The Art of Rubrics in Grading Students
If you go into a dessert shop, and methodically choose chocolate chip cookies to place in a bag, you are using rubrics.
How is that possible? Well, the moment you decide that delicious chocolate chip cookies are the ones that have a chocolate chip in every bite, that are chewy, golden brown, and have a rich, creamy high-fat flavor, then rubrics are in the picture. After all, you decided not to take the ones with too few chocolate chips, not chewy, burned instead of golden brown, and with nonfat contents.
A Rubric is a scoring guide that you can use in evaluating your students’ performance based on the sum of a full range of criteria instead of a single numerical score. It is a way for you to present your expectations in your class. Rubrics are usually handed out before an assignment, which allows students to improve their work because they already know how they will be evaluated.
Rubrics can be used in subjects such as Science, Math, History, Foreign Languages, Drama, Art, Music and even Cooking. Once developed, your school can just modify them for various high school levels.
To view some completed rubrics or read some more tips, click on the following resources:
Reading & Language Arts Rubrics
General Rubrics
Customizable Rubrics
Sources:
“How to Use and Grade Rubrics.” Retrieved June 9, 2010 from
http://www.teachervision.fen.com/rubrics/teaching-methods/6340.html
“Rubrics Library for Teachers.” Retrieved June 9, 2010 from
http://www.teachervision.fen.com/rubrics/assessment/26773.html?detoured=1
“The Advantages of Rubrics.” Retrieved June 9, 2010 from
http://www.teachervision.fen.com/teaching-methods-and-management/rubrics/4522.html?detoured=1
(Published 26 July 2010, Smart Communications, Inc.)
