Rubrics: Why You Wanna Use 'Em!

“Children aren’t helped to become caring members of a community, or ethical decision-makers, or critical thinkers, so much as they’re simply trained to follow directions.” 

― Alfie Kohn

    Whenever I’d visit the classroom, I never ceased to be amazed at how rarely teachers make their expectations known to the students. If a student is confused about what is expected of him or her, is it any wonder they don’t do quite as well as we expect. Many educational leaders say that we have to raise expectations and raise standards if we are going to develop the skills that students need to succeed in the 21st-century workplace. Yet, rarely do we involve the student in this process.

One of our most valuable tools in helping our students improve achievement is the rubric. It is an integral part of our Non-Traditional Learning strategy and should be used in every class, every day.

What the Rubric is NOT!

A rubric is a wonderful tool… when used appropriately. When used inappropriately, it will cause you many problems. A rubric should NEVER be used to threaten students. “If you do this …., I will take off points!” This is bad, very bad. It is really, really bad! It will create an antagonistic and toxic environment and will cause a rift between facilitator and student.

    A rubric should be a powerful motivating force that encourages the student to do his/her best. The facilitator should be firm but compassionate in using the rubric. This is a new tool and many people are not familiar with its use (including parents). They will not understand how a child can obtain low grades in rubrics, and frankly, neither can I. The rubric should have grades numbered 1-2-3-4-5. Avoid rubrics that go to 30, 40, or even 50 points. If a student drops one criterion on such a rubric, it will affect his grade immensely. Doing this will assure that students disrespect and dislike you, perhaps intensely dislike you.

    Rubrics should have no more than 4 criteria (except in some cases where multiple skills are being evaluated. This is usually in the higher grades – ninth grade+).

    Rubrics remove the subjectivity from the in-class grading process. Avoid taking off excessive points for every little thing. Some things are more important than others. Be flexible and compassionate. When students misbehave, offer to meet with them after class and, in a kind yet firm manner, explain what you expect from them in class. If a situation becomes too difficult for you to handle, speak to your supervisor. They will usually help you resolve the problem. Avoid punishing the student by taking off points because you are angry. Rubrics are positive tools when used in a positive way.

What is a Rubric?

    A rubric is a scoring guide that seeks to evaluate a student's performance based on the sum of a full range of criteria rather than a single numerical score. It is an authentic assessment tool used to measure students' work. Authentic assessment is used to evaluate students' work by measuring the product according to real-life criteria. Therefore, a rubric is a scoring guide that seeks to evaluate a student’s performance based on the sum of a full range of criteria rather than a single numerical score. In other words, a rubric provides a clear guide as to how ‘what learners do’ in a course will be assessed. 

    Although the same criteria are considered, expectations vary according to one's level of expertise. The performance level of a novice is expected to be lower than that of an expert and would be reflected in different standards. For example, in evaluating a story, a first-grade author may not be expected to write a coherent paragraph to earn a high evaluation. A tenth grader would need to write coherent paragraphs in order to earn high marks.

    A rubric is a working guide for students and teachers, handed out before the assignment begins in order to get students to think about the criteria on which their work will be judged.

    Rubrics can be created for any content area including math, science, history, writing, foreign languages, drama, art, music, and even cooking! Once developed, they can be modified easily for various grade levels.

    Many experts believe that rubrics improve students' end products and therefore increase learning. When teachers evaluate papers or projects, they know implicitly what makes a good final product and why.

    In brief, facilitators should prepare rubrics as guides students can use to build on current knowledge. They should also consider rubric creation as part of your planning time, not as an additional time commitment to your preparation. Once a rubric is created, it can be used for a variety of activities. Reviewing, re-conceptualizing, and revisiting the same concepts from different angles improves understanding of the lesson for students.

     An established rubric can be used or slightly modified and applied to many activities. For example, the standards for excellence in a writing rubric remain constant throughout the school year; what does change is your students' competence and your teaching strategy. Because the essentials remain constant, it is not necessary to create a completely new rubric for every activity.. A rubric divides the assigned work into component parts and provides clear descriptions of the characteristics of the work associated with each component, at varying levels of mastery. Teachers can increase the quality of their direct instruction by providing focus, emphasis, and attention to particular details as a model for students

    When working with my teachers, I request their weekly lesson plans AND their rubrics and reflections. This helps them plan their lessons with clear objectives and this clarity makes it easier for them to understand what they seek from the students and create effective activities to carry these out. By doing this, most have come to realize the importance of rubrics.

    In my conferences, I emphasize the use of Analytic Rubrics where the levels of performance are described for each criterion. Analytic Rubrics score for separate, individual parts of the product or performance. Analytic rubrics result initially in several scores, followed by a summed total score - their use represents assessment on a multidimensional level (Mertler, 2001). It also gives feedback to students regarding how to improve their performance and provides descriptions at each level of performance regarding what is expected for each criterion.

    We can use Holistic Rubrics which score the overall quality, proficiency, or understanding of the specific content and skills without judging the component parts separately and consider the criteria in combination on a single descriptive scale, however, to a much lesser extent. It has certain shortcomings which go against the trend in the PEAR? system. Among these shortcomings are that it is difficult to assign scores consistently, because few students meet one description accurately and it does not yield feedback on students’ strengths and weaknesses. (Karkehabadi,, S., 2013)

    Repeat after me, “Rubrics are my best friends! Rubrics are my best friends!” Why do I say this? Primarily because it is true! If you, as a facilitator learn to use rubrics effectively, your classes will function in a manner you’ve only dreamed about. You will be able to ascertain whether or not genuine learning is going on in your classroom. It is an invaluable tool and once you learn to use these correctly, you will wonder how you ever got along without them. In the PEAR? system, rubrics play an important role.

What is the Purpose of a Rubric?

    There are two distinct types of rubrics. One is the Assessment Rubric (used daily in class) and the Evaluation Rubric (used in presentations, role plays, etc.)

    The Assessment Rubric is formative, promotes student learning and achievement, and can be quantitative or qualitative. The Evaluation Rubric provide accountability in order to improve the educational system, is summative, and quantitative.

    There are many advantages to using rubrics. Here are just a few:

·      Rubrics help develop and measure higher-order skills or evaluate complex tasks.

·      Rubrics help clarify vague, fuzzy goals.

·      Rubrics help students understand your expectations.

·      Rubrics help students self-improve.

·      Rubrics can inspire better student performance.

·      Rubrics improve feedback to students.

·      Rubrics make scoring easier and faster.

·      Rubrics make scoring more accurate, unbiased, and consistent.

·      Rubrics reduce arguments with students.

·      Rubrics improve feedback to faculty and staff. (Karkehabadi,, S., 2013)

Rubrics have four primary purposes.

The first function is that of making known your expectations.

The second is as an evaluative tool.

The third is for behavior modification.

The fourth is to provide students with success experiences every day.

Mastering each of these purposes will give you a real advantage in the class environment.

    Rubrics can be created for any content area! Once developed, they can be modified easily for various grade levels.  

    Remember one of the primary premises of this teaching method is that all students naturally want to learn. A major problem that many traditional educators have is that the student, the object in the learning environment, is not clear about what is expected of him or her. Oh sure, they know that they are expected to study and get good grades, but beyond this point, it gets rather ambiguous.

The first purpose, therefore, of a rubric is to make clear the expectations. A well-made rubric is super clear about what is expected of the student, not just on the cognitive or academic level, but also on the social level. This is why the rubric MUST BE EXPLAINED to the student EVERY TIME an activity or project is carried out. The rubric must be tied directly to the teaching objectives as outlined in your lesson plans. They should be concise, usually not more than 3 or 4 criteria. The criteria must be clear for each grade assigned.

What this means is that the student will have a clear vision of what is expected of him and will work to achieve this. In a school survey of 4th through 12th-grade students, 97.3% of our students said they understood clearly what was expected of them in their classwork, projects, and activities. It is unfair and unjust to arbitrarily and subjectively evaluate a student. The rubric eliminates this problem.

A rubric is a working guide for students and teachers and, when handed out before the assignment begins, will get students to think about the criteria on which their work will be judged.

When students receive rubrics beforehand, they understand how they will be evaluated and can prepare accordingly. Developing a grid and making it available as a tool for students' use will provide the scaffolding necessary to improve the quality of their work and increase their knowledge.

When a facilitator is creating the rubric, he/she must determine the following:

1. Why are we giving students this assignment? What are its key learning goals? What do we want students to learn by completing it?

2. What are the skills that we want students to demonstrate in this assignment?

3. What are the characteristics of good student work? (good presentation, good lab report, good writing, good student teaching)

4. What specific characteristics do we want to see in completed assignments? (Karkehabadi,, S., 2013)

The second purpose is as an evaluative tool. Technically speaking, you should, therefore, have a grade for every class you give. This grade is more valid than just relying on summative (and usually linguistic-based) evaluations at the end of each chapter. These are formative evaluations that demonstrate the work the student truly carries out in the classroom environment. This means that you, as facilitator spend most of your time observing and evaluating. It also means that you are always directly involved with the students. FACILITATORS ARE NEVER SEATED (and definitely never seated doing something else.) Let me repeat this again: FACILITATORS ARE NEVER SEATED unless they are working with a group or engaged in a group discussion (in which case they would sit with the group). They are as engaged in the activities as are the students. At the end of the semester, you may have more than 40 grades (happened often with me) and that is also fine. The true barometer of the work done by your students is what they do in the classroom. Therefore, rubrics provide students a clear understanding of expectations, communicate specific and immediate feedback, and help students to become self-reliant, self-directed, and self-assessing learners. Among the things a facilitator evaluates are the 21st century skills of communication, collaboration, critical thinking, creativity, cultural diversity, autonomy, and digital learning. Therefore, these skills should be included in the rubric as skills to be developed.  This becomes the assessment tool for the development of these 21st Century skills.

USING THE RUBRIC FOR BEHAVIOR MODIFICATION

The third purpose is behavior modification. This is an important socio-emotional learning tool for the student. In this matter, the teacher defines what is acceptable behavior in accordance with the institution’s character education program, or established social and emotional norms, and includes aspects of these in the rubric. This eliminates the need for teachers to continually demand students’ attention. At one class visit, I heard the teacher (who was teaching in the traditional method) request the students' attention 22 times in a one-hour class, That is approximately once every 2.5 minutes. I would like to say this was the worst case of this I had seen, but it wasn’t.

I met with the teacher and helped her in mapping out a non-traditional class activity for her next class. Every student completed all five parts of the activity, requested to go beyond what was stipulated in the rubric and, even more amazing, she did not have to tell any student to pay attention… not once in the entire class! When the class period ended, students WANTED TO CONTINUE working (and the following period was SNACK!) In the class reflections, the students wrote things like "I wish every class were like this.” and “I really enjoyed today’s class and learned a lot.”

A rubric is an excellent tool for behavior modification. The facilitator needs to be aware, especially of the social interaction between students while they are carrying out their activities. Often, we will spot undesirable behavior, whether it be a snide or disrespectful comment or outright bullying. As a facilitator, you will have to intercede.

If possible, a facilitator should just walk close to the student, show the rubric to the student and “Remember, we are evaluating such and such a thing.” If the rubric does not include whatever behavior you are trying to modify, it is imperative that you include this in the next rubric. Also, take a moment after class to speak with the student about why his/her behavior is unacceptable.

There are specific behaviors we are looking for when using rubrics for behavior modification. These include 1) openness to new ideas; 2) flexibility; 3) cooperativeness with others; 4) willingness to accept and use feedback; 5) awareness of own impact on others; 6) ability to deal with conflict; 7) ability to accept personal responsibility; 8) ability to express thoughts and feelings effectively and appropriately; 9) attention to ethical and moral considerations; 10) initiative and motivation. (Stoupas, G., n.d.)

For example, if a group is working and a student remarks that an idea is “stupid”, (obviosly an innappropriate way to address a classmate) then you would be certain to include the use of uplifting or positive words in your next class rubric, making special emphasis on this new criteria addition. Of course, you should ask that student to stay after class and there should follow a discussion about why that particular manner of expression was inappropriate. Rubrics should not have more than 3 or 4 criteria because it becomes confusing for the student and burdensome for the facilitator.   Rubrics should also have clearly defined standards in the Performance Descriptions of each section of the criteria. These Performance Descriptions should be as clear and concise as possible. You should NEVER use a rubric that has no performance descriptions. This leaves much of your grading to subjectivity, and thus can be questioned in any parent-teacher meeting. Clear Performance Descriptions helps reduce, and often eliminates, facilitator subjectivity. Every Performance Description criterion should be clearly understood by the students of the grade level you are teaching.

I once visited a primarily grade class where the facilitator read the rubric criteria and performance standards with words that were way above the level of understanding of 2nd-grade students. Needless to say this defeats the entire purpose of the rubric on every level (as an expectation tool, an evaluative tool, and as a tool for behavior modification). Often, simple words will suffice, but it is most important that you confirm that each and every student understands what is expected of them.

    Rubrics are your best friends. They will provide excellent feedback on what is actually occurring in your classroom, serve as the basis of a great parent-teacher meeting, and will make you a better facilitator. It is, therefore, important they are ALWAYS used. The facilitator should be consistent in its use and students will respond accordingly. I have visited classrooms where the facilitator is struggling with behavior modification. I know that he/she has not used the rubric consistently. When I ask to see their previous rubrics, they do not have them or have marked the offending behavior as excellent in previous rubrics. This is just sheer laziness. We cannot effect change if we are not consistent.

    While the rubric pictured seems fine, it is still fraught with the problem of being too general. The more specific each performance description is, the more quickly the offending behavior is extinguished.

RUBRICS BREED A “SUCCESS ATTITUDE!

    The fourth purpose of rubrics is that it provides the success experience to our students every day! As students carry out their activities on a day-to-day basis, it is important that they achieve success along the way in order to develop self-efficacy and self-confidence. The “success attitude” is born from accumulating successes. One of the main benefits of, and a major reason why we say that rubrics should be used in every class every day is that it helps students accomplish these steps of success. It helps students develop those character traits that will lead them to success in future endeavors. In report after report, the holistic learning that students experience in their lives, coupled with the sense of success, enhances the student’s current achievement AND future achievement. One educator states the following:

Their success in college is built upon classroom success, one class and one course (subject) at a time. If our efforts do not reach into the classroom and enhance student classroom success, they are unlikely to substantially impact students’ success. How then should institutions proceed? First and foremost, they must direct their actions to the classroom, especially those in the first year, and construct classrooms whose attributes are such as to enhance the likelihood that students will succeed in the classroom. Tinto, V. (2012, March).

WHEN SHOULD RUBRICS BE USED?

    Rubrics should be used in every class, every day! They should be created specifically to help the student focus on the course objective for that particular class session and should be prepared by the facilitator to address the unique and differing needs of each group. The facilitator determines these needs based on the observations made during the progression of the class sessions. A trained facilitator becomes an expert at recognizing the particular needs of each of his/her groups.

USING THE RUBRIC FOR REFLECTIONS

    Reflections are an important part of the 8-Step process. It is important that students seriously reflect on what they have learned. Experience has shown that students will not take reflections with the appropriate air of importance if there is no process in place to evaluate it. Therefore, we recommend strongly that completion of the reflection be included in the rubrics of each activity.

    The facilitator should make expectations on how the student should complete the reflection known in the rubric. However, the facilitator should not grade the content of the reflection, but rather, use it for guidance and understanding the student's point of view. There is much information that can be derived from a well-written student reflection.

In brief,

?       Prepare rubrics as guides students can use to build on current knowledge.

?       Consider rubrics as part of your planning time, not as an additional time commitment to your preparation.

    Once a rubric is created, it can be used for a variety of activities. Reviewing, re-conceptualizing, and revisiting the same concepts from different angles improves understanding of the lesson for students.

    An established rubric can be used or slightly modified and applied to many activities. For example, the standards for excellence in a writing rubric remain constant throughout the school year; what does change is students' competence and your teaching strategy. Because the essentials remain constant, it is not necessary to create a completely new rubric for every activity.

    Also, remember that the rubric is a living document. It should be adapted to meet the unique needs of each class. This means that the facilitator has to always be modifying his rubrics in accordance with the type of activity, the teaching goals desired, and the general personality of each group. You would not use the same rubric to evaluate a group composed primarily of kinesthetic students as you would one composed of mostly linguistic learners. When used in this manner, it becomes an extremely effective learning tool. It is, therefore, imperative that every facilitator master the art of using rubrics effectively.

    Rubrics make teaching more precise. Include one in every activity you do and place the grade in your grade book immediately after the activity!