Well the fun is over, it was a great two weeks with ya’ll but I guess now we have to get down to the nitty-gritty of our research. At least I feel infinitely better equipped to handle the rigors of the process. Must be these dog-days of summer, but in the short time since the end of the CSUWPAI I’ve already forgotten exactly how we’re supposed to be posting. Is it just to the main blog? Just to our own blog? Or should we do both. So, in an effort to make sure I’ve got all my bases covered (because Renee, like you, I’m a rule follower!) I’ve got two separate (yet equal) posts, here and on my own blog.
I’ve been trying to develop that elusive baseline rubric, the evaluative rubric NOT for grading purposes. My intent is to use this to garner enough information to establish whether or not my students’ writing has improved at the conclusion of my research project. Thanks in advance for taking a look – and I apologize for the length of this blog! Remember that I’m looking for an anticipated improvement in organization and details so that’s what I’m trying to quantify at this point. Students will be looking at art postcards. So, does the following outline what I’m looking for:
Organization
- Introductory paragraph addresses all major components of thesis that follows in the body of the paper (i.e. formal elements, content of the piece, factual and/or inferential information)
- Thesis paragraphs are in the same order as outlined in intro paragraph
- At least one paragraph addresses the formal elements
- At least one paragraph addresses the content of the piece
- At least one paragraph addresses the factual and/or inferential information about the piece
- Thesis paragraphs introduce a concept and build on the concept
- Each paragraph addresses a cohesive, complete component
- Closing paragraph re-addresses all major components of thesis and makes connections that pull them together
Details
- The analysis includes details about the artist, title of the piece, media, subject matter and additional information that could be found on the postcard (size, collection, etc.)
- The paragraph(s) addressing the formal elements include references to both the elements and principles of art
- The paragraph(s) addressing the formal elements relate the elements and principles to one another
- The paragraph relating to content relates at least one idea to a formal element of art
- The paragraph relating to content relates at least one idea to either factual or inferential information about the piece
1 comment:
I think this is a great start for your rubric. It focuses on organization and detail, which are both important elements of good writing--though certainly not the only elements, or even the most important elements of good writing, at least in my mind--but I know that those are the issues that you'd like to see your students improve.
I'm not used to the idea of calling body or supporting paragraphs "thesis paragraphs," because the word thesis describes an "idea or argument that needs to be or will be supported and justified" in the essay. I think that ideally, the paragraphs you are asking them to write will support the thesis. Hence, I would use the term "support" to describe the body paragraphs and ask the students to include their entire thesis in the introductory paragraph.
Are you planning on giving this rubric to the students first? We discussed this at the AI, and I'm not sure what you finally decided. If you do, I would watch out for the details section because it could turn into a checklist that students will use as a crutch and you'll end up with some pretty scattered papers as they artificially try to relate ideas to each other following the rubric rather than allowing a more organic movement and flow of ideas through the paper.
If it is a behind-the-scenes assessment tool I think that it's important that you model integration and cohesion in writing so that the students understand what you are looking for. It is not as easy as it sounds to relate ideas to one another in an organized, coherent way, particularly if you are organizing your paper into separate paragraphs which address the formal elements, content, and then factual elements in order.
That may not always be the best way to organize an essay, as an over-arching structure it creates a fairly mechanical feel, and the student's thesis and the artwork she or he chooses may or may not warrant that kind of approach.
Consider finding ways to make your rubric less prescriptive and more descriptive of the kind of writing you're looking for, particularly if it's an assessment tool and not supposed to be seen by the students as instructions or a guide that you want them to follow.
I think the key is that they need to see examples of good art scholars who are able to connect the formal elements, content, and factual information about a piece to create a coherent thesis about a work of art. By assessing such a work together, you could model the kind of writing that you are looking for and then perhaps they could even help in the process of creating a rubric.
The key to good organization, to me, is in a writer's coherence and in the cohesion of ideas in a piece. At the college level (and part of this is my thinking "out loud" about the college composition class I'm teaching next year) I think that there should be an expectation that the student's are able to create a structure that fits the particular subject matter that is being discussed in a logical progression of ideas.
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