Criteria for Excellence in Reading

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.

Comprehension

• You identify the form and genre of a text.
• You use reading strategies that suit the material (highlighting, underlining, taking notes, reading aloud, visualizing).
• You recognize the organizational elements of a text (table of contents, index; acts, scenes, chapters; etc.).
• You understand the sequence of a text (beginning, middle, end; foreshadowing; flashbacks; etc.)
• You infer meanings of words from their context and look them up as needed.
• You can summarize or restate the main ideas or plot of a text.

Interpretation

• You generate questions about the text.
• You identify the author’s purpose and point of view.
• You distinguish fact from opinion.
• You analyze the positions taken in a text and the evidence offered in their support.
• You compare and contrast different texts.
• You make connections within and among texts.
• You make connections between the text and your own experience.
• You identify the historical and social context of a text.
• You evaluate writing strategies and elements of the author’s craft.
• You take a point of view about the text and support it with evidence.

Process

• You skim or scan a text to choose your reading strategies.
• You identify and seek help with problems you have in reading.
• You use a reading log or journal to explore ideas.
• You discuss what you read with other readers.

 

HOLISTIC RUBRIC FOR READING, DIVISION 1

Just Beginning

• You have not yet looked carefully at the text or decided on a reading strategy to approach it.
• You have read very little of the required text.
• You have not yet found a way to understand the language and main ideas of the text, or to identify its organization.
• You have not yet generated questions or a point of view about the text.
• You do not yet connect your reading to other texts, to your own experience, or to its historical and social context.
• You have not yet identified the author’s purpose and strategies, or used examples to evaluate how well the text works.
• You have not yet explored the ideas of the text in a journal or in discussion with other readers.

Approaches Division 1 Standards

• You need to approach the text with more effective reading strategies.
• You have read only part of the required text.
• You understand some of the language and main ideas of the text, and can partly identify how it is organized.
• You have difficulty using what you read to generate questions and a point of view about the text.
• You have difficulty connecting your reading to other texts, to your own experience, or to its historical and social context.
• You show limited awareness of the author’s purpose and strategies and you have not come up with good examples to evaluate how well the text works.
• You have made some effort to explore the ideas of the text in a journal or in discussion with other readers.

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

• You know what kind of text you are reading and choose reading strategies that work for it.
• You read all of the required text.
• You show few errors in understanding the language and main ideas of the text, and can generally identify how it is organized.
• You draw on what you read to generate questions and a point of view about the text.
• You connect your reading to other texts, to your own experience, or to its historical and social context.
• You show awareness of the purpose and strategies of the text and can use examples to evaluate their effectiveness.
• You explore the ideas of the text in a journal or in discussion with other readers.

Exceeds Division 1 Standards ("Yes!")

• You know what kind of text you are reading and use a variety of effective reading strategies to approach it.
• You have read all of the required text and then gone on to read further in it or related texts.
• You show a sophisticated understanding of the language and main ideas of the text, and of how it is organized.
• You draw on what you read to generate insightful questions about the text and to develop a complex or original point of view supported with rich, relevant, and accurate details.
• You connect your reading in original or varied ways to other texts, to your own experience, or to its historical and social context.
• You show a sophisticated understanding of the purpose and strategies of the text and can use a variety of examples to evaluate their effectiveness.
• You explore the ideas of the text especially thoughtfully in a journal or in discussion with other readers.

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