Grading rubrics
Anyone care to share effective rubrics?
Like yourself, I too like giving students a grading rubric for each asignment. I think it is very helpful when the student fully understands how to best use it. Some students just don't get it. I enjoy using it to help students double check their work.
I agree about "compromising" a student's learning using rubrics but they are a great way to fair and use when defending a grade. I add an area for "going beyond the requirements" of the task as to not compromise or limit the student's creativity.
I agree about sharing the rubric "ahead" of time. I do like to include points for extra or beyond the requirements. Sometimes I feel rubrics can limit a student's creativity because once they have accomplished all of the requirements, they usually won't put in any extra efforts. How do you reward the "superior" students compared to "met the requirements of the task" type students?
Good points Joseph! Ultimately, you have to use the methods that you feel most comfortable with. If you feel like rubrics compromise your ability to educate students within your area of expertise, then it's best to stay away from using them.
I think Rubric's are a waist of time. No matter if a student is upset with the grading they are still going to ask about the rubric. I don't know how many times I repeat myself within one course. That is part of the game.
The point of a class is to inform the students of new information about your subject. A rubric is they way they will be graded for knowing that information. The entire course is again explained over and over again even with a rubric. The students that you feel have a grasp on the course requirements, still get points taken off because they don't understand the information, not because they didn't follow or not follow the rubric.
I use a grading rubric for each assignment. I share this rubric with the students so that they know what is expected and what I am looking for in each assignment. I convert the information in the rubric into an Excel workbook so that I can use formulas to quickly adn easily grade each assignment. It makes grading quick and easy. It also reduces the amount of time I have to spend explaining why students received their grades.
What I do is make a checklist based on the assignment's instructions. The deliverable produced by each instruction is given a point value. When I grade, I just go down the list and take off for anything that was missed.
It's important to share the rubric with the students before the due date. If they're kept in the dark about how the assignment will be graded, it will be difficult for them to deliver exactly what we want.
