Scoring School-Wide Writing Prompts

Many staffs monitor the writing development and growth of students through the administration of school-wide writing prompts. When hundreds of writing samples are collected, the next step is for them to be scored with a common writing rubric. When teachers are asked to score writing samples without any training, this can be a frustration for all. And even after some rubric training, teachers need opportunities to practice scoring to increase consistency and reliability. One way to conduct practice-scoring sessions is to utilize the Blind Scoring method within a small group or team. Here’s how it works:

1. Have each teacher bring his stack of writing samples collected and a copy of the rubric.
2. Have a teacher start by reading a writing sample OUT LOUD to the small group. (Don’t let the teacher tell anything about the writer or even whether the teacher had already read or scored this sample. Don’t let this individual sway the listening teachers.)
3. As the one teacher is reading the piece aloud, the other teachers are all listening to the piece. They might choose to make notes onto sticky notes/scratch paper while listening. They might choose to study the rubric while listening. However the time is used, they are listening to the writing.
4. After the teacher finishes reading, then the listening teachers DO NOT SAY A WORD! Each takes a moment to individually settle on a single score. Then, going around the circle have the listening teachers reveal their scores one-by-one.
5. Discuss if necessary. Encourage teachers to make notes on their rubrics to clarify understanding.
6. Continue this process through many more writing samples. Research shows that it takes about 30 papers before a scoring team achieves consistency and reliability. So, the more practice time you have, the stronger you will get.

As easy as it is for teachers to slip out of Blind Scoring and just start commenting and discussing the piece as it’s being read, I wouldn’t recommend it. Stay in formal, blind-scoring mode. This process is referred to as "blind" because each teacher commits to a score without the influence of the others. Otherwise, they always need the affirmation of their colleagues and teachers don’t ever build self-confidence in their own scoring. A second by-product of talking when scoring is often “loudest voice wins.” Teachers will not argue against the leading voice in the group, and that is not a way to work on building scoring consistency.