I loved using rubrics when I was a teacher. They front-load quite a bit of the decision-making and work of grading, which makes it extremely simple and much less subjective. They also allow for very open ended instructions while maintaining a very structured grading system. The problem with rubrics is that they are really easy to do, but can be difficult to do well. In fact, I have to admit that I have often found myself getting bogged down in the initial phases of creating a rubric only to find out later that I should have spent more time in the fine tuning stages.
Rubistar does almost all of the initial phases of rubric creation for you so that you can spend almost all of your time fine tuning. And best of all? It is free. I'm sold. Or rather, not sold because I didn't pay anything. But still, this site is awesome. Check it out by clicking here.
I haven't taught anything since the fall semester of 2009, but this is still a quality resource for my teaching buddies.
Rubistar does almost all of the initial phases of rubric creation for you so that you can spend almost all of your time fine tuning. And best of all? It is free. I'm sold. Or rather, not sold because I didn't pay anything. But still, this site is awesome. Check it out by clicking here.
I haven't taught anything since the fall semester of 2009, but this is still a quality resource for my teaching buddies.
I love rubistar, too. It makes explaining an assignment clearer to the students because the expectations are right in front of them. A fantastic source indeed!
ReplyDeleteThere is one problem that I've found with the overly detailed rubrics...my students will look through them and pick and choose what they want to do. For example, they might decide to forgo the project title page if they see that it is only going to cost them a few points. To solve this, I am making my rubrics more generalized by providing only the maximum points they can receive for the project format rather than breaking the points down in specific terms. Am I making sense? :-)
ReplyDelete@Janice: That makes perfect sense. As a high school student I did the same thing! (You can ask Lindsey Lea... LOL)
ReplyDeleteThe categories for my latest project are: writing process, focus on assigned topic, spelling/punctuation, and creativity. These categories are much more difficult to dodge.