Lesson 5: Grades and the Assessment Rubric

Grades and the Assessment Rubric

by Brian Wasko

Let's start this way: I hate grades. I wish they weren't so important in our education system. I wish students simply pursued knowledge and skills because knowledge and skills are valuable and worth pursuing. I wish we didn't need letters and numbers to motivate them. 

But I also live in reality, and like it or not, grades are part of schooling. So, we give grades. 

We didn't always. Just a few years ago, we didn't include quizzes with our weekly lessons and final drafts were given an assessment score of 1-5. If your family has been around WriteAtHome for a while, you may notice that things are a little different now. WriteAtHome and Wasko Lit students now get grades the following ways:

WriteAtHome

Quizzes

Every week, WriteAtHome students get a short comprehension quiz on the lesson we provide. Those quizzes are immediately and automatically graded and added to your grade book. 

Important: These quizzes are designed to be easy. You should aim for a perfect score every week. The answer to every question lies in the lesson itself, which you can view by scrolling up. If you are not sure of an answer, take the time to go back and find the answer in the lesson. This isn't cheating. We want you to score a 100 on every quiz!

Final Drafts

Your papers are graded, but only final drafts. That means that diagnostic papers (which are done in one draft), first drafts, and revisions of papers do not receive grades. You get help from your writing coach and opportunities to revise and proofread twice before we assess your work. 

We use our unique 3 X 3 + 1 Scoring Rubric to provide grades on your papers. I'll explain that below.

It's different for Wasko Lit students, who only submit two papers and a creative project over the course of the year. They won't get the same drafting process—papers are submitted in a single draft. These projects are graded using a different rubric. See the Wasko Lit course information for details. 

Wasko Lit 

Quizzes

Wasko Lit students also get quizzed on their reading assignment each week. These quizzes may not be quite as easy as WriteAtHome quizzes, but they are designed simply to hold you accountable for your weekly reading assignment. Students who complete all their reading and read carefully usually score high. 

Discussion Questions

In addition to the weekly quiz, Wasko Lit students are required to answer a discussion question on their reading assignment each week. Students score up to five points on each discussion question. There is no right or wrong answer. Students are simply asked to provide a thoughtful answer to the question in multiple sentences. A single-sentence answer will have points deducted. 

Literary Analysis Papers

Wasko Lit students are assigned two literary analysis papers over the course of the year. Only one draft will be submitted and will receive a grade via a separate rubric.

Creative Project

Wasko Lit students are also graded on a creative project they are assigned each year. It may be a Power Point presentation, a video, or an artistic response to a work. 

What Our Grades Mean

The truth is, the grades we provide at WriteAtHome only matter as much as a supervising parent or teacher want them to mean. WriteAtHome and Wasko Lit are online services. We are not a school, nor are we affiliated with any school. We have no accreditation. Most of our students are homeschooled, and in most states, that means the parents are the sole educational authority. Parents (and in the case of regular school kids, teachers) must make the final decision regarding course grades. 

We assume that parents and teachers will use the grades we assign. And most certainly do. We're pretty good at this, after all. But if a parent or teacher doesn't agree with an assessment we make, he or she is free to assign a different grade. We won't mind. We won't even know unless you want to tell us. 

When it comes down to it, our grades are simply suggestions. We hope you find them helpful. 

The WriteAtHome 3 X 3 + 1 Scoring Rubric

I have to admit. I'm pretty excited about our scoring rubric. I think it's the most objective and informative scoring rubric ever. But since I created it, I may be a little biased. Here's what it looks like:

We use a scoring rubric because want grades to be instructive. We don't want you wondering why you got a B- instead of a B. We break down our evaluation into categories that will tell you what we think was great and what we think still needs work. Please don't ever take our grades personally or let them discourage you. We see them primarily as a means of pointing you in the right direction. The rubric isn't meant to judge you or your writing as much as it is meant to inform and direct you. 

Completion

Final drafts get 50 points just for being submitted. It's possible to have points deducted here if the paper is late without an excuse or if the paper doesn't meet the criteria of the assignment. Most papers get the full 50 points, however. 

Main Categories and Sub-Categories

I call this the 3 X 3 + 1 rubric because there are three main categories: Content, Style, and Conventions. These three categories are then each broken into three sub-categories. The +1 part is a bonus evaluation category I call Effort. 

Content

Too many writing teachers focus on how something is being said and ignore what is being said. Not at WriteAtHome. Good writing is about something that matters—something interesting and creative or useful and informative.

Papers can score up to five points each for the Clarity of Ideas presented, the Organization of Ideas presented, and the Quality of Ideas presented in each paper. 

Style

Good writing is more than just following the rules of grammar and spelling. Good writing is at least in part about style. 

Each paper gets a score of up to five points for Holistic Style, which addresses the overall tone, voice, and feel of the paper; Sentence Style, which rewards rhythm and variety in sentence formation; and Word Style, which looks at vocabulary and diction. 

Conventions

The little things matter too. Good writing must follow the conventions of grammar, usage, punctuation, mechanics, and formatting. 

Each paper is also scored up to five points for the categories of Grammar & Usage, Punctuation & Mechanics, and Formatting. 

Bonus: Effort

In addition to the fifty points for completion and the forty-five points for the categories and subcategories above, students are also evaluated for effort. In particular, we want to reward students who give effort to the various revisions of each paper. We want to see students not only applying the suggestions made by the writing coach, but also making changes of their own choosing—working hard to improve the paper from draft to draft. Students whose final draft is essentially the same as their first draft will receive low scores in this Bonus category.

Click here to go to Lesson 6: Plagiarism