Teaching · Special Education

A rubric that fits the piece, and a next step.

Pick the grade band and the kind of writing; the rubric builds itself. Score the piece trait by trait and the page names the weakest trait and what the level above looks like.

Build a rubricWhat you get
$12one-time · every device you sign in on
Buy · $12

Included with Caveat Classroom and Whole-school licenses. Or get it in the Special Education toolkit, $99 for 138 items.

The rubric builder

One scored piece per record. The example student and piece are made up.

Loading the form. If nothing appears, turn on JavaScript.

What you get

Teaching · Special EducationAlso for Teaching · For Tutors$12 · included with Classroom and Whole-school licenses

What you finish with
A printed rubric for the band and kind of writing, with one piece scored on it: totals, the weakest trait, the level above as a goal starter and the sample’s fluency.
Who it is for
Special education teachers, interventionists, classroom teachers and tutors who score student writing.
Format
Browser rubric builder and scoring record. One saved record per piece; printed with its rubric and score or as a blank form; CSV; export and import a file.
Access
$12 one-time, yours on every device you sign in on; the tool opens once you are signed in with it. Included with Caveat Classroom and Whole-school licenses. Also in the Special Education toolkit ($99) and the Teaching Suite pass ($199), and 1 more bundle. Everything you type stays in this browser; nothing is sent to Caveat.
Where it lives
The Special Education space in Caveat Teaching; also listed in the For Tutors space (tutors scoring a student’s writing).
Support
Questions about an order, access or a correction: team@caveatacademic.com.
4321one trait at a time, four clear levels
Drawn for this page. An analytic rubric scores each trait on its own, so the next step points at one thing to teach.

How to use it

  1. Pick the band and kind of writing before you read the piece.
  2. Score each trait on its own; use not scored for traits the task did not ask for.
  3. Count words and minutes; count correct writing sequences if you track them.
  4. Turn the line one level up into a goal in your own words.
  5. Score later pieces on the same rubric to see growth.

Build a rubric

How the rubric works

Trait by trait, not one score

A single overall score hides where a writer is stuck. Six traits scored separately show whether the next step is ideas, organization, development, sentences, conventions or the handwriting itself.

Fluency beside quality

Total words written and correct writing sequences are quick counts used to watch growth in writing. They sit beside the rubric; they do not replace it.

What it is not

The rubric is written for this page and is not normed. Compare a student with their own earlier pieces, scored the same way.

Sources

  1. National Governors Association and Council of Chief State School Officers. Common Core State Standards for English Language Arts, Writing standards 1 to 4, 2010 (the genres and grade-band expectations the descriptors follow).
  2. Graham, S., Bollinger, A., Booth Olson, C. and others. Teaching Elementary School Students to Be Effective Writers. Institute of Education Sciences practice guide NCEE 2012-4058.
  3. Videen, J., Deno, S. L. and Marston, D. Correct Word Sequences: A Valid Indicator of Proficiency in Written Expression. University of Minnesota Institute for Research on Learning Disabilities, research report 84, 1982.
  4. Brookhart, S. M. How to Create and Use Rubrics for Formative Assessment and Grading. ASCD, 2013.

The example student and piece are made up. The rubric is not a normed scale. Support: team@caveatacademic.com.