What do you already know about rubrics? What do you want to know?

A scoring guide that seeks to assess a student’s performance based on the sum of a full range of criteria rather than a single numerical score. Specifically rubrics are matrixes that define what is expected in a learning situation. It is designed to give students both feedback and guidance

Feedback – Gives information about where a student is in relation to a learning target Guidance – Gives direction and information to help students improve - Important to hand out rubric when the project is assigned so students know how they will be graded

A rubric clarifies the often mysterious grade at the end of a unit, project, paper or presentation by giving insight and direction about what is important about the science activity. Rubrics can be created for any content area and they can easily be modified

An established rubric can be used or slightly modified and applied to many activities. Many experts believe that rubrics improve students’ end products (because they know the expectations) and therefore increase learning.

When teachers evaluate papers or projects, they know implicitly what makes a good final product and why – the rubric serves as the guide to assessment Assessment is more meaningful

Before creating a rubric, you need to decide whether you want an analytic or holistic rubric – Analytic – identifies and assesses components of a finished project – Holistic – assesses student work as a whole Neither rubric is better than the other. Consider your students when deciding which one to use

Example of analytic rubric (Taken from Rubrics located at Criteria4 points3 points2 points1 point Has a plan for Investigation The plan is thorough The plan is lacking a few details The plan is missing major details The plan is incomplete and limited Use of Materials Manages all materials responsibly Uses the materials responsibly most of the time Mishandles some of the materials Does not use materials properly Collects the DataThorough collectionSome of the data Major portions of the data are missing The data collection consists of a few points Notice how different components are assessed It is helpful to show students samples of each level of the rubric

Example of holistic rubric (Taken from Rubrics located at Notice how there is only one level of criteria so the product is graded as a whole. It is helpful to show students samples of each level of the rubric Proficient- 3 points The student's project has a hypothesis, a procedure, collected data, and analyzed results. The project is thorough and the findings are in agreement with the data collected. There are minor inaccuracies that do not affect the quality of the project. Adequate- 2 points The student's project may have a hypothesis, a procedure, collected data, and analyzed results. The project is not as thorough as it could be; there are a few overlooked areas. The project has a few inaccuracies that affect the quality of the project. Limited- 1 point The student's project may have a hypothesis, a procedure, collected data, and analyzed results. The project has several inaccuracies that affect the quality of the project.

First, develop the concepts to be taught. These should be aligned to the curriculum/learning statements Second, choose the criteria to be evaluated – Name the evidence to be produced. Third, determine the level of performance for each criteria Fourth, create a grid and plug in all of your information

Example: Let’s say you create a rubric to assess students on planning an investigation and collecting data. It could look to similar to this: Criteria4 points3 points2 points1 point Has a plan for Investigation The plan is thorough The plan is lacking a few details The plan is missing major details The plan is incomplete and limited Use of Materials Manages all materials responsibly Uses the materials responsibly most of the time Mishandles some of the materials Does not use materials properly Collects the DataThorough collectionSome of the data Major portions of the data are missing The data collection consists of a few points Go over the rubric step-by-step with students before they start the project.

You can weight a rubric to make certain criteria worth more than other criteria. Here’s a really easy way to do it. Let’s say you want to put the major emphasis of the grade on collecting the data, a little emphasis of the grade on use of materials, and the smallest emphasis on the plan for the investigation.

Criteria4 points3 points2 points1 point Has a plan for Investigation The plan is thorough The plan is lacking a few details The plan is missing major details The plan is incomplete and limited Use of Materials (x2) Manages all materials responsibly Uses the materials responsibly most of the time Mishandles some of the materials Does not use materials properly Collects the Data (x4) Thorough collectionSome of the data Major portions of the data are missing The data collection consists of a few points Scale: A – points B – points C – points D – points F –Below 17 points

Allowing students to help generate the grading rubric has many benefits. These benefits include: – improving student motivation – interest – performance in the project.

First – generate the criteria of the rubric. Make sure you guide students so that your learning statements are part of the criteria. Then develop the performance levels of the students and decide what is needed at each level

When students are part of creating the rubric, you will find that they will actually grade themselves with higher standards then perhaps, you, the teacher, would.

Let’s practice creating some rubrics!! Let’s get into groups of 3 or 4 You will need a big post-it note paper