A few more thoughts about today...

Hi Everyone -

I was just mentally sifting through our morning and thinking some more about our conversation around rubrics...it reminded me of a significant moment when I was in 7th grade. We had just had a social studies test and there was a short-response question at the end. I received 7 points for my answer. My best friend received 10. Naturally, we compared notes, and it turned out that we had essentially written the same response - all the same information, neither of us had any more or less than the other. It took me the rest of the day, but I finally worked up the nerve to go to the teacher, and I asked why my friend had received more points than I had when we had both written the same thing. His response was, "I expected more from you." I suppose I was meant to be flattered by his high opinion of my writing, but at 12 years old I was just plain stunned at the unfairness of it all. Why should I be penalized because I was generally a stronger student than my friend? What if the class had been full of kids who were geniuses - would my same average answer have been worthy of 10 points then? I replay that moment often in my life as a teacher - when I am scoring kids' writing, and when I have conversations around rubrics and benchmarks with my colleagues. One of the things I most like about rubrics and benchmarks is that they keep us grounded when it comes to our "expectations" of students - because in the end, "expectations" aren't part of the formula. Jumping ahead to tomorrow's conversation, the place for expectations is in the coaching, not the judging. If Mr. Jordan was expecting a lengthier and more carefully-crafted response from me, well, that was information I really could have used BEFORE the social studies test. If a student fulfills the criteria for an assignment, she should earn the score that reflects her work. I am not being fair to her if I deflate her score because I feel - even know - she could have done better. By the same token, if a student does not fulfill the criteria for an assignment, I am not being fair if I inflate the score because I know he tried really hard! Neither of those scores is helpful to my students or their parents or the next teacher down the line, because they are skewed by my expectations - but that is an easy trap to fall into without the clarity that a rubric can bring to the table.