Rubric

Understanding Rubrics

In the article Understanding Rubric by Heidi Goodrich ,she defines what rubric is and how and why you can use it.  A rubric is a list of criteria that is expected in a piece of work.  It is use to support and assess students learning.  A rubric tells the students exactly what the teacher is looking for.  The question is: do we as teachers and students like it?

A rubric is described as a list that is divided into columns labeled from excellent to poor.  The columns are divided into a grid.  Each box has an explanation of what is expected in each column.  It can be looking for: purpose, organization, details, voice and mechanics.  Each of these examples should be specific on what is considered a good  work.

The author gives five reasons of why teachers should use a rubric.  First, it can improve student performance as well as monitor it by making teacher’s expectations clear.  Second, they help students become more thoughtful in judging of quality of their own and other students work.  Third, teachers  can spend less time grading students’ work.   Fourth, it promotes flexibility in learning styles.  It is for every student and their individual learning styles.  Fifth, they are self-explanatory. 

Creating a rubric should be modified to each instructors teaching style.  Here are the author’s seven steps to creating a quality rubric:

1.  Look at models: provide students with a good paper and a bad paper.

 2.  List criteria: what is important in a project.

 3. Articulate gradations of quality: Describe excellent and poor levels of quality.

 4. Practice on models: Practice on example papers. 

5. Use self- and peer- assessment: Have the students get started and observe their assessments. 

6. Revise:  After feedback, let students revise their work. 

7. Use teacher assessment: Use same rubric as students to assess their work.

The NETS for students would fall under Critical Thinking, Problem Solving and Decision Making.   It is this standard because it teaches to students to find out what is expected of them for each project.  

A rubric is beneficial to teachers and students because it is an important tool to support and evaluate learning. It is for all students’ learning styles and with the students and teachers working together to create it there is a greater understanding of what is exactly is expected of them.