Criteria for Excellence in Writing

Criteria for Excellence remain the same across Division levels
In each Division students strive for understanding progressively more complex concepts and skills
with progressively more initiative, autonomy, and awareness.

A Holistic Rubric for Division 1 (7th and 8th grade level work)
appears  following the Criteria for Excellence.
Division 2 and Division 3 rubrics are created for each assignment using the Criteria for Excellence as guidelines.

Purpose
• You write for a specific audience.
• You know your point and make it clear.
• Your form suits your purpose.

Content
• You bring your topic down to a manageable size.
• You choose which ideas to develop and which to leave out.
• You support your ideas with enough details and evidence.
• Your evidence is accurate and you give its source when needed.

Organization
• You put your ideas in a logical order or one that moves the piece forward.
• You capture the reader’s interest from the beginning.
• You use transitions to connect ideas.
• You bring the piece to an effective close.

Style
• Your tone suits your purpose.
• Your techniques suit your purpose.
• Your voice sounds natural, honest, and direct.
• Your words call up pictures. You show rather than tell.
• You choose clear and precise words.
• You choose words for sound as well as sense.
• You vary the rhythm and pace of your sentences to suit your purpose.
• You omit needless words.

Conventions
• You use correct spelling, capitalization, and punctuation.
• You use correct grammar and sentence structure.
• If you break conventions you do so with a purpose.

Process
• You use pre-writing to explore ideas.
• You use drafts to discover and shape ideas.
• You get feedback from a variety of readers.
• You revise as many times as necessary to address what doesn’t work.
• You reflect on your process and your work.

 

HOLISTIC RUBRIC FOR WRITING, DIVISION 1

Just Beginning

• You show limited awareness of your purpose and/or audience.
• You do not define or develop your ideas; details are insufficient, unrelated, and/or inaccurate.
• The piece shows random and/or weak organization.
• The style gets in the way of your purpose; your language is incorrect and/or ineffective.
• Errors in your sentence and paragraph structure, grammar, spelling, capitalization, and punctuation are out of proportion to the length and complexity of the piece, and they interfere with communication.
• You show no evidence of pre-writing and/or revising the work in response to feedback from readers, and/or of reflecting on your own work.

Approaches Division 1 Standards

• You show some evidence of communicating with an audience for a specific purpose.
• You present ideas but do not focus them or develop them with enough relevant and accurate details.
• Your piece shows some problems of organization as it progresses from beginning to end.
• The style does not work toward your purpose; your language is unclear and/or ineffective.
• You make some errors in sentence and paragraph structure, grammar, spelling, capitalization, and punctuation, but they do not interfere with communication.
• You show some evidence of pre-writing and/or revising the work in response to feedback from readers, and of reflecting on your own work.

Meets Division 1 Standards ("Yes, and . . . " or "Yes, but . . .")

• You communicate with an audience for a specific purpose.
• You present your ideas and develop them with enough relevant and accurate details, citing sources where necessary.
• Your piece progresses in an organized way from beginning to end.
• The style works toward your purpose; your language is clear and effective.
• You make few errors in sentence and paragraph structure, grammar, spelling, capitalization, and punctuation relative to the length and complexity of the piece.
• You have used pre-writing and show successive drafts of the work in response to feedback from readers; you reflect on your own work.

Exceeds Division 1 Standards ("Yes!")

• You show strong awareness of your audience and purpose.
• Your ideas show unusual focus, insight, complexity, originality, and/or creativity, and you develop and support them with rich, engaging, relevant, and accurate details, citing sources where necessary.
• You use careful and/or subtle organizing techniques to bring the piece from beginning to end.
• The style works toward your purpose in a sophisticated manner; your language is rich, precise and clear.
• You show good control of sentence and paragraph structure, grammar, spelling, capitalization, and punctuation.
• Your pre-writing and successive drafts show especially thoughtful responsiveness to reader feedback and your own reflective process.

Division 2 and Division 3 rubrics are created for each assignment using the Criteria for Excellence as guidelines.