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writing assignment

How to Create Your Own Grading Rubric for High School (Printable)

January 31, 2017 by Jenna

Grading Rubric

Grading a high school writing project can be more than a little confusing. Outside of simple grammar problems, there are a lot of different things to look for in an essay. A grading rubric is an invaluable assessment tool that gives you objective standards to assess your child’s writing. Teacher’s editions for BJU Press writing and grammar textbooks do provide general rubrics for all high school writing projects, but you may have other more specific goals for your student’s writing, such as

  • strong verb usage,
  • greater sentence variety,
  • natural sentence flow, and
  • avoiding passive voice.

Your child might benefit from a rubric specifically designed for him that focuses on what he struggles with in his writing. Being able to create your own grading rubric gives you control over what is emphasized in each assignment.

For example, your ninth-grade student has difficulty with sentence variety even though he has a good vocabulary. You’d like him to use his personal experience essay in Writing & Grammar 9 to practice before he writes his research essay, but the suggested rubric is designed to evenly assess a variety of different concepts, including sentence variety. You would like to change the rubric so that sentence variety is worth more points. Though you could switch out a few categories, you’d prefer to use this assignment to emphasize only a few ideas.

Printable Rubric

How do you create your own rubric so that you can focus specifically on the few ideas your child struggles with?

Creating a Grading Rubric

Rubrics follow one simple rule: the more general the rubric, the more subjective the grading will be. But the opposite is also true: the more specific and detailed your rubric, the more objective and straightforward the grading will be.

While it may seem easier (and faster) to make a grading rubric with three categories worth seven points each for a twenty-one point assignment, you might get stuck if you try to grade with that rubric alone.

You can get a little bit further by separating the number of points and assigning them to a rating. An excellent paper might get seven points, while an average paper might get four or five.

Download these grading rubric templates for ideas on how you might make your rubric more specific and detailed.

But how can you decide what makes an excellent paper excellent? Adding descriptions to the values of each category that separate good from excellent turns subjective grading into objective grading. Additionally, the descriptions will give you something to point to if your child questions his grade, and they give your child something to aim for as he’s writing. If he keeps in mind what you’ve described as excellent as he’s completing the project, he’s more likely to achieve it.

So for your ninth-grade student, you could lay out your rubric like this:

Alternate Rubric sample

This sample rubric is a customized version of the same rubrics you’ll find in all Writing & Grammar courses. See more ninth-grade writing assignments and their rubrics in the Writing & Grammar 9 Teacher’s Edition.

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Filed Under: Successful Learning Tagged With: homeschool, homeschool materials, language arts, Rubrics, writing assignment

Remembrance in Action: A Memorial Day Project

May 24, 2016 by Guest Writer

American flag

Memorial Day blends sadness with gratitude as we remember those who died in the service of our country. Unlike Veterans’ Day, which honors the soldiers who served and returned, Memorial Day recognizes those who gave up their lives fighting for freedom. Keeping Veterans’ Day and Memorial Day straight is difficult for kids, but doing activities and writing about the day will help them understand its meaning.

Step 1. Adopt a Soldier

About a week before Memorial Day, choose a soldier to remember. Perhaps there is someone in your family who gave his or her life while serving in the armed forces, or perhaps you know of a family friend or a neighbor who lost a loved one in war. If possible, choose someone whose grave is in your area, so that you and your children can visit briefly as part of your Memorial Day project.

Step 2. Do Some Research

Once you have chosen a soldier to remember, it’s time to do some research about him or her. The individual’s birth date, date of death, hometown, place of service, and other details are all helpful pieces of information that you can find out online or from the soldier’s family members. Learning a little bit about the soldier will make him more real to your children and deepen the meaning of his sacrifice. While they research, kids can take notes using this graphic organizer.

Step 3. Write About It

Younger children can write a few sentences about what they have learned, in the form of a short narrative or a timeline. Visual learners may enjoy drawing some illustrations to go with the written part. Older kids can turn their research into an essay about Memorial Day or the price of freedom; or they could design a timeline with information and illustrations to celebrate the soldier’s life. Posting photos of the project on Facebook, gifting the illustrations to the soldier’s living relatives, or reading the essay aloud to a group of fellow homeschoolers are just a few ways that your children can share their projects.

Step 4. Make a Stars and Stripes Wreath

To adorn your soldier’s grave on Memorial Day, you and your kids can make a red, white, and blue wreath reminiscent of the American flag. You’ll need the following supplies:

  • Red, white, and blue bandanas from a dollar store or thrift shop
  • A wreath form from a craft store
  • Twist ties
  • White felt
  • A hot-glue gun

Wrap blue bandanas around the left side of the wreath, securing them with twist ties and leaving the ends free. Once you have done about half of the wreath, wrap the remaining portion in alternating red and white bandanas. Cut a couple dozen five-pointed stars from the white felt and hot-glue them onto the blue bandanas.

Step 5. Decorate a Soldier’s Grave

On Memorial Day, take the kids to visit their soldier’s grave. Check with the cemetery to make sure it’s okay for you to leave the wreath at the grave to honor the soldier’s memory.

What other activities have you done to teach your kids the importance of Memorial Day? Share them with me in a comment.

• • • • •

Rebecca is a work-at-home freelance writer, novelist, wife, and the mom of two bright-eyed little ones. She credits her success in writing and her love of books to her own mom, who homeschooled three kids from pre-K through high school.

Filed Under: Successful Learning Tagged With: activity, family, history, homeschool, language arts, Memorial Day, Memorial Day project, writing assignment

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