The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly - Rubrics

-
RUBRICS - not only do they allow for teachers to understand how they are grading their projects, but they are also helpful to students themselves to understand exactly what is expected from them. A good rubric can only be formed from a good project— meaning a good project should already have the bones which allow for a rubric to be realized. What makes a good rubric? What makes a bad rubric? Let's discuss.


 A GOOD RUBRIC IS...

  • Clear
  • Concise
  • Detailed
  • Not too complicated
EXAMPLE

This rubric is clearly labeled, with understandable and relevant categories as well as a 1-4 scale that students will already be familiar with, most likely. Each category is detailed, but easily understandable for the student. This rubric may have too many categories, but other than that it is reliable and helpful. 

A BAD RUBRIC IS...
  • Unclear
  • Wordy
  • Not wordy enough
  • Unhelpful
EXAMPLE

This rubric is unclear. The side categories are somewhat difficult to understand, as well as not having nearly enough detail for students to rely on as they write their paper. This rubric isn't very helpful to students, and might not even be very helpful to the teacher who created the assignment.

A well written, articulated rubric is essential to teachers in order to accurately grade assignments, but most importantly a well written rubric is helpful to students. If students are too shy to ask you questions, or if they don't have a chance to reach out to you, the rubric is a great fall back for students to use to answer most of their assignment questions. Students will know how far to push themselves for the grade that they want, and they can look at what they currently have and compare what grade they might expect. As I become a teacher, this is definitely a skill I will be working on. 

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Three Wise Teachers, and Seven Wise Resources: Part One

-
Facing History What is Facing History? Facing History places a priority on educating students on subjects that deal heavily in racism, prejudice, and antisemitism. Facing History believes that educating students on these subjects will create a "more humane and informed citizenry". These lessons are essential not only to inform students of our world's history of oppression as well as to potentially act as a preventative measure. Facing History offers educator resources (lesson plans, library with ebooks, activity and classroom engagement strategies) as well as professional development opportunities (workshops, courses, seminars, webinars...).  What Is It Good For?  Facing History has a large database of lessons, units, books, and feature collections stored in each 'topic' — time period or overarching theme. The units, lessons, books, and feature collections are well thought out and engaging. The website also has a large database of teaching strateg
Read more

Seven Wise Resources: Part Four

-
DocsTeach and Archives.gov What are 'DocsTeach' and 'The National Archive'?  DocsTeach is a website which puts its focus on primary documents. It categorizes them so they can easily be found with keywords, and they are ever expanding. There are currently more than 10,000 documents on their website. The website also offers some lesson plans revolving around specific documents. Archives.gov comes hand in hand with DocsTeach, as they are connected. The National Archives has a section for educator resources, where you will find a number of different helpful resources. Among these are National History Day resources, working with primary sources worksheets, and opportunities for visiting students in the classroom. What Is It Good For?  DocsTeach is best for its primary documents , and the lesson guides that come with them. On their lesson plans, they even have a classification system that includes the lesson's placement on Bloom's Taxonomy, what hi
Read more

Seven Wise Resources: Part Three

-
EDUTopia What is EDUTopia? EDUTopia is a resource for teachers for the betterment of their students, to encourage active learning. EDUTopia highlights activities, approaches, and practices that work effectively. EDUTopia currently is putting an emphasis on fact based research, assessing quality effectively, as well as effective and creative use of acquired information. They provide a number of articles as well as videos for teachers. What Is It Good For?  EDUTopia is a great resource when looking for answers to questions you have as a new or even experienced teacher. There are separate categories including: New teacher, Social and emotional learning, Brain based learning, Integrated studies, Project based learning, Technology integration, Comprehensive assessment, and Teacher development. How Can I/Would I Like To Use It? Here are a few of the articles I found most helpful: How Restorative Justice Helps Students Learn  - A strategy for discipline that focuses
Read more