Thinking About Writing in the Classroom

Recently I have been forced kicking and screaming into a downward spiral of what I see as a LARGE WASTE OF TIME! I won't go in to that so much, but I will say it has me thinking critically about the way I grade the writing of my students. I have always been a proponent of rubric scoring, but sometimes it isn't as easy as it looks.While perusing one of my new favorite websites, Mrs. Hayden World, I found a helpful tip. The following website allows you to practice your scoring technique on actual writing samples:
http://www.thewritingsite.org/tutorial.asp
Once you have chosen your grade level and genre, you are shown a student sample. You are asked to evaluate it for different Writing Applications and Language Conventions. After you submit your score, it is compared against the score given by an expert (whoever that may be). The most interesting aspect is the portion that shows why the writing received a certain score over another score.
I found the site so helpful and it assured me that I am in fact capable of scoring without bias. If you have found yourself in the position of proofing you do in fact have students writing and you are able to critically analyze the writing, you simply MUST test your skills at The Writing Site!