Rubrics
What are your feelings about how rubrics help in the grading process with essays and projects?
Kathleen, That's great. I'm curious to hear if you have used underlining or highlighting, asking students to identify the most important parts of their questions. This tends to work well for me too.
Dr. Melissa Read
I teach English Composition, and by using a Rubrics for each of the different styles essay helps me not only in time management but also allows the student to see where they have lost points on their assignment.
Nicole, Excellent to hear. Rubrics are a wonderful time saver. They also allow us to more easily delegate grading tasks to others when we need to.
Dr. Melissa Read
I refine my rubric after the first time I use it but so far they help me grade faster and they also are very helpful in helping the student be more accepting of their work and corresponding mark.
Lisa, Sounds like you have found rubrics to be a useful tool. That's wonderful to hear. Note that they do far more than streamline grading. They make grading more fair too. With rubrics, we can make apples to apples comparisons between our students.
Dr. Melissa Read
Rubrics have definitely streamline the grading of essays for me. I look for key words or phrases of points I know should have been hit. Then I re-read for grammatical errors.
Robert, So true. It also makes grading a lot more fair because it helps us make apples to apples comparisons between students.
Dr. Melissa Read
That are a good way of defining expectations in advance of testing. Each student has access to a copy of the expectations and a rubric on how grades will be determined. Works like a dream in practical classes
I find Rubrics to be essential in streamlining the grading process. Expectations are set forth, weights are assigned and from there it is a simple binary "had the expectation been met or not".
Judy, Yes you bring up an important point. Rubrics are not just great for streamlining grading. They also help so much in giving students the clarity they need to understand how grading works. Furthermore, they help us take a fair approach to our grading.
Dr. Melissa Read
I think rubrics are absolutely necessary for grading essays because it is not fair to the student if they do not know exactly how something will be graded. I make sure my students have looked and understand the rubric for all essays and projects so that there is no confusion as to what the expectations are. All tests, in order to be helpful, must have a way to measure the knowledge and in my mind the only way to do this is by using a rubric.
Students feel much more confident begining a project that has a rubric. They understand from the onset what is expected of them and how much time to put into each area. For example, our students are asked to have a cartoon included in one of their research projects. When they know how many ponts this carries they do not spend all day looking for one.
Melissa, This is great approach and I'm glad to hear it is working so well for you. Yes, rubrics help our students gain transparency into our approach for evaluation. They also help speed the grading process and allow us to delegate grading to others more easily while maintaining grading quality.
Dr. Melissa Read
I use rubrics for projects and specific essay exams so the students understand the exact way these items are graded. I usually ask that the students submit their work organized as the rubric is making it easier to identify that all of the components are satisfactorily completed.
