The Midterm --- Rubric for short answers
| Below Standard (zero credit) | At Standard (partial credit) | High Standard (full credit) |
| Offers an answer but might only describe the element briefly. There may be analysis of effects, but it is vague and confusing. | Answer describes the elements and analyzes the effects of these elements. Might need to clarify the link between elements and effects. Overall significance may be unclear. | Answer describes the elements and analyzes the effects of these elements persuasively and moves toward a clear claim about their larger significance to the work. |
Samples:
The art identification section will ask you to identify the artist and talk about how the specific elements of the piece relate to that artist’s style and purposes.
Below Standard Response:
This is Faith Ringgold. It’s colorful with quilt stuff.
At Standard Response:
Faith Ringgold. She uses bright colors and fabric on the borders of the piece. The
intensity of her colors and choice of hues communicate lively excitement. The fabric
border adds color and frames the piece with a visual noise.
High Standard Response:
Faith Ringgold did this. She uses bright colors and fabric on the borders of the piece.
The intensity of her colors and choice of hues communicates lively excitement. The choice
of reds, greens and yellows alludes to the colors of African cloth and the flag –
Ringgold sees herself as an African American artist. She uses fabrics on the
border, quilting as a validation of art forms long considered female crafts.
Short answer sections will ask you to interpret an aspect of one of the texts (film, short story, poetry, art).
1. Pick a section of "Melissa Is My Name" and analyze how unusual line breaks contribute to meaning:
Below Standard Response:
The line breaks in "Melissa Is My Name" create an interesting effect. They make
the reader pay attention.
At Standard Response:
The line breaks in "Melissa Is My Name" effectively split the meaning so we read
in two different ways. For example, when we get to the end of the line at
"girl," it indicates that this was said to her, but the line actually continues
to show that these were her words, not somebody else’s.
High Standard Response:
The line breaks in "Melissa Is My Name" effectively split the meaning so we read
it in two different ways. For example, when we get to the end of the line at
"girl," it indicates that this was said to her, but the line actually continues
to show that these were her words. We instead read that she was speaking about herself.
Given the poem’s message of an angry, ignored, solitary identity, we can see how she
is both judged as girl and she judges herself.