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Evan Abbey

ollie4_1: Building a Better Mousetrap - 0 views

moodle.aeapdonline.org/...view.php

shared by Evan Abbey on 18 Jun 12 - No Cached
    • Kay Durfey
      Kay Durfey on 18 Jun 12
       
      The idea that the rubric is genuinely "assessing what students have actually learned rather than what they have been taught" is certain what all educators and trainer (for work environments) are aiming for.
    • Heather Whitman
      Heather Whitman on 18 Jun 12
       
      You nailed it Kay. A teacher must use this to help them teach, not just give the grade.
    • Kay Durfey
      Kay Durfey on 18 Jun 12
       
      If rubrics were designed and implemented correctly students and teacher could see where the thinking of the student was on target and where they went wrong.
    • Heather Whitman
      Heather Whitman on 18 Jun 12
       
      I think if the rubric is "good" (that is a hard word to use but pretend it fits well), then you can have students assess themselves and together with the teacher 4 or 5 times in the writing process on certain aspects of the rubric to help with the writing process. The piece I wish I would have implemented more (and can but a little tricky as the teacher librarian) was to have families assess with the student as well and to ask a family or 2 BEFORE beginning if they understand what the big assignment & rubric is about and to assess whether the rubric means what it should from their perspectives. If they don't get it, redo it!
    • Aaron Evans
      Aaron Evans on 18 Jun 12
       
      Rubrics are a great tool to build self-assessment skills in all subjects. Two years ago I led my department in an effort to create a self-assessment startegy that builds the abiltity of students to self-assess their learning in math class. Part of this was creating a rubric that measures their progress from 6 to 12 grade. Now we have to go back and refine the rubric, because it is defintiely not to the "good" stage yet.
    • Heather Whitman
      Heather Whitman on 20 Jun 12
       
      I think it is good for students to be involved. They see that teachers change as well and aren't always right about everything.
  • Moreover, rubrics can help the student with self-assessment; what is most important here is not the final product the students produce, but the habits of mind practiced in the act of self-assessment. However, for the student to successfully use a rubric this way, the criteria must be made clear to them and the jargon used must not only be understandable to the student but also be linked specifically to classroom instruction.
    • Lisa Jacobs
      Lisa Jacobs on 25 Jun 12
       
      I think the most important use of a rubric is to communicate "quality" work and expectations to students.
    • Lisa Jacobs
      Lisa Jacobs on 25 Jun 12
       
      Using the rubric to self evaluate their own work.
  • ...23 more annotations...
  • Moreover, some teachers have noticed how students who were good writers become wooden when writing under the influence of a rubric. Dona Patrick, an elementary school teacher noticed that while her sixth grade students did well on their state writing test, those students who had been natural writers, those students who had “stylistic voices full of humor and surprises, produced less interesting essays when they followed the rules [as outlined in a rubric]” (Mathews).
    • Kay Durfey
      Kay Durfey on 18 Jun 12
       
      I think that writing with a rubric only becomes "wooden" if teachers present the idea and implementation of rubrics as a formula rather than a "guideline or set of criteria" that have been noted in effective writing.
    • Aaron Evans
      Aaron Evans on 18 Jun 12
       
      I think that the inclusion of minmum numbers of references/usages is the leading cause of this. If you give a student a minimum, it becomes the target and all they care about. Just tell them you will look for something done well and you get better and more natural results.
    • jquandahl
      jquandahl on 20 Jun 12
       
      Something else that might help to keep students' writing from becoming "wooden" would be to have examples of great writing and discuss how those pieces meet the guidelines of the rubric. I think this shows studnets that they can continue to use their own style when writing - as long as they also pay attention to the expectations of the assignment
  • Rubrics can be designed to measure either product or process or both; and, they can be designed with dimensions describing the different levels of that “deep learning” so valued in WAC programs.
    • Kay Durfey
      Kay Durfey on 18 Jun 12
       
      I absolutely agree that rubrics can assess more than a product; it can and should assess the process or "thinking process."
  • cross the board; meanwhile, the teacher that uses specific rubrics is always composing new descriptions of quality work, but their students have cle
  • Consequentially, when rubrics are published in the classroom, students striving to achieve the descriptions at the higher end of the scale in effect guide their own learning. We must keep in mind, however, that other aspects of good pedagogical practice play into student success: rubrics that are outside of the students “zone of proximal development” are useless to the students.
    • Kay Durfey
      Kay Durfey on 18 Jun 12
       
      Interesting.
  • Usually a numerical value is assigned to each point on a scale. You can weight dimensions differently if you feel that one dimension is more important than another. There are two ways in which you can express this value judgment: 1. You may give a dimension more weight by multiplying the point by a number greater than one. For example, if you have four dimensions (content, organization, support, conventions) each rated on a six-point scale, and you wish to emphasis the importance of adequate support, you could multiply the support score by two. 2. You may devise scales of unequal length, which would mean that the shorter scales would count less than the longer ones. For example, organization, support, and content could each be rated on separate 6 point scales, while punctuation and / or spelling could be rated on separate 3 point scales. A paper that was well organized and punctuated would yield 6 for organization and 3 for punctuation. A paper that was perfectly punctuated but poorly organized might yield a 3-3 score.
    • Kay Durfey
      Kay Durfey on 18 Jun 12
       
      This paragraph about weighting certain  parts of the rubric goes directly to what our group was discussing last week regarding our rubric we were creating. This is a kind of how-to.
    • A Hughes
      A Hughes on 20 Jun 12
       
      Yes, this explains how a multiplier can be used to show some criteria weighted. I would like to see examples of rubrics using weights.
    • jquandahl
      jquandahl on 20 Jun 12
       
      This is nice explanation of how to assign different weights. When we were discussing it lsat week, I think I was making the process more difficult in my own head! I would also like to see examples. I think that weighting dimensions of n ssignment differently can be very helpful in focusing on the most important aspects of an assignment.
    • Bob Pauk
      Bob Pauk on 22 Jun 12
       
      I agree that this weighting could help to fix one of the possible problems with rubrics. When you give the same points for various categories sometimes you are giving an easy way to get a grade without always doing the most important part of the learning.
  • Or you can build your own rubric from scratch—convert existing revision or discovery heuristics into rubrics; convert comments that used to show up on A, B, C, D, and F papers into descriptive phrases, or start completely anew. The Chicago Public Schools web-site offers simple guidelines to follow when designing your own rubric. If you visit the web page I cut and pasted this from, you will find that each item is hyperlinked to a full explanation of the step.
    • Kay Durfey
      Kay Durfey on 18 Jun 12
       
      Creating own rubric can  be very effective but also time consuming.
    • jquandahl
      jquandahl on 20 Jun 12
       
      Creating rubrics with the help of students is something that I found very effective when I was in the classroom. Studnets had more ownership of the work and a very clear understanding of expectations when they were part of the process of creating the rubric.
  • Clearly defining the purpose of assessment and what you want to assess is the first step in developing a quality rubric. The second step is deciding who your audience is going to be. If the rubric is primarily used for instruction and will be shared with your students, then it should be non-judgemental, free of educational jargon, and reflect the critical vocabulary that you use in your classroom.
  • well-designed rubrics help instructors in all disciplines meaningfully assess the outcomes of the more complicated assignments that are the basis of the problem-solving, inquiry-based, student-centered pedagogy replacing the traditional lecture-based, teacher-centered approach in tertiary education.
    • Aaron Evans
      Aaron Evans on 18 Jun 12
       
      This is really where the Iowa/Common Core is taking us. How many teachers are going to be prepared with ways to measure how their students are progressing in problem solving before the students are being assessed with the new assessments? Since the new state assessments are supposed to emphasize these skills more, will more teachers need to use rubrics to meaure these skills rather than just thinking that rubrics are for judging the quality of writing or projects?
  • they should articulate the vital features that they are looking for and make these features known to the student
    • keri bass
      keri bass on 23 Jun 12
       
      I think the key here is whether or not the rubric is written in a way that is user friendly. Sometimes, they get so specific that they are too long and the reader stops reading. I would think this would be a problem with kids in particular.
  • The result is many students struggle blindly, especially non-traditional, unsuccessful, or under-prepared students, who tend to miss many of the implied expectations of a college instructor, expectations that better prepared, traditional students readily internalize.
    • Aaron Evans
      Aaron Evans on 18 Jun 12
       
      This is true at all levels of education, not just high school. How often had you had a student who was struggling on an assessment and after having the expectations explained to them in a different way completed it easily?
    • keri bass
      keri bass on 23 Jun 12
       
      Absolutely, it is frustrating as a teacher for students to struggle with understanding an assignment and not perform well because of lack of understanding the directions and not the information. I find that in an online environment, this can be even more problematic.  Directions and rubrics that I feel are clearly written, are easily misunderstood by others, and people who would have gleaned understanding from questions others asked in class, feel silly asking questions themselves.
  • rubrics, in effect, dehumanize the act of writing. According to Thomas Newkirk, an English professor at the University of New Hampshire, “rubrics promote ‘mechanical instruction in writing’ that bypasses ‘the human act of composing and the human gesture of response’” (Mathews).
    • Aaron Evans
      Aaron Evans on 18 Jun 12
       
      How do computerized essay graders fit into this? This would seem to be a direct attack on their use.
  • if we have assigned ourselves the task of getting a good rubric to use, we need a rubric to judge our performance—that is, we need a meta-rubric to assess our rubric.
    • Aaron Evans
      Aaron Evans on 18 Jun 12
       
      Hadn't thought abou tthis but it totally makes sense. We already do this reflection, as was evidenced by our rubric activity last week, but having the rubric to frame our thoughts makes the process much more efficienct.
    • jquandahl
      jquandahl on 20 Jun 12
       
      interesting point
  • When instructors do not explicitly delineate the qualities of thought that they are looking for while grading, they reduce learning to a hit or miss endeavor, where “assessment remains an isolated […] activity and the success of the learner is mostly incidental” (Montgomery).
  • When instructors do not explicitly delineate the qualities of thought that they are looking for while grading, they reduce learning to a hit or miss endeavor, where “assessment remains an isolated […] activity and the success of the learner is mostly incidental” (Montgomery).
  • When instructors do not explicitly delineate the qualities of thought that they are looking for while grading, they reduce learning to a hit or miss endeavor, where “assessment remains an isolated […] activity and the success of the learner is mostly incidental” (Montgomery). T
  • Moreover, some teachers have noticed how students who were good writers become wooden when writing under the influence of a rubric.
  • A rubric with two or more separate scales is called an analytical rubric, as it takes apart or breaks up the rating system for each trait; a rubric that uses only a single scale is called a holistic rubric. A holistic rubric is more efficient and the best choice when criteria overlap and cannot be adequately separated; an analytical rubric, however, will yield more detailed information about student performance and, therefore, will provide the student with more specific feedback.
  • A rubric with two or more separate scales is called an analytical rubric, as it takes apart or breaks up the rating system for each trait; a rubric that uses only a single scale is called a holistic rubric. A holistic rubric is more efficient and the best choice when criteria overlap and cannot be adequately separated; an analytical rubric, however, will yield more detailed information about student performance and, therefore, will provide the student with more specific feedback.
  • The issue of weighting may be another area in which you can enlist the help of students. At the beginning of the process, you could ask a student to select to select which aspect she values the most in her writing and weight that aspect when you assess her paper.
    • Heather Whitman
      Heather Whitman on 19 Jun 12
       
      I kept this private: oops: I am always amazed how students self-assess themselves. I was a language arts teachers and did a lot of writing. When I ask students today or in the past, how they think they did, I was floored how some of the writings/projects I thought were great, assessed themselves negatively, and the ones I thought needed more work, gave/give themselves exceeds. It takes a lot of good modeling and scaffolding for students to fairly assess themselves. For the ones that big time missed the assignment goals and self-assess themselves well, it really goes back to the teacher going back and reteaching again to help improve learning.
    • Heather Whitman
      Heather Whitman on 19 Jun 12
       
      Oops- I kept this private. How many teachers did I have that graded in red? I remember many especially in math and writing all over writing assignments. I used to think that the assignment was complete, it was time to move on, and I just had to accept what they said. Rubrics do give the student a voice when they self assess. I find it interesting it is rooted in the word red or reddish.
    • Evan Abbey
      Evan Abbey on 28 Jun 12
       
      These are good questions... red is a color we have pre-conceptions about.
  • While many educators make a compelling argument for sharing rubrics with students, others worry that doing so will encourage formulaic writing. That “rubric” is listed in most thesauruses as a synonym for “formula” does nothing to dismantle such fears. Well-designed rubrics, though, should not do this; unfortunately, most state issued rubrics used in secondary school standardized testing are poorly designed rubrics that list specific static elements encouraging students to simply make sure their essays have those features.
    • A Hughes
      A Hughes on 20 Jun 12
       
      The english teachers who attend Iowa Writing Project professional development are discouraged from using rubrics because of formulaic writing in students. These teachers are encouraged to only score a couple of criteria on each assignment instead of trying to "fix" all of the writing and discouraging students.
    • Heather Whitman
      Heather Whitman on 20 Jun 12
       
      I tok the Eastern Iowa Writing Project 8 years ago. Even when I taught, I told the kids, that I would give anything to not have to give them an actual grade. I followed the ideas and allowed them to write whatever they wanted, whenever they wanted. I saw huge growth in their writing, but I know I did poorly "grading" them. I told them over and over to focus on writing process, trying to improve themselves, and comments I gave to help them improve.
    • Bob Pauk
      Bob Pauk on 22 Jun 12
       
      This is my biggest concern with rubrics. I am glad to see it articulated because I have been a little reluctant to share this because rubrics are so popular lately that it seems like I am being negative if I don't care for them. In my highest level projects, I expect students to "wow" me to get an A. It is hard to do that if you are simply following a formula.
    • Lisa Jacobs
      Lisa Jacobs on 25 Jun 12
       
      Yes, rubrics can limit creativity. We re-learned this with our Ollie group rubric assignment this week with the powerpoint and audio files that did not match the "written" rubric my group designed.
  • To begin with, rubrics can be either “general” or “specific.”
    • Lisa Jacobs
      Lisa Jacobs on 25 Jun 12
       
      This whole section reminded me of the Iowa ICAM assessments. I spent many years leading the scoring sessions for the ICAM reading and math assessment scoring sessions. The training was very intense with both general and specific rubrics for each item.
  • anonymous on 19 Jun 12
     
    I was in a class today sponsored by Intel. We discussed Habits of the Mind and how powerful it is for kids to self-assess their work & their learning.
  • ...3 more comments...
  • anonymous on 19 Jun 12
     
    This makes assessing sound like a game between teachers and students. Kids are lucky if they guess what teachers are assessing.
  • anonymous on 19 Jun 12
     
    Do kids become so engaged in meeting the requirements of the rubric that they aren't as fluent in their writing?
  • anonymous on 19 Jun 12
     
    I wasn't aware that rubrics were grouped into holistic and analytic. After reading the descriptions, I'm not sure that I've ever used a holistic rubric.
  • anonymous on 19 Jun 12
     
    The idea of having kids help create rubrics seems to be recurring.
  • anonymous on 19 Jun 12
     
    I usually get the best feedback from kids about various rubrics that I use. It helps me tweak it for the next time.
Jennifer Riedemann

Building A Better Mousetrap: The Rubric Debate - 7 views

faculty.ccp.edu/...rubrics1.htm

OLLIE

shared by Jennifer Riedemann on 06 Jun 11 - No Cached
  • Latin for “red”
    • jalfaro
      jalfaro on 06 Jun 11
       
      thinking of that red pen that makes my papers bleed...ouch!
    • Peggy Christensen
      Peggy Christensen on 13 Jun 11
       
      Many science terms have Latin origins.
  • reliably score
    • jalfaro
      jalfaro on 06 Jun 11
       
      this still takes time and practice...it won't happen instantly after the creation of a new rubric...having examples to refer to helps keep the scorers on the same level
    • Cheryl Merical
      Cheryl Merical on 08 Jun 11
       
      It also helps to have several people score a paper using the same rubric to check the rubrics reliability.
    • Cindy Blinkinsop
      Cindy Blinkinsop on 14 Jun 11
       
      We did an activity in a workshop I took where we all used the same rubric to score sample writings and even with the rubric in hand, I was amazed at how differently we all scored each of the samples. What I found acceptable, another educator did not and vice-versa.
    • Lori Pearson
      Lori Pearson on 18 Jun 11
       
      When I teach 6 traits classes, one of the most eye opening things that happens is when just as you described, Cindy, two people use the same rubric and they come up with different scores. That is why it is so important to practice scoring together and to have conversations around why you gave the score that you did.
  • on what students have actually learned rather than what they have been taught,
    • jalfaro
      jalfaro on 06 Jun 11
       
      the focus should always be on the student...the content comes second...truly teach your students and the content will follow
    • Peggy Christensen
      Peggy Christensen on 13 Jun 11
       
      There's a difference between what the teacher has "taught" verses what students have actually learned.
  • ...51 more annotations...
  • The instructor’s comments on papers and tests are done after rather than before the writing, so they cannot serve as guidelines, compromising the value of writing comments at all.
    • jalfaro
      jalfaro on 06 Jun 11
       
      begin with the end in mind...it's how I function best!
  • raise the need of remediation
    • jalfaro
      jalfaro on 06 Jun 11
       
      and now there's a current study covering for-profit colleges' success rates and federal student loan defaults...it is imperative that we guide the students towards success...colleges can't afford to just weed out the undesirables without being held accountable in some manner
  • state writing test,
    • jalfaro
      jalfaro on 06 Jun 11
       
      this is very common in states like Florida where FCAT Writing is pushed from 3rd grade until 10th grade...that 5 paragraph format must be mastered if the student ever expects to graduate! Sad, but true!
  • Rubrics, Halden-Sullivan contends, reduce “deep learning” to “checksheets.”
    • jalfaro
      jalfaro on 06 Jun 11
       
      I would argue that large class sizes do the same...rubrics helped me survive through having too many students and too many essays to grade. Keep class sizes under control and give teachers adequate prep time and we'd be more than willing to provide deep and reflective feedback to each and every student.
    • Deborah Ausborn
      Deborah Ausborn on 14 Jun 11
       
      That is so true. Dealing with lots of students is a huge handicap for great teaching. I also think that we can design rubrics that allow for the freedom to write, not restrict it.
    • Darin Johnson
      Darin Johnson on 17 Jun 11
       
      Does Halden-Sullivan offer an alternative to rubrics?
    • Julie Townsend
      Julie Townsend on 19 Jun 11
       
      Again, I will maintain that it is within the space defined by a rubric that we have the freedom to create unlimited, reflective and insightful writings, artwork, power points, and other projects or assignments. Rubrics are only as confining as one lets them feel.
  • A holistic rubric
    • jalfaro
      jalfaro on 06 Jun 11
       
      How is this any different than A-F grading?
    • Jennifer Riedemann
      Jennifer Riedemann on 04 Feb 14
       
      It's not really. A-F grading combines information from all sorts of criteria into one rating.
  • establish “performance benchmarks” for the “behavioral objectives” appropriate to each year in the program
    • Denise Krefting
      Denise Krefting on 07 Jun 11
       
      Rubrics I have used and built contain both performance and behavorial components.
    • Julie Townsend
      Julie Townsend on 19 Jun 11
       
      Being in special education, my first job involved teaching student with behavioral goals in their IEPs. I had to develop rubrics to effectively track their daily behavioral goals and then average the daily scores to post in the weekly updates within their IEP.
  • well-designed rubrics help instructors in all disciplines meaningfully assess the outcomes of the more complicated assignments that are the basis of the problem-solving, inquiry-based, student-centered pedagogy replacing the traditional lecture-based, teacher-centered approach in tertiary education
    • Denise Krefting
      Denise Krefting on 07 Jun 11
       
      Rubrics are useful for all curriculums and as a support for projects. The connection to the Iowa Core is evident.
    • Sandy Kluver
      Sandy Kluver on 14 Jun 11
       
      This has a great connection to constructivism as we assess students' ability to solve problems and work through issues.
    • Darin Johnson
      Darin Johnson on 17 Jun 11
       
      Quite often, rubrics have helped me better define my goals and objectives for an assignment. In this way, the rubric has probably helped me more than my students.
    • Deborah Ausborn
      Deborah Ausborn on 20 Jun 11
       
      That has been my experience as well. Having the rubrics keeps me more consistent in my expectations, as well as giving the students more concrete guidelines as to what is expected of them.
  • self-assessment;
    • Denise Krefting
      Denise Krefting on 07 Jun 11
       
      Self assessment is very important and a life skill.
    • Sandy Kluver
      Sandy Kluver on 14 Jun 11
       
      Getting students to think about their learning is what makes rubrics so valuable!
    • Deborah Ausborn
      Deborah Ausborn on 14 Jun 11
       
      So valuable. One of my personal goals of teaching has always been to facilitate my students out of their need for me. In other words, helping them learn the skills they need to evaluate where they are and where they need to go next.
  • struggle blindly,
    • Denise Krefting
      Denise Krefting on 07 Jun 11
       
      In looking backwards I feel my students were looking at instruction blindly. Rubrics take care of this!
    • denise carlson
      denise carlson on 13 Jun 11
       
      We all have struggled in this area. When we know better we do better.
  • Rubrics that are prescriptive rather than descriptive will promote thoughtless and perfunctory writing
    • Denise Krefting
      Denise Krefting on 07 Jun 11
       
      Skills for creating better rubrics are necessary. Where will teachers get these?
    • Deb Versteeg
      Deb Versteeg on 27 Jun 11
       
      I would like to see some examples of prescriptive versus descriptive rubrics
  • signify critical thinking
    • Denise Krefting
      Denise Krefting on 07 Jun 11
       
      We want all students to get here!
  • Adapt
    • Denise Krefting
      Denise Krefting on 07 Jun 11
       
      Also see the INTEL assessment tools at http://www97.intel.com/pk/AssessingProjects
  • they should articulate the vital features that they are looking for and make these features known to the student
    • Cheryl Merical
      Cheryl Merical on 08 Jun 11
       
      Leaves out the "guesswork" for a student in trying to figure out teacher/professor expectations.
    • terri lamb
      terri lamb on 08 Jun 11
       
      Agree - the clear vision of the desired results should result in attainable success. Can't imagine trying to meet the target without knowing what the rubric requires (or what the target is).
    • Lori Pearson
      Lori Pearson on 13 Jun 11
       
      If we don't know the target, how can we meet it, right?
    • Peggy Christensen
      Peggy Christensen on 13 Jun 11
       
      As one of my colleagues says, we shouldn't play "Guess what is in the teachers head?" when it comes to assessment.
    • Deborah Ausborn
      Deborah Ausborn on 14 Jun 11
       
      I like that analogy. I believe it is very important that our students know exactly what we are expecting from them, without stifling creativity by expecting cookie-cutter results.
    • Julie Townsend
      Julie Townsend on 19 Jun 11
       
      IT is good to know we are in agreement with the use of rubrics and the sharing of them with students. I hope that more teachers will follow and use them, rather than drag their feet and remain using 30 year old methods...
  • the criteria must be made clear to them
    • Cheryl Merical
      Cheryl Merical on 08 Jun 11
       
      Thus, the importance of well written rubrics with clear criteria.  The terms, a few, some, well-thought out, critical, etc., mean different things to different people. Discussing, explaining and providing examples are crucial if such terms are to be used in a rubric.
  • A rubric that tells students, as a typical example, that they will get an A for writing a 1000 word essay that “cites x number of sources and supports its thesis with at least three arguments” will lead students to perceive writing as a kind of “paint-by-number” endeavor (Mathews).
    • Cheryl Merical
      Cheryl Merical on 08 Jun 11
       
      This is a good point. . .and one that I struggle with in writing rubrics. In efforts of not being too subjective and/or vague, it is easy to become very prescriptive and create "formulas".
    • Darin Johnson
      Darin Johnson on 17 Jun 11
       
      Sometimes when we quantify we simplify.
    • Julie Townsend
      Julie Townsend on 19 Jun 11
       
      I don't agree that the rubric creates a 'paint by number' result. Coming from the art field previously, I have witnessed and created art that fulfills rubrics and 'requirements' for competitions. In a field that is highly subjective, the need for a rubric defines the space within which we are allowed to create. It is what we do within that space that defines the quality of our work. 
  • consistently and accurately
    • terri lamb
      terri lamb on 08 Jun 11
       
      This is what we strive for to assess the desired elements while being consistent.
    • Deb Versteeg
      Deb Versteeg on 27 Jun 11
       
      consistently and accurately still takes time and a great deal of collaborative work among educators....something that is many times lost in the equation
  • student input when constructing rubrics
    • terri lamb
      terri lamb on 08 Jun 11
       
      I've found this works well when students have learned specific skills that will be used on a final product. They can determine which skills should be on the rubric and to what extent they should be able to show their skills while problem solving how and where.
    • denise carlson
      denise carlson on 13 Jun 11
       
      I've found that when students help design the rubric they may actually be more demanding than I would be.
    • Deborah Ausborn
      Deborah Ausborn on 14 Jun 11
       
      So true.
    • Darin Johnson
      Darin Johnson on 17 Jun 11
       
      I had a colleague who constantly negotiated rubric content with her students as a central part of her writing instruction. When she left the district, I was surprised to see the "new" teachers take the rubrics as part of some sort of "prescribed" curriculum. These organic documents suddenly became canonical.
  • it is no longer appropriate to assess student knowledge by having students compute answers and apply formulas, because their methods do not reveal the current goals of solving real problems and using statistical reasoning.
    • denise carlson
      denise carlson on 13 Jun 11
       
      Yes, problem solving is certainly at least as important as computation.
    • Lori Pearson
      Lori Pearson on 13 Jun 11
       
      In interviewing businesses a couple of years ago as to what they are looking for in future employees, we heard over and over again that they were looking for 1. team players and 2. problem solvers.
    • Deborah Ausborn
      Deborah Ausborn on 14 Jun 11
       
      I think the students are more motivated when they can see real-world uses of what they are learning.
    • Lisa Buss
      Lisa Buss on 19 Jun 11
       
      At our school when having these discussions, it is hard to convince teachers who have been teaching a long time to change from lecturing to more of a facilitator role in their classes. How do we make this change? Is this what is being taught at universities to the incoming teachers?
  • shared with students prior to the completion of any given assignment
  • ‘some rubrics are dumb.’
    • denise carlson
      denise carlson on 13 Jun 11
       
      Wow, I've said those exact words. Some rubrics I've accessed online are worthless. Yet, just because they are online and easy to access, I am sure there are teachers out there using them.
    • Lori Pearson
      Lori Pearson on 13 Jun 11
       
      Denise, you are so correct. There are many things online that are not worthy of sharing or using in our classrooms, but yet because of the easy accessibility I'm sure it is still happening.
  • general” or “specific.
    • denise carlson
      denise carlson on 13 Jun 11
       
      I greatly prefer specific rubrics. What thoughts do the rest of you have?
    • Lori Pearson
      Lori Pearson on 13 Jun 11
       
      Totally agree. Specific rubrics are much easier to hone in on the specific "skills" that are being sought. I believe that some people shy away from them because of the time factor however.
    • Peggy Christensen
      Peggy Christensen on 13 Jun 11
       
      I think it depends on the purpose of the rubric, but I tend to like specific ones better than general ones.
    • Jennifer Riedemann
      Jennifer Riedemann on 04 Feb 14
       
      In his article, "What's Wrong, and What's Right with Rubrics" Jim Popham makes a great case for why general rubrics better support teaching and student learning of important targets.
  • facilitate, rather than obviate, student learning
    • Lori Pearson
      Lori Pearson on 13 Jun 11
       
      If we are just using rubrics to put something in the gradebook, we are losing the power of "facilitating student learning."
    • Deborah Ausborn
      Deborah Ausborn on 14 Jun 11
       
      The formative rubric is a good step in this process of facilitating student learning. If we give the student the means to improve their work with the rubric, we are giving them tools to work with.
    • Deb Versteeg
      Deb Versteeg on 27 Jun 11
       
      ...if the rubric is not used throughout the project or assignment, it is of very little use in a quality assessment process
  • five-paragraph essay
    • Lori Pearson
      Lori Pearson on 13 Jun 11
       
      I cringe when I read or hear about the 5 paragraph essay!
  • guide their own learning
    • Lori Pearson
      Lori Pearson on 13 Jun 11
       
      At what age/grade do you think students are able to do this?
  • and teacher improvement.
    • Peggy Christensen
      Peggy Christensen on 13 Jun 11
       
      . . . and might I add, not only should it facilitate student learning, but it should also help the teacher improve.
  • instructors plan on grading student thinking and not just student knowledge
    • Peggy Christensen
      Peggy Christensen on 13 Jun 11
       
      In the "past," the emphasis was on grading student knowledge. Now we are looking at assessing student thinking, as well.
  • it maintains the traditional gap between what the teacher knows and what the student knows
    • Peggy Christensen
      Peggy Christensen on 13 Jun 11
       
      This puts the teacher in a position of power . . . the authority figure . . . the sage on the stage.
    • Deborah Ausborn
      Deborah Ausborn on 14 Jun 11
       
      It would be great if all learning would be a collaborative effort. I've learned so much from my students over the years. I try to keep them in a partnership position as much as possible.
  • Well-designed rubrics
    • Peggy Christensen
      Peggy Christensen on 13 Jun 11
       
      "Well-designed" is the key here.
  • writing under the influence
    • Peggy Christensen
      Peggy Christensen on 13 Jun 11
       
      Interesting choice of words here.
  • rubrics that are outside of the students “zone of proximal development” are useless to the students.
    • Peggy Christensen
      Peggy Christensen on 13 Jun 11
       
      Again, this gets back to the "kid-friendly" language that needs to be used in a rubric, so that students can use the feedback to improve their learning.
    • Darin Johnson
      Darin Johnson on 17 Jun 11
       
      Can a rubric be written to benefit students with special needs and the talented and gifted? What happens when we have multiple grade levels and performance levels in a classroom?
  • . Rubrics can be designed to measure either product or process or
    • Cheryl Merical
      Cheryl Merical on 13 Jun 11
       
      This is key and perhaps why there is so much debate about rubrics. They are often developed to assess the final product and the process piece is often forgotten. If, especially in the case of writing, process is important, then criteria for assessing needs to be included in the rubric. . .or a separate rubric developed just for "process".
    • Deborah Ausborn
      Deborah Ausborn on 14 Jun 11
       
      Well said. I think any tool can be good or bad and cannot necessarily be reduced to a generalization. We need to take care that we write them to encourage rather than discourage creativity, and that we use them in ways that encourage rather than discourage creativity.
  • jargon used must not only be understandable to the student but also be linked specifically to classroom instruction.
    • Sandy Kluver
      Sandy Kluver on 14 Jun 11
       
      I've seen rubrics that are hard to figure out as the teacher! The "jargon" has to be user friendly for all involved!
  • credit
  • Clearly defining the purpose of assessment and what you want to assess is the first step in developing a quality rubric.
    • Sandy Kluver
      Sandy Kluver on 14 Jun 11
       
      This is a straight forward comment but one that gets missed by teachers. I think sometimes I want to make sure I've covered everything in the rubric but I really need to focuse on the purpose and that will make my rubric better.
  • we need a meta-rubric to assess our rubric.
    • Sandy Kluver
      Sandy Kluver on 14 Jun 11
       
      Wow!!
  • the habits of mind practiced in the act of self-assessment
    • Darin Johnson
      Darin Johnson on 17 Jun 11
       
      In order for self-assessment to work, it must be a true habit of mind. It must be haitually refined.
  • For example, Illinois State Board of Education’s (ISBE) scoring guidelines for writing measures four separate attributes of composition: Focus, Support, Organization, Conventions.
  • Look at some actual examples of student work to see if you have omitted any important dimensions.
  • “Perhaps the greatest potential value of classroom assessment is realized when we open the assessment process up and welcome students into that process as full partners” (qtd. in Skillings and Ferrell). When students are full partners in the assessment process, as Mary Jo Skillings and Robin Ferrel illustrate in their study on student-generated rubrics, they tend to “think more deeply about their learning.”
    • Julie Townsend
      Julie Townsend on 19 Jun 11
       
      It is imperative to involve students in their own learning. While direct instruction has been preached in the field of special education, there is a missing piece of this practice. This missing piece is the involvement of the student to "own" their knowledge and to demonstrate how they have learned, what matters, and where they will utilize it.
  • Addressing Equity Issues at the Classroom Level,” reports that extensive use of rubrics can help minimize students’ educational disparities and bring fairness into assessment on numerous levels: “In short, explicit performance criteria, along with supporting models of work, make it possible for students to use the attributes of exemplary work to monitor their own performance.”
    • Julie Townsend
      Julie Townsend on 19 Jun 11
       
      Using rubrics does equalize the playing field for both students and teachers, thereby allowing students to see that there are no 'favorites', that their efforts and their results are what is being assessed. 
  • build your own rubric from scratch
    • Julie Townsend
      Julie Townsend on 19 Jun 11
       
      Although it takes time and feedback from students, I create my own rubrics. The rubric must measure what is required by benchmarks, but also must measure what is necessary for the student to generalize into his/her personal life.
  • most important here is not the final product
    • Deb Versteeg
      Deb Versteeg on 27 Jun 11
       
      lots of people will struggle with this concept
  • those students who had “stylistic voices full of humor and surprises, produced less interesting essays
    • Lisa Buss
      Lisa Buss on 19 Jun 11
       
      This same thing happened to me. A few years agoI started a commercial project for my Spanish 2 students. Over the years, my rubric has become more restrictive because of previous students' inapprpropriate content. What I have noticed is that the commercials aren't anywhere near as interesting and creative as they were when my rubric was less detailed.
  • Does the rubric relate to the outcome(s) being measured
    • Lisa Buss
      Lisa Buss on 20 Jun 11
       
      very important
  • category should be defined using description of the work rather than judgments about the work
    • Lisa Buss
      Lisa Buss on 20 Jun 11
       
      good point!
    • Jennifer Riedemann
      Jennifer Riedemann on 05 Feb 14
       
      Just like quality feedback that promotes learning uses descriptive, not evaluative language, so should rubrics.
  • extra credit
    • Deborah Ausborn
      Deborah Ausborn on 20 Jun 11
       
      It is so enjoyable to work with those students who have the capability to see through the structure of the instruction. It can be aggravating as well when they point out the flaws in our own practices, but very beneficial if we can be humble enough to acknowledge it. How do we prepare more of our students to approach learning this way, or is it just a gift a talented few have?
  • When instructors do not explicitly delineate the qualities of thought that they are looking for while grading, they reduce learning to a hit or miss endeavor, where “assessment remains an isolated […] activity and the success of the learner is mostly incidental”
    • Amy Burns
      Amy Burns on 04 Oct 11
       
      If only some of my instructors would have heard of this when I was younger...'I coulda been somebody!' Isn't it common sense that teachers should be upfront with students regarding expectations?
  • a system designed to measure the key qualities (also referred to as “traits” or “dimensions”) vital to the process and/or product of a given assignment,
    • Jennifer Riedemann
      Jennifer Riedemann on 04 Feb 14
       
      Unfortunately, many educators see rubrics simply as a way to assign a grade to a project.
  • points along a scale
    • Jennifer Riedemann
      Jennifer Riedemann on 04 Feb 14
       
      Technically rubrics do not contain "points", as in number of items to count. The scale contains levels, also known as an ordinal scale. A Level 4 on the rubric is not necessarily twice as good as a Level 2, as it would be if the numbers were points.
    • Jennifer Riedemann
      Jennifer Riedemann on 04 Feb 14
       
      In my opinion, this is a case of us being sloppy with language, and it makes for perhaps the most misunderstood aspect and misuse of rubrics.
  • “use an existing one ‘as is
    • Jennifer Riedemann
      Jennifer Riedemann on 04 Feb 14
       
      User beware! There are LOTs of crummy rubrics available on the internet.
  • Works Cited
    • Jennifer Riedemann
      Jennifer Riedemann on 05 Feb 14
       
      Two other great resources to consult that have been written since this was published: "How to Create and Use Rubrics for Formative Assessment and Grading" by Susan Brookhart (ASCD, 2013) and "Creating & Recognizing Quality Rubrics" by Judy Arter & Jan Chappuis (Pearson, 2006).
  • Cindy Blinkinsop on 14 Jun 11
     
    Rubrics are fairly new to our schools and constructing a good one is still a challenge. As teachers we tend to make the rubric's verbiage hard for students to really understand. Rubrics need to be in student friendly language and with only the necessary categories 4-6 max. We tend to have 8 categories with 4 to 5 possible grades (4,3,2,1) which is extremely confusing to students so they throw out the rubric and do their best hoping it cuts the mustard.
Dennis OConnor

#PleaseHelp: Learning to Write (Again) on Twitter | Digital Is ... - 0 views

digitalis.nwp.org/1898

Twitter learning 6-traits literacy technology web2.0

shared by Dennis OConnor on 24 Jun 11 - No Cached
  • Dennis OConnor on 24 Jun 11
     
    A writing teacher's narrative about re-discovering a writers process by slowly learning Twitter.  This is a thoughtful account that may lure some who are hesitant about using twitter into giving it a try. (More than a try really, it takes some time for you too find your voice and your audience.)
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