It is easy to assign students a
writing assignment in an English classroom and provide them with a due date.
Students will go home and write, and submit it in hopes of receiving a good
grade. Even though instructions to assignments may seem clear, it is essential
that students know what exactly they are being grades on. It is for this reason
that I believe that students should always have a rubric to follow when writing
a paper, even for the first draft. Students need to know what is expected of
them before they start writing so that they can lead their thoughts in the
right direction.
I
understand that creating a rubric may seem like a tedious task to complete, especially
for every assignment; however, there are several useful websites that can make
a teacher’s life so much easier! I personally like to use RubiStar. It is a
free website that does not require you to be a member in order to use it. On
the homepage, you can click on your content area, and you will be directed to
several different topics. You will then select the topic for which you want
your rubric. For example, if I wanted my students to write a persuasive essay,
on the homepage I would click on “writing”. I would then click on “persuasive
essay”.
Once
you have selected your topic, you have to fill out brief information: name, rubric
name, and your zip code. You will then see multiple empty boxes. The great thing
about this website is that you can select from their options, or you can create
your own. Also, you can follow their grading scale (4-1), or you can create
your own using their template. Once complete, just click on Submit and you will
have a copy of your final rubric. There is also the option to go back and edit
it if you are not satisfied. If you do not see the topic that you are teaching
on the list, you can simply select any topic in your content area, and just use
their template as a guide. I believe that this is a great tool to use, especially
for new teachers because this website serves as a guide to creating rubrics.
The one thing we seem to hear non-stop about in our CURR-314 class is the importance of rubrics. As you noted, the idea of making a brand new one for every single assignment may seem to be a bit much, especially for someone who might be in their first year of teaching. A website like this can be a great benefit to the teacher. I have never heard of it before reading this post, but it is now something I plan to investigate as I prepare for my Fieldwork and Student Teaching in the next year. Very good and helpful post, Michelle.
ReplyDeleteAs Ian said, rubrics are very important. Students want to know what they are being graded on. However, another important issue is that parents like to complain when their students receive poor scores on their assessments. If a teacher has a rubric, then the teacher will be able to explain concretely why the student got a low score on an assessment when a parent-teacher conference happens. I can imagine myself using this site because it is very tedious to create a rubric for every single assignment. I do not want this to become an excuse because I want to try to provide rubrics for every single assignment. I like how you can select from existing ones or create your own using a template. I think that this can be a very useful scaffold for novice teachers because it gets them to internalize how a rubric should be. Thank you for a very informative post.
ReplyDeleteRubistar is such a great tool for any teacher to have in any classroom. It is so easy to go on, pick what you are assessing, and it practically makes the rubric for you. It is essential for all classroom (and specials) teachers to make rubrics, but it is so time consuming. I like that you can go on and see other people's rubrics as well, because it gives you a sense of what it should look like. Obviously, using this website every day would be unrealistic, but it is such a great tool to have!
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