Finally a Rubric I Enjoy

In the 17 years that I have spent grading students I have always searched for what I feel makes sense for both the student and for my grading. Since I am huge on PBL and SBL this is something that I have struggled with. Whenever I have created or used a rubric I struggled with what is the next step. I found students seemed to only want to know what they had to do to get a certain number. There are students that felt a 2 was fine for them and others that aimed for a 4. I also talked with students about what it means to just go a little further. Through the years I have begun to see my world as can you or  you can't quite yet. I wanted students to show me what they knew and a lot of the time they just did not want to put the work into a paper rubric after they had finished a project.

I had a good conversation with my Principal about this throughout the years and he always offered me great advice. One of the important things we always talked about was what was really important and what students would really remember. This is when I started my search for a yes or no approach on grading. I also would let student redo assignments until they mastered that skill. When I was asked why would I do this by other teachers I told them the truth. In real life we have to work everyday on our skills and everyday we would get a little closer and a little closer and a little closer then finally one day the skill is mastered. This is the same for students they are all over the map as to when they will master a skill. I could not punish them for being at different skill levels but if they can show they have mastered a skill sometime during that classes of course it should reflect in their grade.

The past few years I have struggled with rubrics. They seemed like busy work to me since a student should either be able to show they have met the basic standard or they have gone above and beyond. I wanted the students to show me they have gone above and beyond. This shows that they are using reflection which is a skill not measured in school but one that life demands we have if we are to grow as an individual. The good news is I have finally found the rubric I will now use. It is a single point rubric that has areas for students to show why they feel they have exceeded and what they still need to develop. Take a look at Cult of Pedagogy what a great resource.

Remember even though we are currently bombarded each day with new tasks there are ways to improve our craft and our classroom.




http://www.cultofpedagogy.com/holistic-analytic-single-point-rubrics/