Monday, June 1, 2009

Rubrics in the Creative Writing Classroom

I know what you're thinking. "He's been brainwashed by those education-types." Maybe. I know that whenever anyone mentions using rubrics to assess creative work it's in jest. However, I've thought a lot about it, and here's what I came up with. I want to clarify that I use these only in "regular" english class (not fiction) when someone expresses interest in writing a story. I think rubrics can work to address some of the issues beginning writers face. Thanks goes to Kurt Vonnegut, without your wisdom this rubric would really stink.

5 comments:

Meagan said...

Is this a worksheet you're giving students? If so, I'd take another look at that table. The first three rows seem to be clear/good writing (left side) vs unclear/poor writing. The last two rows don't follow that pattern, which I think could be confusing for beginning writers, even though it seems fairly obvious which to aim for and which to avoid. Just a suggestion.

John said...

Yeah, I give these out. Thanks to Vonnegut for the directions, thanks to Meagan for the suggestion.

Decontee said...

aaahhhhhhhh!!!!!!!!!!

Ok. I've been reading about rubrics for a month. Everything I read contradicts something I read somewhere else.

I like your rubric, though I have nothing smart or fancy to say about it. Its too bad I'm not teaching creative writing or I could just steal yours. Actually, it's a really good thing that I'm not teaching anything more advanced than I am....my grammar is horrible. In case you haven't noticed.

Anyway, I'm having a really hard time here. I'm working to include reasoning and life-skills in the curriculum. The problem is that I'm not African and I don't know what needs to be included. I have a meeting on wednesday with a Liberian man who says he can help me with this.

I'm also having trouble figuring out how to track students' progress, on paper. I taught people here how to read last time, but I was sitting with them everyday and talking with them and seeing their progress. It wasn't formal. I need to be able to make graphs for each student's individual progress in the program. Do you have any suggestions for me? I am in over my head. In fact, I'm drowning. Maybe you have some websites or something you can send me?

It would help to have a samples of what other people are doing in adult literacy, but I didnt know what exactly I was doing until I got here and I have no resources. I've been reading a lot about adult literacy, but it's all western information. How do I do this when there is no money for the students to have their own books or even their own copies of the daily newspaper to read?

If you have the time...any resource you have that might be helpful to me....sample rubrics, copies of other peoples' curriculums, whatever. If you could e-mail it to me I'd really appreciate it. CWilcox1987@yahoo.com.

I really enjoyed your last post. I don't know what it's like to work with HS students, but I know what it's like to work with a population that doesn't really understand what you are doing or how you are helping. Many of the people here don't want to participate in a program if they aren't seeing the result instantly, or if they aren't recieving something tangible at the end of each day. They've lived hand-to-mouth for so long they don't know how to live any other way. It's hard enough feeling so unqualified and pressured already....then to have the people Im trying to help act like they are doing me a favor by just talking to me....it's really hard.

Anyway, I hope you're enjoying the summer months!

Decontee said...

I just found www.authenticeducation.org. It seems to have some good resources. I will read over everything tonight. What do you think?

John said...

This looks like the kind of group that puts on Professional Development for schools. PD is something the state requires-some schools do it in house, but there are plenty of groups out there taking advantage... that said, my school hosted the folks at MAX Teaching a few years back. It was actually pretty good. http://www.maxteaching.com/