Owning The Rubric

The project focuses on collaboratively constructing and using assessment resources designed in partnership between teachers and students in higher education contexts. Traditionally, the early stages of assessment design were the domain of teachers. In recent years, many educators and researchers have called for increased levels of involvement by students during the development of assessment criteria, instructions and rubrics. By engaging students to work collaboratively with their university teachers to prepare and create assessment guidelines and rubrics, there is a greater potential for students to take ownership of and be accountable for their own learning outcomes. The aim of the project was to investigate the innovative and collaborative use of assessment rubrics, in partnership between students and academic staff, in order to develop a model of collaborative rubric practice that is applicable in higher education contexts. The context of the project was important as it was conducted across six cohorts of undergraduate students and their university teacher s from five different disciplines in three higher education institutions. The varied contexts provided a range of settings, each of which represented multiple cases to explore across multiple sites. A mixture of different degree year levels was also represented. The project approach adopted a four-phase design across a two-year period. Employment of the project's methodology began in Phase 1 with team organisation, establishing project boundaries, scope and aims, and the construction of da ta gathering instruments required for Phase 2. Phase 2 employed the Delphi technique to establish the characteristics of effective rubric design, informed by a comprehensive literature review and advice provided by members of an expert panel. The outcome of Phase 2 was an instrument, the Effective Rubric Characteristics Inventory (ERCI) that guided the subsequent rubric co- construction processes followed by six cohorts. Also during Phase 2, a multiple case-study approach was adopted in which six cohorts of students at three institutions worked with their lecturers to co-construct a rubric that they would use in the following or same semester. The lecturers and students in each cohort were guided by a protocol including the ERCI and a set of recommendations for practice to enact when co-constructing assessment rubrics. In Phase 3, the six cohorts of students and their lecturers at three institutions used their co-constructed projects, guided by another set of protocols of practice. Data about the lecturers' and students' perceptions of these processes were gathered during Phases 2 and 3. Finally, in Phase 4, a model for rubric co-construction and use was designed. The Model for Collaborative Rubric Construction and Use is housed in the project's website which will be disseminated through workshops for members of the Australian higher education sector. [Executive summary, ed]

The conventional wisdom in English education is that rubrics are the best and easiest tools for assessment. But sometimes it's better to be unconventional. In Rethinking Rubrics in Writing Assessment, Maja Wilson offers a new perspective on rubrics and argues for a better, more responsive way to think about assessing writers' progress. Though you may sense a disconnect between student-centered teaching and rubric-based assessment, you may still use rubrics for convenience or for want of better alternatives. Rethinking Rubrics in Writing Assessment gives you the impetus to make a change, demonstrating how rubrics can hurt kids and replace professional decision making with an inauthentic pigeonholing that stamps standardization onto a notably nonstandard process. With an emphasis on thoughtful planning and teaching, Wilson shows you how to reconsider writing assessment so that it aligns more closely with high-quality instruction and avoids the potentially damaging effects of rubrics. Stop listening to the conventional wisdom, and turn instead to a compelling new voice to find out why rubrics are often replaceable. Open Rethinking Rubrics in Writing Assessment and let Maja Wilson start you down the path to more sensitive, authentic style of writing assessment.

What does learner-centered education look like, and how can we best put it into practice? This helpful book by experienced educators Don Mesibov and Dan Drmacich answers those questions and provides a wide variety of strategies, activities, and examples to help you with implementation. Chapters address topics such as positioning students at the center of the lesson and teachers as coaches, making tasks relevant and engaging, incorporating the affective domain and social-emotional learning, assessing learning, and more. Appropriate for new and experienced teachers of all grades and subjects, this book will leave you feeling ready to help students take control of their own learning so they can reach higher levels of success.

This book takes a developmental perspective at the use of scoring rubrics to assess student work. Citing developmental characteristics of each age, the author presents examples and adaptations of assessment rubrics on a variety of subjects for teachers from kindergarten through adult/college. After a presentation of foundation information on rubrics, separate chapters are devoted to each grade level from primary through adult. Written so that each chapter can be addressed independently, the book provides additional chapters devoted to assessing technological topics and using rubrics with students with special needs. The final chapters provide practical information to help teachers to create their own rubrics and to covert rubric scores to letter grades. An updated annotated listing of recommended rubric websites is included.

This new edition retains the appeal, clarity and practicality that made the first so successful, and continues to provide a fundamental introduction to the principles and purposes of rubrics, with guidance on how to construct them, use them to align course content to learning outcomes, and apply them in a wide variety of courses, and to all forms of assignment. Reflecting developments since publication of the first edition, the authors have extended coverage to include:* Expanded discussion on use of rubrics for grading* Grading on-line with rubrics* Wider coverage of rubric types (e.g., holistic, rating scales)* Rubric construction in student affairs* Pros and cons of working with "ready-made" rubrics* Using rubrics to improve your teaching, and for SoTL* Use of rubrics in program assessment (case study)* Application of rubrics in the arts, for study abroad, service learning and students’ independent learning * Up-dated literature review

What is a rubric and how are they being used in teacher education and evaluation? When did rubrics become ubiquitous in the field of education? What impact do rubrics have on students, teachers, teacher educators, and the educational enterprise? This book is an edited volume of essays that critically examine the phenomenon of rubrics in teacher education, evaluation and education more broadly. Rubrics have seen a dramatic rise in use and presence over the past twenty-five years in colleges of education and districts across the country. Although there is a wealth of literature about how to make rubrics, there is scant literature that explores the strengths and weaknesses of rubrics and the impact the rubric phenomenon is having in reshaping education. The chapters included in this edited volume will critically reflect on the contemporary contexts of rubrics and the uses and impact of rubrics in education. Since rubrics have become indelible in education, it is necessary for a fuller, nuanced discussion of the phenomenon. Creating a book that explores these aspects of rubrics is timely and fundamental to expanding the discourse on this ubiquitous evaluation tool. This book is not meant to be a series of chapters dedicated to best practices for creating rubrics, nor is this text meant to present all sides of the rubric discussion. Rather, this text intends to offer critical polemics about rubrics that can spur greater critical discussion about a phenomenon in education that has largely been unquestioned in the literature.

What is a rubric? A rubric is a coherent set of criteria for student work that describes levels of performance quality. Sounds simple enough, right? Unfortunately, rubrics are commonly misunderstood and misused. The good news is that when rubrics are created and used correctly, they are strong tools that support and enhance classroom instruction and student learning. In this comprehensive guide, author Susan M. Brookhart identifies two essential components of effective rubrics: (1) criteria that relate to the learning (not the “tasks”) that students are being asked to demonstrate and (2) clear descriptions of performance across a continuum of quality. She outlines the difference between various kinds of rubrics (for example, general versus task-specific, and analytic versus holistic), explains when using each type of rubric is appropriate, and highlights examples from all grade levels and assorted content areas. In addition, Brookhart addresses* Common misconceptions about rubrics;* Important differences between rubrics and other assessment tools such as checklists and rating scales, and when such alternatives can be useful; and* How to use rubrics for formative assessment and grading, including standards-based grading and report card grades.Intended for educators who are already familiar with rubrics as well as those who are not, this book is a complete resource for writing effective rubrics and for choosing wisely from among the many rubrics that are available on the Internet and from other sources. And it makes the case that rubrics, when used appropriately, can improve outcomes by helping teachers teach and helping students learn.

By the Rubric of Rhythm, They’ll Read, offers poetry as an alternative approach for teaching children reading below basic to succeed. It opens doors and new horizons for students placed at risk, while tapping into their multiple intelligences, that standardized tests may have missed. The book discusses the history of public schooling and the reading literacy paradigm, addressing the problem while presenting solutions that stimulate and liberate students’ minds. It is the examination into real-world social and interactional contexts while promoting individual agency through oral, written, visual, and the arts while fusing technology at its best. Presenting poetry as the spark that will encourage students to learn as they have fun, dance, and sing, the book takes into account their prior knowledge and the cultural capital they bring. The author introduces her original lesson plans and programs, Lumumba’s Playground and Laughing and Learning with Language as vehicles to renegotiate texts for diverse learners to engage, educate and entertain.