ABSTRACT
The explication of assessment achievement in rubrics is a double-edged sword. On the one hand, explicit descriptions of anticipated or demonstrated levels of achievement may lessen student anxiety by enhancing assessment transparency. On the other hand, such explicit text on how well students had performed, and how much of a gap they have to address, may increase student anxiety, affect their well-being, and decrease motivation for learning. In addition, slavish details and reductionist rubric descriptors may construct joyless, performative responses to assessment. In this chapter, various rubrics are selected as examples to discuss how the language and underlying values in a rubric may affect students' motivation to learn, as well as teachers' propensity to use rubrics to provide feedback that elicits positive or negative responses from students. Suggestions are given for rephrasing descriptors to be age appropriate, and to consider students' well-being and motivation to learn.
