Laurie Anello
EDU375
Understanding Rubrics
I. Why Rubrics? - http://www.teach-nology.com/tutorials/teaching/rubrics/
A. Rubrics provide important information about whether or not the student has achieved the learning outcomes based on specific criteria.
B. Performance based education is the current trend, and rubrics allow for teachers to measure student products to see if there is a connection between learning and the student’s needs.
C. Rubrics allow for students to perform targeted tasks, which lead to a product or an outcome. These targeted tasks develop different skills and strategies.
II. Background Information - http://pals.sri.com/guide/scoringdetail.html
A. Rubrics should always include key behaviors, examples of those behaviors, scales, and standards of excellence to allow the student to know exactly what they must do to achieve the learning outcome. Students need to know exactly how they will be scored.
B. Rubrics contain specific behaviors or even questions. They should not be long, broad statements.
C. Rubrics can be rated with three different types of scales; numerical, qualitative (using words to rate performance at different levels), or a combination of both.
D. Rubrics can be either generic or task specific. Generic rubrics can be used for multiple tasks while task specific rubrics are used for only one task.
E. Rubrics can be either holistic or analytic. Holistic rubrics score the overall impression of student performance while analytic rubrics score different parts of the student’s performance.
III. What are rubrics? -http://www.teachnology.com/tutorials/teaching/rubrics/whatare/
A. Rubrics are assessment tools that evaluate student performance for lessons or activities that require final products or learning outcomes.
B. Rubrics have scales explaining and showing students exactly how they can reach the targeted performance level. They begin at the highest level, and go to the lowest level. They contain very clear and understandable criteria for the students.
C. The two types of scoring used with rubrics are holistic and analytic.
D. Holistic scoring views the final product as a combination of all the tasks that make it up. This type of scoring is efficient and quick, but it does not provide specific details about the student’s performance.
E. Analytic scoring focuses on all the separate parts of the student’s performance. It breaks down the objective into sections.
IV. Rubric Guidelines - http://edweb.sdsu.edu/triton/july/rubrics/Rubric_Guidelines.html
A. When developing rubrics, you need to determine learning outcomes, keep it short, focus on a different skill for each item, look at how students are expressing their learning, evaluate only measurable criteria, and have your rubric re-evaluated.
B. Rubrics that use words to describe different degrees of student performance should be consistent. An example would be; needs work…good…excellent.
C. When writing a rubric start by writing the highest level and circle the words that you will vary for each degree of performance.
V. How to Develop a Rubric - http://www.teach-nology.com/tutorials/teaching/rubrics/develop/
A. Always define the learning outcome that the students should achieve, and work backwards from the highest level.
B. Give examples, or anchor products that can be evaluated.
C. Scores should be assigned for each level going from highest to lowest.
D. When presenting the rubric to your students, share descriptions of each level, and ask the students for questions or feedback.
E. Give the students examples of how they can reach the targeted performance levels.
F. Keep the scoring system consistent, based on the same objective, and appropriate for the student’s abilities.