The Critical Concepts (Simms, 2017). Teachers can compare the provided proficiency scales in this chapter (and others they access on their own) to their standards document. When doing so, they can delete or add line items—particularly from the 2.0 level—to pertain to their teaching situation.
Source: Simms, 2016.
Figure 1.2: Sample proficiency scale for generating narratives (grade 8).
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Figure 1.3: Sample proficiency scale for generating narratives (grade 2).
Source: Simms, 2016.
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Source: Simms, 2016.
Figure 1.4: Sample proficiency scale for revision (grade 8).
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Figure 1.5: Sample proficiency scale for generating sentences (grade 2).
Source: Simms, 2016.
Visit go.SolutionTree.com/instruction for a free reproducible version of this figure.
When creating writing units in which students move through the steps of the writing process to produce a comprehensive product, teachers can design analytic rubrics to score students’ work. They can base these rubrics on proficiency scales that align to a particular writing genre, providing teachers and students—when they learn how to use them—with concrete information about students’ performance on specific skills. Furthermore, this type of rubric is descriptive rather than evaluative, functioning as an instructional tool to explain students’ levels of performance. Analytic rubrics can boost student achievement by describing at what level students perform and where they need improvement. This allows for transparency about how the students are doing so they can be advocates for their own learning. Rubrics share these three components (Glass, 2017a).
1. Scoring criteria: These refer to the specific elements to assess—such as thesis, reasoning, and evidence—grouped under overarching categories like Idea and Development. Each element includes a brief overview of the skills associated with it. For example, Thesis might comprise, “Introduce claim through thesis statement, focus on a debatable topic, and use subordinate clause to set up the argument.”
2. Criteria descriptors: A description accompanies each scoring criterion along a continuum of quality to indicate levels of performance. Teachers use these descriptors to assess students’ writing. When students self-assess, these descriptors enable them to recognize the desirable standard of work they must present and how they can improve.
3. Levels of performance: Levels indicate how well a student has performed either numerically, for example, on a six-, five-, four- or three-point scale or with words, such as advanced proficient, developing, basic, and below basic, or advanced, proficient, partially proficient, and novice. Sometimes teachers use a combination of both (5 = advanced). Teachers should avoid evaluative terms like outstanding, excellent, competent, or poor. When scoring, assign whole numbers, or half numbers if a student’s proficiency is between two levels.
Figure 1.6 features an analytic rubric for an argumentation essay for secondary-level students; figure 1.7 (page 20) shows an opinion writing rubric for the elementary level.
Figure 1.6: Argumentation writing analytic rubric, secondary level.
Source: © 2017 by Kathy Tuchman Glass and Nicole Dimich Vagle.
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Source: Adapted from Glass, 2012, pp. 114–115.
Figure 1.7: Opinion writing analytic rubric, elementary level.
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As stated earlier, rubrics include a descriptor about how students perform against each scoring criteria item. Since a comprehensive written piece comprises myriad items—such as dialogue, logical sequence of plot, setting, characters, and so forth for a narrative—students can use the rubric to ascertain to what
