SKKN APPLYING SELF ASSESSMENT RUBRICS TO IMPROVE 10TH GRADERS’ WRITING SKILL

NGHE AN DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING QUYNH LUU HIGH SCHOOL () TEACHING EXPERIENCE APPLYING SELF- ASSESSMENT RUBRICS TO IMPROVE 10TH GRADERS’ WRITING SKILL Teacher : Hoang Thi Hang School : Quynh Luu High School Group : Literature- English Subject : English School year : 2021 – 2022 Phone number : 0979219392 TABLE OF CONTENT PART A: INTRODUCTION 1 Rationale Objectives of the study Scope of the study Method of the study PART B: CONTENT CHAPTER 1: THEORETICAL AND PRACTICAL BACKGROUND 1.1 Theoretical background 1.1.1 Self- assessment 1.1.2 Self-Assessment in Writing Skill 1.1.3 What is a rubric? 1.1.4 Rubrics as Self-Assessment Tools in Language Classes 1.1.5 Rubrics as Self-Assessment Tools in Writing Lessons Practical background 1.2.1 The situation of applying self- assessment rubrics in teaching writing in Quynh Luu high school 1.2.2 Textbook and Writing materials CHAPTER 2: THE SOLUTIONS 2.1 Procedure of applying self- assessment rubrics in teaching writing for 10th graders 2.2 Samples of self- assessment rubrics in teaching writing for 10th graders 2.2.1 The Self- assessment rubric to grade a text 2.2.2 The Self- assessment rubric to grade a letter 11 2.2.3 The self- assessment rubric to grade a paragraph 13 2.3 Some sample lesson plans 15 2.4 Finding and Evaluation 31 PART C: CONCLUSION 33 REFERENCES 35 APPENDIX 36 LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS EFL : English as a Foreign Language MOET: Ministry Of Education and Training PART A: INTRODUCTION Rationale In these days, with its worldwide popularity, English has become a core subject in the high school curriculum in Vietnam and English writing skill has emerged as an indispensable one Nunan (2003) regards writing as a complex cognitive activity in which the writer is demanded to demonstrate control of a number of variables simultaneously at the sentence level that is made up of control of content, spelling, and letter formation and beyond the sentence structure as well as to integrate information into cohesive and coherent paragraph and text As a result, when it comes to writing, this seems to be the toughest for EFL learners to acquire Students encounter a variety of troubles due to their lack of background, grammar, vocabulary and the interference of the mother tongue When getting the scored writings, they only receive a little feedback from their teachers Upon closer reflection, I also realized that the students relied on teachers‟ comments on their work as the only source of the information for their writing skill development In fact, most teachers have difficulty in giving students feedback not only inside but also outside of EFL classes owing to various reasons, such as the large number of students in class that makes it time - consuming for them to so These obstacles prevent students from achieving the targeted goal of writing skill and making a very little progress on it Fortunately, by self-assessing, students themselves can be excellent sources of feedback, because they could reflect on the quality of their work, judge the degree to which their work reflects explicitly stated goals or criteria, and revise their work if necessary Self-assessment is defined as an alternative assessment where students can evaluate themselves or identify strengths and weaknesses in their own work It is regarded as the right educational trend when realizing the goals of student-centered approach, which focuses on the process of learning and autonomous learning Self-assessment aims at helping students to be independent learners, which is of great importance to foster lifelong language learning skills (Oscarson, 2009) That is one of the prominent general competencies in the General Education Program 2018 of MOET In fact, during the past decade, movements towards learner-centered language instruction as well as a renewed interest in the authenticity, interactive pedagogy, and the general impact of language assessments have progressively come together to create an increased awareness in expanding the role of the learner and test-taker in the teaching and learning process (Bachman, 2000) Self – assessment with the use of rubrics which has been growing in popularity in EFL classroom is proved to be an ultimate tool in students „writing skill Rubrics are often used to evaluate students‟ work but they can also teach When utilized as part of a formative and student-centered assessment, analytic rubrics have the potential to facilitate learners to develop a “vision of success” as well as “make dependable judgments about the quality of their own work” (Stiggins, 2001) In addition, it also helps students to identify strengths and weaknesses and learning needs (Johnson, Penny, & Gordon, 2000) By asking students to self – assessment, it is found that they become more interested in writing The students have opportunity to actively participate in assessing themselves, thus, their attitudes toward evaluation become more positive as well as they became more confident about their ability Therefore, it stands to reasons that rubrics can bring a variety of merits for English language learners Having been a high school teacher of English for nine years, I have been aware of the hurdles students and teachers face when it comes to writing skill Especially, during a school year which has been greatly influenced by Covid – 19 pandemics Flexible teaching and learning modalities have been implemented Most of the academic year, we had to teach online, which leaded to the increasing number of difficulties Those issues have inspired me to conduct the experience initiative entitled “Applying Self- Assessment Rubrics to Improve 10th graders‟ Writing Skill” with a view of improving students‟ writing performance To be honest, there are inevitable shortcomings and mistakes in my study in such limited time I am, therefore, glad to receive constructive comments from my colleagues so that it will be more perfect and applicable Objectives of the study The present study aims to : - investigate the situation of applying self-assessment rubrics in writing skill in Quynh Luu high school - help improve students‟ writing production by self-evaluating with the use of rubrics Scope of the study The study is limited to classes with 80 students of grade 10 at Quynh Luu high school One class (10A2) is the experimental class utilizing rubrics for selfassessment in writing lesson The other (10D6) is the control one taught by the conventional method Method of the study This study consists of qualitative and quantitative method The data collected is from a pretest-posttest design, a questionnaire conducted by EFL high school students and teachers at Quynh Luu high school Besides, observation is also employed PART B: CONTENT CHAPTER 1: THEORETICAL AND PRACTICAL BACKGROUND 1.1 Theoretical background 1.1.1 Self- assessment Self-assessment is defined as a process of formative evaluation during which students reflect on the quality of their work, judge the degree to which it reflects explicitly stated goals or criteria, and revise accordingly To foster learning is the prominent goal of this type of assessment because it gives timely feedback on pupils‟ comprehension and performance (Andrade & Cizek, 2010) It can be said that Self-assessment is an assessment where students can assess their self or identify strengths and weaknesses in their own work It is also to realize the goals of student-centered learning Self-assessment aims to help students to be independent learners Self-assessment is considered important to the development of lifelong language learning skills and the development of more comprehensive assessment practices 1.1.2 Self-Assessment in Writing Skill Self-assessment as a formative assessment process starts when the quality of work and learning are reflected and evaluated, followed by the judgment of reflection degree based on goals or criteria, as well as identifies strengths and weaknesses of writing before making revision if necessary Self – assessment can be used to effectively plan the writing outline and validate their arguments through the provided evidence by realizing the weaknesses of their writing in terms of missing or lacking elements Iraji, Enayat, and Momeni (2016) also claimed that self-assessment can be used as a learning tool to lower anxiety of students and improve their writing skills A number of theorists (e.g Farr and Tone, 1994; O'Malley and Pierce, 1996; Thomas & Barksdale-Ladd, 2000) have all argued that self-assessment can be an effective means of improving students‟ writing These authors contend that selfassessment promotes self-reflection, self-esteem and self-confidence which ultimately improve students‟ writing (El-Koumy, 2004) Other practitioners (e.g Andrade & Du, 2005; Cunningham and Cunningham, 1987; Kirszner and Mandell, 1989; Lebauer and Scarcella, 1992; Radecki and Swales, 1988; Ross et al., 1999) have expanded upon this research and have demonstrated that students can actually play a key role in assessing the final product of their writing They claim that this type of self-assessment helps students to master English writing conventions which can, in turn, enhance their writing They also claim that self-assessing the outcomes of writing helps students to evaluate the degree of attainment of the writing-program goals 1.1.3 What is a rubric? Nowadays, „rubric‟ is widely known and studied as an educational term A lot of studies about rubric have been carried out Therefore, there are a plenty of its definitions Popham (1997) states that rubrics are scoring schemes which ameliorate and instruct people in judging a variety of constructs such as quality of students‟ work, academic performance as well as educational resources (Moskal & Leydens, 2000; Porcello & Hsi, 2013; Rezaei & Lovorn, 2010) According to Andrade (2000) and Arter and Chappuis (2006), a rubric lists the scoring criteria and portrays all levels of quality A rubric is supposed to be specific by the elements of its structure, which lays down the essential information of the rubric Thus, rubrics have the potential to help students develop understanding and skills, as well as make dependable judgments about the quality of their own works beyond traditional testing (Andrade, Du, & Wang, 2008; Brown & Abeywickrama, 2010) Rubric is a systematic method to collect data regarding knowledge and skills as stated by Churches (2015) in his study Although educators tend to define the word „rubric‟ in slightly different ways, a commonly accepted definition is a document that articulates the expectations for an assignment by listing the criteria, or what counts, and describing levels of quality from excellent to poor (Andrade 2000) 1.1.4 Rubrics as Self-Assessment Tools in Language Classes Rubrics have grown in popularity as a means of communicating expectations for an assignment, providing focused feedback on works in progress, and grading final products (Andrade 2000; Jonsson and Svingby 2007; Moskal 2003; Popham 1997) Rubrics are often used to grade student work but they can also teach as well (Arter and McTighe 2001; Quinlan 2006; Spandel 2006; Stiggins 2001) Stiggins states that, when used as part of a formative, student-centered assessment, rubrics have the potential to facilitate students to enhance understanding and skill, as well as make dependable judgments about the quality of their own work 1.1.5 Rubrics as Self-Assessment Tools in Writing Lessons Writing is a progressive skill, so learners‟ practising writing, receiving feedback, and rewriting to develop and improve their skills are needed Rubrics are successfully utilized because they are developed to incorporate both mechanical and material understanding expectations to students prior to their writing assignments A number of rubrics are created to supply students with feedback to evaluate their strengths and downsides they need to strengthen; they assist in the development of students‟ cognitive and writing skills Along with setting relevant tasks, setting a clear topic and prompts, helping students to choose the appropriate rhetorical modes and giving students adequate time to complete the writing task, setting an appropriate scoring criteria and the need to attain valid and reliable scores are essential elements of a successful English writing program (Jacobs et al., 1981) Furthermore, rubrics also make it possible to evaluate components within written assignment, such as rhetorical structures, grammatical accuracy and the ability to stay on topic This is especially important for second language writers as the level of the various skills essential to writing can vary significantly from student to student In the writing classroom we are much more likely to see “varying levels of proficiency/skill in different aspects of the product (and) products can vary widely across genres” (Kroll, 1998) Because second language writers are more likely to show varying levels of performance on the different traits “if we not score for these traits and report the scores, much information is lost” (HampLyons, 1995) Rubrics make it easier for the teacher to record a score for each of these traits, or sub-traits, so that students are able to receive feedback on, and improve the areas that require attention Practical background 1.2.1 The situation of applying self- assessment rubrics in teaching writing in Quynh Luu high school A survey with questions was carried out to find out the perception of teachers towards self assessment with the use of rubrics in teaching writing First of all, I began with teachers‟ difficulties in correcting students „writing tasks The result was illustrated below Students’ limitation of vocabulary and grammatical structures The lack of students’ background knowledge of writing tasks The limited time Large classes Others Table : Teachers‟ difficulties in correcting students „writing tasks It is obvious that all of the teachers have positive attitude toward writing skill They know how important and beneficial writing skill is to their students However, all of them have difficulties correcting students‟ writing like their limitation of vocabulary and grammatical structures, or limited time In order to correct students‟ writing production, many techniques were employed The following table describes that in- class correction and feedback was mostly utilized (86%) The second is peer- editing (10%) while self- assessment and other alternative assessment accounted for the least with 2% respectively 100 80 60 40 20 In - class correction and feedback Self- assessment Peer- editing Other alternative assessment Table Descriptive results of the teachers‟ techniques to correct writing tasks Regarding the third questions, the data reveals that most of the teachers (90%) never make full use of self – assessment rubrics while some (10%) take advantage of this to improve students‟ writing performance Nevertheless, 95% teachers strongly agree that it is essential to implement self – assessment rubrics because of the merits they bring Only 5% of the teachers opine the opposite idea Always Usually Sometimes Seldom Never Table 3: Teacher‟s frequency of using self – assessment rubrics in teaching writing 80 70 60 50 40 30 20 10 Strongly disagree Disagree Neither disagree nor agree Agree Strongly agree Table 4: The necessity of utilizing self – assessment rubrics in teaching writing In short, the data analysis of the questionnaires at Quynh Luu High school has provided the situations of applying self- assessment rubrics in teaching writing skill Obviously, alternative assessment has been well incorporated into the classroom It is likely that the primary impediments to this process lie in the examination-oriented and teacher-centered learning context of Vietnam As a result, teachers have been accustomed to measurement-driven assessments such as standardized tests and may consider alternative assessment as a threat to their authority With a growing interest in learner-centered instruction in foreign language education, there has been a movement calling for a shift from traditional to alternative assessment Alternative methods of assessment are growing in popularity and have been promoted in classrooms There have been ongoing attempts to introduce alternative or formative assessment in Vietnam MOET emphasized the nationwide implementation of various types of alternative assessments in English classrooms Self- assessment rubrics are proved as an ultimate tool in teaching writing 1.2.2 Textbook and Writing materials The writing materials used in the study consisted of writing lessons from new English Textbook 10 (learner-centered and communicative approach with themebased teaching) published by Education Publishing House and Pearson In the textbook, there are 10 units with diverse topics related to themes: Our lives, Our society, Our environment, Our future Five sections were included in one unit namely: Getting started, Language, Skills, Communication and Culture, Looking back and Project However, due to the negative impacts of the Covid 19 pandemic, some sections, such as, Communication and Culture, Looking back and Project have been omitted The study was conducted when the participants were taught from writing lesson of unit to that of unit Therefore, I found that it matched with the objectives of the learning program and students‟ levels of proficiency The material consisted of different writing tasks such as letter writing, writing a paragraph and writing a text Unit Content Unit Write a paragraph about how people in your family share housework Unit Write a letter about what to eat and not to eat Unit Write a biography Unit Write a letter of application Unit Write a paragraph about the benefits of an invention Unit Write a text about the disadvantages of being a working mother Unit Write a text about some typical characteristics of the Vietnamese people Unit Write a text about the advantages of using electronic devices in learning Unit Write a text about environmental problems and giving some practical advice on how to preserve the environment Activity - Ask students to read a paragraph about disadvantages of using electronic devices in learning Underline the words or phrases the writer uses to link the ideas First of all, Second, Last but not least, In conclusion, - Help students to analyze the structure of a paragraph step by step - If necessary, explain to students - Remind them of the structure of a short text that starts with a topic sentence, followed by supporting ideas 1,2,3 and ends with a concluding sentence PARAGRAPH OUTLINE Introduction: I support / not support…… Body: support the topic Supporting idea and further explanation Supporting idea and further explanation Supporting idea and further explanation Cues: First of all/ secondly/ thirdly/ Finally/ Last but not least, S + V First/ Next/ Last, S + V Conclusion: summary the topic In conclusion/ In short/To sum up Activity 4: - Have students read the sentences in Task again and use them to write a short text the advantages of electronic devices in learning - Tell sts to work in groups to write a short text about the advantages of electronic devices as learning tools Activity - Deliver self-assessment rubrics to grade a text and self-assessment sheets to students and instruct SS to self-evaluate Students still work in groups - Walk around and offer help if necessary 29 - Choose one or two paragraphs and their self-assessment sheets to show on the screen, tell the group leader to explain with the whole class and then ask the whole class to give comments and corrections - Get students' answers and comments - Get some outputs to highlight and comment and correct the possible mistakes of students (If time is available, evaluation can be done in class If not, this can be assigned as part of the homework) III Wrap-up & Assignments - Ask students to answer the following questions: 1.What did you learn from the lesson today? (Recognize the disadvantages and the advantages of using electronic devices in learning) 2.What are the core values of the lesson? (Students should take advantage of personal electronic devices to help them learn effectively and avoid the bad effects on their learning ) Here are some pictures taken from the lesson 30 31 2.4 Finding and Evaluation Before the study began, all subjects ( class 10A2 and 10D6) were tested their writing skill I chose the writing task of Unit as a pre – test Students were asked to write a paragraph about how people in their family share housework I then graded them and used the grades as pre-test results The students of class 10A2 were purposefully assigned as the experimental group while class 10D6 was a control group In the experimental group, each student was asked to independently assess his own writing after each session I also instructed them to self-assess their pre-test At first, the students showed that they were unable and afraid of selfevaluation Besides, they were not serious and began complaining and explaining that they were not used to it Before the beginning of each writing lesson, the teacher urged the students to use the rubric and they followed the teacher's instructions until they got used to using it Gradually, they changed from reluctant to better writers They could confidently self- assess their own writing products In the control group, students were taught with the same traditional method without self- assessing their own writing The study was conducted in a period of six months (from Unit to Unit 8) At the end of this period, all subjects were tested on the writing skill I chose the writing task of Unit as the post test The results of pre-test and post – test were illustrated as follow: 5.76 4.95 4.45 4.63 Pre-test Post-test Control Group Experimental Group Figure: Pre-test and post-test mean scores by the control and experimental groups It can be seen from the chart, there were no significant differences between the two groups prior to the inception of the innovation because the mean score of the pre-test results for both groups was 4.45 and 4.63 respectively However, the difference is significant in that of the post-test In the post-test, the mean score for the control group is 4.63 compared with 5.76 for the experimental group This shows the improvement in students‟ writing performance after applying self- assessment with the use of rubrics From the results above, it 32 can be inferred that the innovation with self-evaluation rubrics utilized in a writing lessons for 10th graders seemed to ameliorate the writing skill in this class The table below illustrated the remarkable improvements in students‟ ability in their writing achievement after implementing self- assessment with the use of rubrics Level Level Level ( Score: under 7) ( Score: 7-> under 9) ( Score: 9-> 10) No % No % No % No % Pre-test 18 45% 16 40% 15% 0% Post-test 20% 22 55% 20% 5% Level Results of tests Table: Pre-test and post-test results by experimental group PART C: CONCLUSION With the respect to the fact that many Vietnamese high school students are passive learners primarily concerned with getting good marks, rubric-referenced self-assessment can be implemented as an ultimate tool to foster 10th grade students‟ writing skill Besides, along with enhancing students‟ learning, they are proved to effectively help them to become a “self regulated learners”, which supports the educational goal of student- centred approach Since rubric-referenced selfassessment concerns both reflection and evaluation of one‟s work, it helps students to accurately locate their own strengths and weaknesses and allows them to think clearly about what they need to to accomplish their goals, enhancing their motivation and self-efficacy so as to improve learning overall Within this process, students can develop a sense of autonomy and responsibility in their learning; consequently, they may become independent learners in control of their own learning, which is one of the prominent general competencies in the General Education Program 2018 of MOET 33 However, using rubrics for self-evaluation is not really easy for all students due to their various level of proficiency I, therefore, attempt to make some following pedagogical suggestions To begin with, teachers should not be the only one creating rubrics Therefore, after a considerable amount of time getting used to using teacherdesigned rubrics to assess some products, students should be encouraged to create their own version of rubrics Nevertheless, it is advisable that students should know the expectations from their teachers prior to their rubric design In fact, assessment has never been an easy task even for teachers For this reason, teachers should bear in mind that students will need a great deal of assistance when it comes to self-assessment Indeed, rubrics should be widely used in teaching writing It is clear that learners need frequent practice of using rubrics when writing so that they can take on the rubric criteria and as such they can get better writing performance Besides, students should be promoted to identify the strengths and weaknesses in their own and peers‟ writing work, recognize the reasons for these weaknesses, and have discussions about possible improvements with their peers and their teachers This will allow students to flourish a more visible individual voice in their writing attempt Moreover, through responses to the feedback regarding self-assessment, teachers may understand students‟ affective states, use of strategies, and goals Ultimately, this facilitates teacher-student interaction, while also alleviating some of the burden of assessment for teachers In short, the study suggests the clear feasibility of implementing selfassessment in high school English classrooms: with proper preparation, implementing rubric-references self-assessment can be a good alternative to traditional assessments, fostering self-regulated learning and a student-centered learning context and enhancing students‟ overall English learning 34 REFERENCES  Andrade, H L., & Cizek, G J (2010) Handbook of formative assessment Routledge https://doi.org/10.4324/9780203874851  Andrade, H., Du, Y., & Mycek, K (2010) Rubric-referenced self-assessment and middle school students‟ writing Assessment in Education, 17(2), 199-214  Arter, J., & McTighe, J (2002) Scoring rubrics in the classroom: Using performance criteria for assessing and improving student performance California: Corwin Press  Boston (Ed.), Understanding scoring rubrics: A guide for teachers (pp 5-13) College Park, MD: University of Maryland Press  Busching, B (1998) Grading inquiry projects New Directions for Teaching and Learning, 74(2), 89-96  Carver, C S., & Scheier, M F (1981) Attention and self-regulation: A control-theory approach to human behavior New York: Springer Science & Business Media  Dawson, P (2017) Assessment rubrics: Towards clearer and more replicable design, research and practice Assessment and Evaluation in Higher Education, 42(3), 347-360 https://doi.org/10.1080/02602938.2015.1111294  Johnson, R L., Penny, J., & Gordon, B (2000) The relation between score resolution methods and interrater reliability: An empirical study of an analytic scoring rubric Applied Measurement in Education, 13(2), 121-138  Hoang Van Van, Hoang Thi Xuan Hoa (2021) Tiếng Anh 10 NXB Giao Duc  Stiggins, R J (2001) Student-involved classroom assessment (3rd ed.) Upper Saddle River, NJ: Merrill/Prentice-Hall  Perlman, C C (2002) An introduction to performance assessment scoring rubrics In Popham, W J (1997) What‟s wrong and what‟s right with rubrics Educational Leadership http://skidmore.edu/assessment/handbook/Popham_1997_Whats-Wrong_andWhats-Right_With-Rubrics.pdf  Zimmerman, B J., & Schunk, D H (2004) Self-regulating intellectual processes and outcomes: A social cognitive perspective In D Y Dai & R J Sternberg (Eds.), Motivation, emotion, and cognition: Integrative perspectives on intellectual functioning and development (p 323-349) New York: Routledge 35 APPENDIX APPENDIX QUESTIONNAIRE FOR TEACHERS This survey questionnaire is intended for the study “APPLYING SELF- ASSESSMENT RUBRICS TO IMPROVE 10TH GRADERS’ WRITING SKILL” We are grateful for your goodwill and cooperation in truthfully completing the questionnaire, which hopefully takes you just little time Please be assured that the information you provide will be treated in the strictest confidence Thank you very much! Please tick or write answer where necessary What problems you face when correcting students' writing tasks? A Students‟ limitation of vocabulary and grammatical structures B The lack of students‟ background knowledge of writing tasks C The limited time D Large classes E Others (please specify) What techniques you usually use to correct students' writing tasks? A students' self-assessment B peer editing C teacher‟s quick correction D alternative assessment techniques How often you use self- assessment rubrics to correct students' writing tasks? A Always B Usually C Sometimes D Seldom E Never 36 Do you think that it is useful to use self- assessment rubrics in writing lesson? A Strongly disagree B Disagree C Neither disagree nor agree D Agree E Strongly agree 37 APPENDIX SELF – ASSESSMENT SHEET 38 APPENDIX Some writing products of the experimental class (10A2) 39 40 41 APPENDIX Some writing products of the control class (10D6) 42 43 ... 1.1.1 Self- assessment 1.1.2 Self- Assessment in Writing Skill 1.1.3 What is a rubric? 1.1.4 Rubrics as Self- Assessment Tools in Language Classes 1.1.5 Rubrics. .. assessment rubrics in teaching writing for 10th graders 2.2.1 The Self- assessment rubric to grade a text 2.2.2 The Self- assessment rubric to grade a letter 11 2.2.3 The self- assessment. .. Self- Assessment Tools in Writing Lessons Writing is a progressive skill, so learners‟ practising writing, receiving feedback, and rewriting to develop and improve their skills are needed Rubrics