Dr. Paulson modified the WSU rubric to grade five consecutive writing assignments/take-home essay tests in her ATH 305, Peoples and Cultures of Latin America, course.  For the first essay, she provided the list of seven criteria to guide student work, but did not use the rubric to grade the essays.  After returning the graded essays, she went over the criteria in class, using examples from student essays to explain how each criterion could be fulfilled.  All subsequent essays were graded using the rubric.  After the second assignment, she went over the rubric in class making sure that the students understood the meaning of all the criteria.  She also let the students make suggestions for modifying the rubric.  She found significant differences in performance on the various criteria and was able to work on with individual students on how they might improve.

Rubric

Paulson Rubric