Teacher: Creator or Destroyer?

What is a Rubric?

When students work on a task, there is a need to identify different degrees of excellence using a set of performance requirements. This is defined as a rubric. However, rubrics need an explanation for criteria to be effective (Brookhart, 2013). Then a rubric is deemed as an assistant to the students and instructors for evaluation that leads to an enhancement of teaching learning process. The evaluation techniques are deeper for the areas covered are wider (Laurian & Fitzgerald, 2013). A rubric must be sent to the students well in advance detailing the requirements of the task and the metrics.

Consequences of using a Rubric

When we use the lens of constructivism, we can see that each child thinks in his own was based on his own scheme and hence, learning process is a flow that is unique to each child. Definitely one flaw of using a rubric is that evaluation becomes uniform for all, even though there is structure within which some diversity is present. Even the best rubrics do not fully represent how students need examples, criticism, and an opportunity to be engaged (Qasim & Qasim, 2015). It is still a way to control the way students think. The students stop thinking for themselves and start working for the rubric. Hence it would be necessary to have the descriptors created carefully to allow for maximum room for learners to perform (Chapman and Inman, 2009). This is not everyone’s cup of tea and leads to a lot of differences in the way students are tested.

My Perspective and Examples

When learning outcomes are demonstrated by a visible performance, then rubrics are the best way to assess them (Brookhart, 2013). I learnt through experience how to use the rubrics for assessment of the tasks I created for the students. Some of the ways that I used in middle school were:

· Have a whole class discussion to create a rubric. Instructor and the kids can work on an alignment on the parameters to be assessed, their span of marking and the rationale behind it. Then one can expect the kids to use it more effectively for designing their task solutions and self-reflection using the rubric.

· For example, for a project, when kids would ask me, ‘Should I use a pink chart or a white?’ or any such question, my response always was, ‘What does the rubric say?’ This helped the kids to slowly use the rubric as a means to design the task and also reflect on it keenly before submissions. I often have the kids say, ‘I covered some parts of the rubric but here is where I need help in improvement’.

· I avoided making the rubrics very prescriptive but leave them broad, allowing the students to think with a certain level of freedom.

· I brought differentiation by ensuring that the task covers multiple types of intelligences and each is represented on the rubric. For example, a math concept can be presented using a poem, an essay or a role play. I bring in differentiation of product also by allowing the students to present the work the way they choose. Their point of view for presentations matter (Chan & Ho, 2019).

Conclusion

Our focus is to build skills of life in the kids. For that we create rigorous tasks. However, with the tasks we also need to build rigorous rubrics in order have an evaluation that is complete. There is no point in asking the kids to do a complex project on Pythagoras Theorem and then mark them on math content only. Let us create rubrics that are deep, vast, flexible and include student thought processes for a complete learning experience that focuses on student independence of thought and skills. Rubrics take time to apply but help the students learn (Brookhart, 2013).

References

• Brookhart, S. (2013). How to create and use rubrics for formative assessment and grading (pp. 3-14). ASCD.http://www.ascd.org/Publications/Books/Overview/How-to-Createand-Use-Rubrics-for-Formative-Assessment-and-Grading.aspx
• Chan, Z., & Ho, S. (2019). Good and bad practices in rubrics: the perspectives of students and educators. Assessment & Evaluation in Higher Education, 44(4), 533–545. https://doi-org.proxy1.lib.trentu.ca/10.1080/02602938.2018.1522528
• Chapman, V., & Inman, M. (2009). A conundrum: Rubrics or creativity/metacognitivedevelopment? Education Digest: Essential Readings Condensed for Quick Review, 75(2),53-56. https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/EJ849020.pdf.
• Laurian, S., & Fitzgerald, C. (2013). Effects of using rubrics in a university academic level. Procedia - Social and Behavioral Sciences, 76, 431-440.https://doi.org/10.1016/j.sbspro.2013.04.141
• Qasim, A., & Qasim, Z. (2015). Using rubrics to assess writing: Pros and cons in Pakistani teachers' opinions. Journal of Literature, Languages and Linguistics, 16, 51-57. https://www.researchgate.net/publication/285815750_Using_rubrics_to_access_ writing_Pr os_and_cons_in_Pakistani_teachers'_opinions.