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Rubrics
Active
learning situations challenge teachers to determine grades in a
way that accurately reflects achievement and that is acceptable
to students, parents, and colleagues. "Rubrics" are guides
for assigning scores to alternative assessment products. Rubrics
are not a form of assessment but are the criteria for making an
assessment. Rubrics encourage clear assessment targets and clear
expectations. When a rubric is well defined, learners know exactly
what is expected of them and how they may achieve a top grade. Most
learners want to excel and will work hard if they believe there
is an opportunity for success. They will exert more effort and produce
more work to meet clearly expressed expectations for success.
Rubrics are sets
of criteria or scoring guides that describe levels of performance
or understanding. They provide students with expectations about
what will be assessed, standards that need to be met, and information
about where students are in relation to where they need to be.
Developing a
Rubric is a dynamic process. As the components and goals of
instruction become clearer to the teacher, the ability to define
ranges and levels of execution within the processes of the active
learning experience will make the development of a rubric easier.
Some teachers may require a "run through" before they
are ready to finalize a rubric. With unfamiliar content, it's okay
to write a rubric after the fact and save it for future reference.
Even after a rubric is used, it may need modification.
The information below
has been provided by Donna Szpyrka and Ellyn B. Smith of Florida's
Statewide Systemic Initiative.
Guidelines
for Developing a Rubric
- Determine
which concepts, skills, or performance standards you are assessing.
- List
the concepts and rewrite them into statements which reflect both
cognitive and performance components.
- Identify
the most important concepts or skills being assessed in the task.
- On
the basis of the purpose of the task, determine the number of
points to be used for the rubric (example: 4-point scale or 6-point
scale).
- Starting
with the desired performance, determine the description for each
score remembering to use the importance of each element of the
task or performance to determine the score or level of the
rubric.
- Compare student work
to the rubric. Record the elements that caused you to assign a
given rating to the work.
- Revise the rubric
descriptions based on performance elements reflected by the student
work that you did not capture in your draft rubric.
- Rethink your scale:
Does a [ ]-point scale differentiate enough between types of student
work to satisfy you?
- Adjust the scale if
necessary. Reassess student work and score it against the developing
rubric.
Some
Sample Rubrics
Drawing Conclusions (Points):
- 4 Draws a conclusion
that is supported by the data and gives supporting evidence for
the conclusion.
- 2 Draws a conclusion
that is supported by data, but fails to show any evidence for
the conclusion.
- 1 Draws a conclusion
that is not supported by data.
- 0 Fails to
reach a conclusion.
Cooperative Learning
(Points):
- 4 The student
actively listens to and values the opinion of others.
- 3 The student
actively listens to but it is not evident that he/she values the
opinion of others.
- 2 The student
listens to but does not value the opinion of others. OR The student
values the opinion of others but does not listen to them.
- 0 The student
does not listen to and does not value the opinion of others.
Product (Points):
- 6 The product
shows evidence that the student reached valid conclusions based
on data analysis and displayed the results of the analysis in
appropriate formats.
- 4 The product
shows evidence that the student reached valid conclusions based
on data analysis but displayed the results of the analysis in
inappropriate formats.
- 2 The product
shows evidence that the student reached conclusions not based
on data analysis and displayed the results of the analysis in
appropriate formats. OR The product shows evidence that the student
reached valid conclusions based on data analysis but lacked evidence
of the analysis.
- 0 The product
shows no evidence of analysis
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