history essay rubric middle school

• Online Courses

Middle School Writing Rubrics

In my book Blended Learning in Grades 4-12 , I shared the following middle school writing rubrics with my readers. Unfortunately, the short links I provided in my book have timed out, so I wanted to share these on my blog so any middle school teachers interested in using them have access! Feel free to make a copy and adjust as needed.

bit.ly/6-8ArgumentativeWritingRubric

bit.ly/6-8InformativeWritingRubric

bit.ly/6-8NarrativeWritingRubric

I will be posting the high school writing rubrics as soon as I can get them reformatted in a shareable version. If you have rubrics you use, love, and are willing to share, I’d love to crowdsource rubrics here!

45 Responses

Thank you for this wonderful resource! I love getting the emails from your site.

What are your thoughts on putting the high score description in the 2nd column next to the criteria? Students’ eyes are naturally drawn to the columns in order of left to right, so putting the high scoring description makes it the first thing they look at. It sets the tone for them, as if to say, “Do this! This is the best!”

Thank you again for providing this rubric. The descriptions and criteria are very well-written.

You are absolutely welcome to edit and rework them! My co-teacher prefers rubrics that start with 4 on the left side for those exact reasons. Mentally, it works better for me this way. That said, they are easy to copy and change!

Thanks so much!

[…] Middle School Writing Rubrics | […]

Thank you so much for sharing such a valuable resource!

Hello, are the high school rubrics available on the website, or in the book?

They are in the book, Carly. They are also so similar to the middle school rubrics that I did not want to publish a separate post for them.

Dear Ms Tucker

I was browsing and came across you rubrics for students writing. I read them and immediately fall in love with the simplicity of their structure. Thanks for making these resource available, easing research time.

I deem it a pleasure to be able to use them for my assessment.

You’re welcome, Emileta!

I’m glad these will save you time!

These are awesome rubrics! Thank you so much for sharing! They are a great resource.

Any ideas for a poetry rubric. I hate “grading” poetry. I truly believe students should have absolute freedom, but Texas TEKS say otherwise…..so…..

I so appreciate the clarity and ease of understanding these rubrics provide!!

I tend to agree with you. However, if you are expected to assess poetry, I’d start with the language in the TEKs and work backward. What do the TEKs want you to assess when it comes to poetry? Figurative language, sensory details, thematic progression? I’d isolate each “skill” or element of poetry they want you to assess then use those as your criteria and describe what that skill or element looks like in each stage–beginner, developing, proficient, mastery.

Thank you so much for sharing your rubrics with teachers! Extremely helpful and greatly appreciated.

You’re so welcome, Vanessa!

Take care. Catlin

Thank you for sharing your rubrics.

Thank you so much for sharing the rubrics. I use them in class for students’ projects.

Thank you so much for this lovely set up! It has helped a lot of new teachers!

Words can not describe how grateful I am.

Thank you so much! I am always having trouble teaching language art since I feel much comfortable with numbers..

You’re welcome, Helen! Happy to help 😊

Thank you for this very helpful resources, appreciated it!

You’re welcome, Shiela!

Thank you so much for this resource! This is the best rubric I’ve seen for middle school writing!

Thank you, Anna!

Thank you so much for sharing this wonderful resource!!! You are amazing!!!

You’re welcome, Michelle! So glad these are useful. 😊

Thank you so much for providing these! I’m “Yearbook Teacher” and these are wonderful since I have no clue how to grade written work (I normally teach a CTE course but with virtual/hybrid staff is spread thin.

Nick Pascual

You’re welcome, Nicolas! I’m so glad these are useful 😊

It appears 28 possible points can be earned……the sum of points earned would be at what grade level…..for example, if a student earned all 4’s on the Argumentative Writing Rubric what grade level would his writing rank…….or are their ranges for the sum of points……I would prefer to have a grade level…..

Hi MaryIsabel,

I assess on a 4 point mastery scale, so the final score calculates an average then that number 1, 2, 3, 4 is inserted into the grade book (if you have a mastery-based grade book option). Otherwise, you will need to convert your number on a scale.

Thank you. You are so kind. God bless you.

You’re welcome, Jennifer!

I am unable to open the rubrics. Are they still available for teacher to access?

Hi Jennifer,

The short links are below each image of the rubric, and they force you to make a copy. You’ll need to be logged into your Gmail account so your copies save in your Google Drive.

These are excellent! Thank you for sharing Dr. Tucker!

You’re welcome, Laura!

Life saver! Thank you for sharing!

You’re welcome, Carolyn!

Thank you so much for sharing these rubrics! I can’t say anything that hasn’t already been mentioned in the posts above. Love the idea of creating a “rubric bank” available to all who may need it.

You are very welcome, Carolina! I’m thrilled they are useful.

Good Evening , Ms. Tucker

Have you published a persuasive writing rubric?

Hi Yolanda,

I do not have persuasive rubrics. I focused on argumentative writing instead.

THIS IS A LIFESAVER!! THANK YOU SO VERY MUCH!!!!

You’re very welcome, Tammy! 😊

WOW! I’m so loving these… as we are developing our standards for our program, this gives us a total jump start! By chance, do you have the High School writing rubrics?

My high school versions are very similar to these. Here is an example: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1TLkY6Yt-AdXdwCwvXJ7YAqzsoYZmT6G3QiT_yefAHV8/edit

Good luck with your rubrics! AI can be a very helpful resources when generating rubrics with the skill descriptions!

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• Keynote Speaking

© 2023 Dr. Catlin Tucker

Essay Rubric

About this printout

This rubric delineates specific expectations about an essay assignment to students and provides a means of assessing completed student essays.

Teaching with this printout

More ideas to try.

Grading rubrics can be of great benefit to both you and your students. For you, a rubric saves time and decreases subjectivity. Specific criteria are explicitly stated, facilitating the grading process and increasing your objectivity. For students, the use of grading rubrics helps them to meet or exceed expectations, to view the grading process as being “fair,” and to set goals for future learning. In order to help your students meet or exceed expectations of the assignment, be sure to discuss the rubric with your students when you assign an essay. It is helpful to show them examples of written pieces that meet and do not meet the expectations. As an added benefit, because the criteria are explicitly stated, the use of the rubric decreases the likelihood that students will argue about the grade they receive. The explicitness of the expectations helps students know exactly why they lost points on the assignment and aids them in setting goals for future improvement.

• Routinely have students score peers’ essays using the rubric as the assessment tool. This increases their level of awareness of the traits that distinguish successful essays from those that fail to meet the criteria. Have peer editors use the Reviewer’s Comments section to add any praise, constructive criticism, or questions.
• Alter some expectations or add additional traits on the rubric as needed. Students’ needs may necessitate making more rigorous criteria for advanced learners or less stringent guidelines for younger or special needs students. Furthermore, the content area for which the essay is written may require some alterations to the rubric. In social studies, for example, an essay about geographical landforms and their effect on the culture of a region might necessitate additional criteria about the use of specific terminology.
• After you and your students have used the rubric, have them work in groups to make suggested alterations to the rubric to more precisely match their needs or the parameters of a particular writing assignment.
• Print this resource

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• Kindergarten K

ELA Brave and True by Marilyn Yung

DAR American History Writing Contest

Five tips to help your students succeed

Looking for a middle school writing contest this fall? Look no further than the Daughters of the American Revolution’s (DAR) American History Essay Contest. In a previous teaching position, my middle schoolers participated in this contest for several years. I always looked forward to the day each fall when I would receive my teacher’s packet from my local DAR chapter.

If you’re not familiar with the DAR, here’s a brief intro from the organization’s website: “The DAR, founded in 1890 and headquartered in Washington, D.C., is a non-profit, non-political volunteer women’s service organization dedicated to promoting patriotism, preserving American history, and securing America’s future through better education for children.”

My students have had great success with the DAR American History Essay Contest. Within five years, eight sixth- through eighth-grade former students won at the local level. Of those, two essays placed first at the state level. One of those also won at the division level (comprised of eight states), and then competed at the national level. Recognition and prizes are determined by each local DAR chapter. In fact, my local chapter provided an annual luncheon where the local winners would be celebrated. In addition, the chapter awarded certificates and pins for winners, and certificates for all entrants. At the state and higher levels, monetary awards are distributed.

My students benefited from the emphasis placed on the contest. First, entering the contest was an assignment . I didn’t want only the advanced students to compete, as usually happens when I make a contest voluntary. I wanted everyone to see that I had confidence in their abilities and that they had a real opportunity to win.

I always made a big deal out of the annual contest. I would decorate my room around the theme, hanging posters and decorations to fit the topics. For example, for the year that Women’s Suffrage was the topic, I printed and hung vintage posters, created vignettes for notable women in the movement, and built my room around a color scheme of purple and yellow, the colors of the suffrage movement.

The best thing about this contest? The topic changes every year.

The topics for the contest, all based on a historical event, change from year to year. Past topics have included the National Parks system, Ellis Island, the effects of World War One, the Stamp Act, Women’s Suffrage, and others. (While the topic and prompt changes every year, the general rules and guidelines for the contests remain the same.)

This year’s topic follows:

“The Second Continental Congress met from May 10, 1775 – March 1, 1781, and included delegates from thirteen colonies. This Congress was instrumental in shaping what was to become the United States of America. Imagine that you are a delegate during the 1775-1776 Second Continental Congress. Which colony are you from and what will be important for you to accomplish for your colony?” Daughters of the American Revolution american history essay contest 2022-2023

As usual, the prompts encourage students to write a narrative-style essay. Let your students get creative.

• Could they write the essay in the form of a letter?
• Or would a straight-forward answer to the question in the form of an informative piece be better to their liking?
• This year’s prompt could even be written in the form of a persuasive essay, arguing for the passage of a particular piece of legislation unique to the chosen colony.

Download the contest guidelines by clicking below:

This year’s 2022-2023 contest guide sheet outlines the topic, length (600-1,000 for 6-8 grades), format, and bibliography details. (Note: Each DAR chapter designates their own individual due dates. Check with your local chapter by locating it here on the national DAR website’s chapter locater. )

I encourage you to try the DAR American History Essay Contest with your fifth- through eighth-graders. It was a mainstay in my middle school classes, as well as the DAR’s high school contest (Patriots of the American Revolution). Check back next week for a post about the high school contest.

Over the years, I’ve developed some ideas to generate success with this contest. Here are those tips:

5 Tips to Help Your Students Succeed at the DAR American History Essay Contest:

• Don’t skimp on prior knowledge. Getting kids invested in the contest depends on piquing their interest and building expertise on the topic. Because students are required to write 600-1,000 words on the topic, they need to be confident in the subject matter. In my previous middle school classroom, I would start around October 1 to plan ways to make my students familiar with the topic. I designed AOW assignments using articles that pertained to World War One, Women’s Suffrage, and other topics. We also watched educational videos and documentaries, and made short presentations about characters central to the theme.
• Decorate your room. Make the contest an event! I would typically devote an entire room-length whiteboard to the contest. I located war posters, suffragette flyers, national park info, and more to make my room all about the essay topic. Some students even used these visuals to inspire authentic details for their essays.
• Locate and share mentor texts. I scoured the internet to find previous winning essays, or check with your local chapter. Despite being written on another topic entirely, sharing with students a few winning essays showed them the level of quality they would need to produce in their own work. Here’s a link to a post with a former student’s winning essay that competed at the national level.
• Encourage students to blend genres. In my experience, I guided my eighth-grade students to take a narrative approach, and then fortify the narrative with informational exposition. This blended genre approach conveniently allowed me to introduce those multi-discourse skills at a relatively early time of the academic year. When testing time came around in the spring, students already had some experience with blended genre writing, thanks to this contest.
• Don’t rush the writing process. Start early enough so students have time to brainstorm, draft, peer review, revise, and submit. From start to finish, the DAR contest would typically fill four to six weeks; however, I do know that in some years, we crammed it into three.

Thanks for reading!

Have you ever tried a DAR contest? Leave a comment below or send me a message via my Contact Page. If you need more info, please ask. I’ll be glad to help you however I can.

I thoroughly believe that writing contests can infuse ELA with relevance and a dash of project-based learning. Whenever students know their words will enter “the real world” and be reviewed by real people, it makes them take the work more seriously.

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Published by Marilyn Yung

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