When I think about how this between-the-lines world parallels into my classroom, I immediately think of rubrics. I remember when I became a teacher and was first introduced into the beautiful world of rubrics. I immediately flashed back to my own educational experience and one anecdote stands out above the rest.
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| "Grading Exams" by Olga Caprotti CC BY-NC 2.0 license https://flic.kr/p/5DLXjR |
When I became an educator, I looked back on this event even more critically. What were the criteria? How were they scored? How did this teacher make sure she was grading accurately? How could I have improved with NO feedback. This is the glory that is rubrics. They take the guessing and questions out of grading. They give students clear objectives to reach for, provide teachers with clear guidelines to help remove bias from the grading process, and ultimately give students specific feedback on which elements they need to improve.
If you aren't using rubrics in your classroom, think about what your current students/future teachers will look back upon in the years to come. Do your grades magically come from thin air?
If you have never used rubrics before Rubistar is a great easy to use site, I recently used iRubric which has an interesting click and score function, and I love using Goobric with Google Apps for Education!
Hi Marissa,
ReplyDeleteThank you for sharing this reflection from your days as a high school student and an experience with a "no rubric" teacher. I thought it was great to then describe how you now view the use of rubrics as an educator. I can see where this past experience helped to show you how important it is for the student to have a rubric, so they can have an understand of how an assignment is being graded. When the grade just shows up on the paper without any feedback or guide for the grade, I think it also hinders part of the learning process. How could the assignment been improved? What elements made the assignment successful? I don't think that a learning experience should just end with a mysterious grade, just as you thought in the 9th grade with your anti-rubric instructor. Rubrics are part of a well planned lesson, I don't know why an instructor in this day would create a lesson plan without one.
Thank you for sharing!
Kelly Grieneisen Tillotson
Thank you so much for sharing that story with us. It reminded me of a "no-rubric" teacher in my sister's life and how upset getting her grade made me. She is a straight A student and this grade of an 80 with no explanation why infuriated me and I'm just her older sister. When she asked the teacher why she was missing points the teacher said the assignment didn't wow him. That response drove me crazy and it wasn't even my grade, so I can only imagine how you felt or how my sister felt. Teacher like this are the reasons why rubrics are so important. Just like your experience this happens to be another high school experience. Hopefully as more and more teachers learn about rubrics they more they can be used in the classroom so students can learn to grow form their assignments. See what they missed points on and how to better their projects so they can receive all their points.
ReplyDeleteAshley B
Hi Marissa,
ReplyDeleteThe story you shared was very interesting. I believe that if your teacher would have included a rubric for the paper, it would have provided clear expectations and removed subjective judgement from the situation. I agree that rubrics provide clear guidelines and decrease bias towards specific students. I have also had teachers and even professors in the past that have had their "favorites" in the classroom. In these classes, I feel that if rubrics were used, I would have been more successful with assignments. I believe that when teachers use rubrics it guides their students to academic success, which ultimately leads to learning.
Great post! Thanks for sharing!
Alexis