Week Four--Rubric Construction and the Classroom

I. The reading for this week was Chapter 4 (Rubric Construction and the Classroom) from our text Introduction to Rubrics, with highlights from the chapter:

• Five models of how rubric construction can be integrated into classroom teaching, beginning with the rubric you create alone and ending with a model in which the teacher creates the assingment and the students create the rubric, working together in groups.
• Three good reasons for integrating rubric construction into classroom teaching: 1) It prevents misunderstanding and misinterpretations before they affect student work; this makes for happier students and happier graders; 2) It increases student awarness of themselves as "stakeholders" in the educational process, which, in turn results in greater student involvement in the tasks assigned and greater professionalism and creativity; 3) It can actually cut down your workload by letting your students do some of it--that is, create part of their own assessment tool.
• Students can tell us three basic things we need to know in order to make our explanation relevant: 1) They tell us what they already know; 2) They tell us what they don't know; 3) They tell us what misconceptions and misunderstandings they have about the assignment.

II. Fellow cohort, Doug Brtek, led the seminar for GMIT 660--two of his proposed questions:

Question #1:

According to the text, the five rubric models are suggested for a specific audience to be fully effective. Review the characteristics for each model, then consider your experience of using a rubric for a specific class. As an instructor, are the environments you are using rubrics in agreement with the suggestions of the text? Should you consider revising your current methods when involving students in creating a rubric?

Feel free to comment on your exposure to constructing a rubric as a student. As a student, do you agree with these suggested environments? Why or why not? (Feel free to answer either question)

Presentation Model: suited for large, lower-division, undergraduate classes where lecture is the primary forms of delivery.

Feedback Model: suited for smaller, lower-division, undergraduate courses where discussion is part of the normative teaching style.

Pass-the-Hat Model: small to medium size classes(fewer than thirty students) at any level where discussion is part of the teaching method.

Post-it Model: intended for large, complex, end-of-term assignments.

4x4Model: suited for large, content-heavy assignments such as term projects or research papers.

Fellow cohorts responded quite extensively with numerous examples of how we use rubrics in our own experiences in the classroom, and thoughts on the different models presented. Those who are not yet instructors presented great ideas on how they perceived rubric construction for the classroom.

Doug also provided us with some other great resources to glean information from on rubrics and how they affect our teaching and grading experiences in the classroom! Doug did a great job in leading the seminar and keeping the threads going!

Question #2:

I wanted to show another side of rubrics. The text has gone into great lengths about how successful and vital rubrics can be, but this article talks about some things that are still not right with rubrics.
Take a look at the journal entry and see if you agree/disagree with the author's opinion.
http://pareonline.net/getvn.asp?v=9&n=2

Participants shared some lively discussion on how rubrics have to be carefully constructed for different types of students and different types of assignments! Some other good resources on rubrics were also presented!

III. My reflections in relation to the "Reflecting on the Seminar" questions:

1) I did feel very engaged by Doug's questions and provided resources. He did some good research and provided great material for us to reflect on and discuss!

2) I learned a lot more about rubrics, and plan to use these resources as I move along in my teaching career for sure!

3) I will investigate further how I can use the suggested ideas and resources in my teaching!

4) I was surprised how rubrics are such an important part of teaching and how most of us didn't realize their power and potential!

5) I feel that I participated at a graduate level in this seminar; I shared with the cohort what I have attempted with rubrics and how I feel the need to continue using them even more in all classes I will teach! I felt that the seminar was a great learning experience for us all; we all did a great job of sharing and reflecting!

6) The seminar format was a great educational tool for us, and will continue to be throughout the rest of the course!