Written Response Rubrics

IKEA furniture is notoriously hard to build! There are a lot of moving parts, and having an instruction manual doesn’t build it for you, but it does show you what steps you need to do to build it. If you were to ditch the directions altogether, you might still be able to make the furniture. However, this is very unlikely and it won’t turn out as well.

Checklists are used in our everyday lives, so why wouldn’t we use them in the classroom? We create rubrics for presentations and group projects, but many of us don’t think about rubrics when it comes to written responses.

Teaching written responses to your students is one of the best ways to ensure that they’ve learned the material! When your students can put what they know into written words, that’s how you know that they understand the content on the test. This is one of the main reasons why I believe in written responses so strongly. Written Response Rubrics are extremely helpful for not only the students but the teachers as well!

Rubrics and Checklists are a Balanced Approach!

For many students, a rubric can sound like a scary word. They are used to the term checklist, so renaming this into a response checklist might help your students feel more comfortable. When you use rubrics or checklists in your student’s assignments, they allow opportunities for your students to:

Build independence: When they build independence, they build confidence!
Set goals: This can let them know what they need to do going forward to make their written responses better for next time.
Provide feedback: This gives us a chance as teachers to provide specific feedback to our students on their assignments!
Self Assess: Rubrics allow students to be able to self assess themselves!
Have a guide: Some students may need a checklist or a guide, and these rubrics will provide them with a guide to help them along during the assignment.

Using rubrics is not only a powerful way to help your students, but this is also something easy for teachers to use too!

Many Students Struggle with Putting Their Words into Writing

Have you ever tried to explain to someone something over text, and you can’t get the words out of your head and onto the phone? This has happened to me many times myself, and one of the main reasons is because getting the ideas from what we’re saying down on paper can be difficult. Whether I’m drafting a blog post or a lesson plan, I keep a checklist handy to make sure that I don’t miss anything, and these will serve as my points to make sure I don’t miss anything.

I firmly believe that if the child you are testing can answer the question correctly through a written response, they will be able to do it in any other format! It doesn’t matter if it’s multiple-choice, orally, or a question on a different test. Having a rubric handy can help struggling students put their words into writing!

Written Response Rubrics Offer a Visual Guide

Many students are visual learners, which can make writing more difficult for them. I am a visual learner, and I need visual guides whenever I can get them. Written response rubrics offer your students a visual guide for their questions so they can make sure they have got all their points, and they have a visual way to make sure all their thoughts are on paper.

You wouldn’t put together a bookshelf without first reading the instructions to follow the steps. If you didn’t, you wouldn’t end up with a perfect bookcase! However, if you followed the instructions, you would have a much better bookcase and one that is sturdy!

Written responses work the same way! If you want your students to have better-written answers, having a step-by-step visual guide can help make sure they don’t leave off anything that’s needed.

Click HERE or on the image below to implement this resource into your classroom!