Co-constructing Writing Rubrics to Enhance Students’ Autonomy and Collaboration

Abstract

Many L2 learners show low motivation when it comes to writing. The intervention of this study focuses on the idea of engaging L2 students and their teacher in co-constructing writing rubrics to help them develop a better understanding and awareness of the writing criteria in order to enhance autonomy and collaboration and gain ownership and responsibility for developing their writing skills. This study aimed to investigate the impact of co-constructed rubrics on L2 learners’ writing skills and their perceptions towards writing; it also examined to what extent co-constructed rubrics can be used as a learning and assessment tool to help teachers generate feedback conducive to learning and competency development in writing.This mixed methods study integrates both quantitative and qualitative data collection tools and analysis, including pre and post writing assessments for intervention and comparison groups, classroom observations, pre and post interviews with the teacher and L2 students, and a pre and post questionnaire. Results revealed that the intervention class’s mean average increased significantly in the post writing assessment, while the comparison class’s mean average decreased but with no statistical significance. Moreover, the survey showed that co-constructing the rubrics with the intervention students enhanced their attitudes towards writing. Class observations noted positive changes in the class dynamics and an improvement in the levels of students’ interaction and engagement. Co-constructing rubrics has emphasized the fact that writing is a skill that can be taught effectively and can be a solution for those who claim that ‘writing is a universal problem’.