Supporting Teacher Metacognition about Formative Assessment in Online Writing Environments

• Published in: E-learning and digital media Vol. 10; no. 4; pp. 442 - 469
• Main Authors: Woodard, Rebecca, Magnifico, Alecia Marie, McCarthey, Sarah
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: London, England SAGE Publications 01.12.2013; Symposium Journals
• Subjects: Coding; Educational Practices; Educational Technology; Electronic Learning; Formative Evaluation; Grade 8; Language Usage; Metacognition; Online Courses; Peer Evaluation; Process Approach (Writing); Scoring Rubrics; Transcripts (Written Records); Writing Assignments; Writing Processes
• ISSN: 2042-7530; 2042-7530
• DOI: 10.2304/elea.2013.10.4.442

Rubrics have become popular tools for assessing student writing both in classroom and standardized testing environments. Rubric construction and efficacy, however, is a topic that has been largely sidestepped in the literature and in teacher professional development. Composing an effective rubric — particularly for instructional or formative contexts — is a complex task that requires teachers to think metacognitively about their goals for a writing assignment, identify the assignment's purpose, weight the importance of various textual features, and align these elements to analytic scores. In this article, the authors conduct a textual analysis of initiating texts (i.e. rubrics and assignments) that teachers designed for use with a Scholar writing and peer response assignment. They identify three types of mismatch among the assignments, assessments, and purposes for writing; discuss implications of these mismatches for student writing and learning; and, finally, suggest ways in which online e-learning environments like Scholar might be designed to better support teachers' metacognition around assessment construction.