Newsela Writing Rubrics
What types of rubrics do you offer for Newsela Writing?
Newsela offers rubrics for all 50 states, as well as common consortia for a range of writing genres. Teachers can select a rubric for Elementary, Middle, or High School students. If a state has published a rubric, Newsela offers that rubric. If there is no published rubric for a state at a particular grade level, a teacher can use Newsela-authored rubrics.
Teachers can click on the “View all available rubrics” to download a PDF of all of the rubrics supported by Newsela Writing. This list is kept up to date.
How does Newsela Writing support SBAC states?
SBAC (Smarter Balanced Assessment Consortium) is a consortium that provides assessments (and rubrics) to the following group of states:
California • Connecticut • Delaware • Hawaii • Idaho • Indiana • Michigan • Missouri • Montana • Nevada • New Hampshire • Oregon • South Dakota • Vermont • Washington
Newsela Writing offers the following SBAC rubrics which, whenever updated apply to all of the above states:
SBAC Argumentative Performance Task Grade 6
SBAC Argumentative Performance Task Grades 7-11
SBAC Explanatory Performance Task Grades 6-11
SBAC Informational Performance Task Grades 3-5
SBAC Narrative Performance Task Grades 7-8
SBAC Narrative Performance Task Grades 3-6
SBAC Opinion Performance Task Grades 3-5
Each of the SBAC rubrics in Newsela Writing is offered in two versions:
A simplified SBAC rubric which includes only 3 scores (i.e. a score for each verbatim rubric criteria, see highlighted in image below). The simplified version will appear in Newsela Writing under its' common name.
An extended SBAC rubric which includes scores for the sub-bullets within each category. The extended version will appear in Newsela Writing with an 'extended' tag added to the common title. Here's an example of what the extended rubric name will look like for the rubric SBAC Argumentative Performance Task Grade 6:
District reports that will include the 'extended' tag on assignments using the extended rubric version.
What writing genres are available?
Newsela Writing supports assignments for these types of writing: Expository, Opinion, Narrative, Argumentative, Informational, Main/Central Idea, Inference/Conclusion, and Literary Analysis.
My school uses its own rubric. Can I use that?
At this time, Newsela Writing doesn’t support the ability to upload your own rubric. If you have a district or school authored rubric that you think Newsela Writing should support, please send it to your dedicated client success manager at Newsela, and include:
The name of the rubric
Link or attachment of the rubric
Author's name (institution or individual)
Newsela will add the rubric within 10 business days of your client success manager confirming it has been received for processing.
Can I modify the rubric to include specifics I want?
Rubrics are not modifiable. If there is a specific rubric that speaks to the use of academic language in academic writing we would be happy to include this in the list of available rubrics. Please send it to your dedicated client success manager at Newsela, and include:
The name of the rubric
Link or attachment of the rubric
Author's name (institution or individual)