What happens when students make their own rubrics?

In language arts this term, eighth grade students and I have been reconsidering how reader’s responses are graded.

This all started because I had some questions about how I assess students. I wondered:

Eighth graders drew inspiration from existing rubrics.

Does giving students an opportunity to decide how they are graded help them see their assignments from a new perspective?

How can I help my students be more independent?

What am I missing when I do all the grading myself?

So when it was time to create a rubric for the eighth grade reader’s responses this year, I decided to let the eighth graders help me make their rubric.

To begin, we asked three big questions:

• What are we assessing?
• How are we assessing it?
• What strategies and knowledge do we need to get there?

Students considered what elements of their 
reader's responses will be graded. 

I asked eighth graders to decide how we will grade discussions and meetings with peers and with me, their reading teacher.

I also asked students to decide how we will grade their summary and literary analysis.

Step 1:

Students started in small groups, and they used a variety of rubric samples to inspire their own rubrics.

At the end of this stage, we had four different drafts.

Step 2:

Then, students combined into larger groups to consolidate their rubrics.

At the end of this stage, we had refined our work and had only two drafts instead of four.

Students decided how their participation in
discussions and conferences would be graded.

Step 3:
It is time to combine our drafts and decide on a single rubric for the whole class.

Then, we need to test our rubric to see if it fits our class and the assignment.

In the next few weeks, eighth graders and I will be using our new class rubric as we grade reader's responses. 

In the winter term, we will return to our initial questions to make sure our rubric is working, to make sure it fits our class and the assignment, and to consider additional revisions.