The Life Cycle of a Rubric

Self-reflection and assessment is at the heart of the teaching profession, whether teachers are evaluating their students or their own pedagogy. Through the use of rubrics, teachers can clearly identify students’ mastery of learning objectives, while also reflecting on whether they facilitated effective strategies that provided students the opportunity to master objectives. During the lesson planning/developing process, rubrics and forms of assessment need to be identified and created. A final step before the implementation of my “Becoming a 21st Century Poet: Digital Storytelling Project” is to develop an analytical rubric; one which establishes levels of performance for each criteria as opposed to a holistic rubric which does not separate each criteria (Mueller, 2010). This week, I used a sequential process to develop a rubric for grading my students’ authentic, project-based assessment.


Step 1:
As a language arts teacher who advocates the writing process, I am probably biased towards using a process-oriented approach when creating any project; however, I am a firm believer in “pre-writing.” I took about 5 minutes to brainstorm ALL the elements that I felt were required for my students to use to complete the project. After brainstorming a list of elements, I highlighted the most important and combined certain elements into categories. By determining the criteria to include in the rubric, asking myself what the students should learn and how the project will be evident of this learning (Shelly, Gunter, & Gunter, 2010).



Step 2:
After identifying the 6 major criteria, I used a table I created in Word to begin planning how the grades would range from A-F. By creating a rough draft of the rubric on Word, I determined how I could easily differentiate between each level of performance (Superior-Poor). With my students as my target audience, I knew that my language had to be clear and the descriptors had to be detailed (Mueller, 2010). I found that applying a numerical reference would provide my students with the clearest instruction; for example, under the “Poetic Elements” criteria, instead of the descriptor “Superior” being “Clearly used multiple poetic elements,” I used a number for each descriptor. “Superior” became “Clearly used 4 poetic elements.” I have found that when students are able to quantify what is expected of them, they are more likely to complete the ideal project and master the skills.

Step 3:
Locating an online rubric-creating tool was a new stage in rubric development. Prior to EME 5050, I used Word as a basis for creating rubrics. After exploring both RubiStar and iRubric, I found that iRubric provided me with the options I needed, primarily easily embedding and sharing my rubric, as well as auto-calculation. With easy-to-use controls, I was able to add, delete, and move criteria, in addition to weighting various criteria based on the importance. When I discovered that iRubric allowed you to select each level of performance for each criteria and it automatically generated a score based on the pre-determined weights, I was IN LOVE! By creating a class, I can grade my students with one "click" of the mouse! Using Microsoft Word and creating tables seems extremely outdated now that I have discovered iRubric.

Step 4:
As a person who frequently “thinks outside the box,” I understand that sometimes I lean towards the “idealist” side as opposed to the “realistic/practical” side. As a result, I emailed my rubric to a friend who teaches 2nd grade. By having an outside set of eyes review my rubric under the same circumstances my students will (without prior knowledge), I knew that my “teacher-friend” would critique any criteria that was not clear. After changing around some of the diction, I was ready to “publish” my rubric.

Step 5:
The final step, which is implementation of the rubric for grading purposes, has not been completed yet because students will begin this project in about 2 weeks. After I have used my rubric, the “life” of the rubric will not be terminated. I will self-reflect on both the grades and quality of the projects and compare them with my expectations to determine that my rubric outlines and clearly aligns with the learning objectives. When I reuse my curriculum page with future classes, I am sure I wil modify certain sections that seemed to “work” and “not work,” always reflection on my delivery/facilitation and the quality of my rubric. Assessment and evaluation is an ongoing cycle.

Overall, with the help of the resources of Mueller (2010), Shelly, Gunter, & Gunter (2010, and iRubric, I feel very confident that I have developed a comprehensive, effective rubric for both my students’ and my purposes. To view my rubric, please use this link, view on my curriculum page, or view the embedded window below.



References:

Mueller, J.F. (2010). Authentic assessment toolbox. Retrieved from http://jonathan.mueller.faculty.noctrl.edu/toolbox/howstep4.htm

Shelly, G.B., Gunter, G.A., & Gunter, R.E. (2010). Integrating Technology and digital media in the classrom. Boston, MA: Cenage.


Digitally Yours,
Jessica Levene