In my ENWR-371 class (Teaching Writing Grades 6-12) and CURR-314 class (Assessment of Learning) we're currently discussing rubrics. What makes a good/bad rubric? What is less intimidating to students? How can I convey the goals of the unit within a rubric? As is true with most topics in education, trying to make a rubric from scratch is difficult, and trying to make a rubric in the vacuum of theory classes is even more difficult. So, I turned to Google for a little help and clarification of rubrics. I was overjoyed to find several rubric creating websites! RubiStar, teAchnology, and RCampus were three useful websites that I found. Almost all of the rubrics on this site meet the standards discussed in CURR-314 and were simple to understand, a necessary adaptation discussed in my ENWR-371 course.
Rubrics are so important to English classes. As an English teacher, I'll be assessing my students' ability to write and comprehend literature. Most of my assessments will be performance tasks,with a few tests (perhaps on grammar, spelling, history of a an author or a novel) mixed in. The rubric is key to evaluating a performance task because it gives a range for students to be graded on, and shows their target areas of improvment in a subject where not every answer is cut and dry, right or wrong. Thus, the websites I found provide a great springboard to develop effective evaluation strategies in my classroom.
Lizz,
ReplyDeleteThese websites are really great. I was looking for some support sites for creating rubrics for CURR 314 too but was unsuccessful. I think that they will definitely come in handy when trying to help evaluate students based on the assignments I create for them. I feel that the RubiStar site seems to be the most realistic and helpful in analyzing students based upon the learning targets they will be learning from me. These would have been perfect last semester. I can't wait to use these!
Lizz, you've pointed something out that is evident and so useful in not only English classrooms, but all classrooms. Where before teachers in certain close-knit environments could advise each other about resources, now many of these resources are available online. It's simple to find example lesson plans in archives for teachers to modify and use. I am also taking Assessment and these websites can at least give novice teachers an idea of where to start, before incorporating ideologies given to us by classes like Assessment.
ReplyDelete