What comes to mind when you think of rubrics? Happy thoughts? Or oh-my-gosh-how-much-work-is-this-going-to-be thoughts? We are seeing rubrics more and more these days, mostly due to the fact that the skills we are teaching students in 21st century classrooms can't easily be assessed with multiple-choice or fill-in-the-blank questions. When we want to assess student performance such as oral communication, or creation of a product such as an essay, a rubric is a more thorough way to know if students "get it."
So what is a rubric? At its basic level, it is an outline of expectations for an assignment. That's it! Teachers can clearly communicate what they expect, and students can use it as a checklist for what to include in their work. If a rubric is specific and clearly aligned to the learning goal, teachers can give students a score objectively.
I know what you are thinking. Isn't it time-consuming to CREATE rubrics from scratch and SCORE each individual student's work? Well, yes and no. It is more time-consuming than scoring multiple-choice questions, but it gives you a better picture of student understanding. You can also give students specific feedback just by what they missed in the rubric. Handwritten feedback is always nice, but it isn't necessary if students are just missing one part. They can clearly see that on the rubric.
Here's a tip when you are ready to delve into rubric-writing. Decide on your proficient criteria first. Let's say you want students to write a response that should include three things. List those three criteria in the proficient box with a score of 3 out of 3. The remaining boxes simply state how many criteria students achieved total (2 out of 3, 1 out of 3, 0 out of 3).
Let me give you an example with one of our fifth grade Georgia Standards of Excellence:
ELAGSE5RL2: Determine a theme of a story, drama, or poem from details in the text, including how characters in a story or drama respond to challenges or how the speaker in a poem reflects upon a topic; summarize the text.
So what is a rubric? At its basic level, it is an outline of expectations for an assignment. That's it! Teachers can clearly communicate what they expect, and students can use it as a checklist for what to include in their work. If a rubric is specific and clearly aligned to the learning goal, teachers can give students a score objectively.
I know what you are thinking. Isn't it time-consuming to CREATE rubrics from scratch and SCORE each individual student's work? Well, yes and no. It is more time-consuming than scoring multiple-choice questions, but it gives you a better picture of student understanding. You can also give students specific feedback just by what they missed in the rubric. Handwritten feedback is always nice, but it isn't necessary if students are just missing one part. They can clearly see that on the rubric.
Here's a tip when you are ready to delve into rubric-writing. Decide on your proficient criteria first. Let's say you want students to write a response that should include three things. List those three criteria in the proficient box with a score of 3 out of 3. The remaining boxes simply state how many criteria students achieved total (2 out of 3, 1 out of 3, 0 out of 3).
Let me give you an example with one of our fifth grade Georgia Standards of Excellence:
ELAGSE5RL2: Determine a theme of a story, drama, or poem from details in the text, including how characters in a story or drama respond to challenges or how the speaker in a poem reflects upon a topic; summarize the text.
- Criteria 1: Determine the theme of a text.
- Criteria 2: Explain how characters respond to challenges that conveys the theme.
- Criteria 3: Summarize the text in a minimum of ___ sentences.
That's basically the rubric! Students know what three things they need to include in their writing, and the assignment is assessing full mastery of the standard. Add some boxes and point values, and you are good to go.
There are some websites out there that help you create rubrics in organized, printable templates. RubiStar is a free site that allows you to type in criteria and develop a template for a rubric. After signing up for an account, you can save your rubrics online for future use. Here in GA, our state publishes assessment guides that include rubrics aligned to the standards. They are generic enough that you can duplicate them for just about any standard. They are also already created. Check those out if you are looking for some examples.
Rubrics aren't new, but they don't seem to be going anywhere either. Embrace them, collaborate with your peers to create them for your tasks, and use them to give quality feedback to your students.
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