Rubrics: A Type of Graphic Organizer |
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What are rubrics? Rubrics are a type of graphic organizer that are used to display evaluation criteria in a grid format. The use of rubrics to score student products and processes have become common in K-12 classrooms as they can be used to evaluate a wide range of projects and activities. A typical rubric for a research report might address the degree of organization, the quality and quantity of writing, the quality of research sources used, and the quality of mechanics (spelling, grammar, etc.) It would present indicators for at least three levels of achievement, such as inadequate/adequate/above average, or beginning/developing/proficient. Some rubrics have points allocated to each level and indicator, with ranges for each possible grade. How can they help? Rubrics can assist the teacher to
increase their objectivity and
fairness when grading student work.
They force a teacher to think through the elements that will be considered when awarding a grade, which can increase the match between the standards a lesson is trying to address and the student outcomes. When tracking results for an entire class against a rubric, teachers can identify specific areas that are a problem. At the same time, rubrics can raise the quality of student work since they concretely convey expectations to students. Rubrics can be used to design tiered lesson plans to meet the needs of different groups of students. For each group, the reading level and supports may be different. The directions given may range from very specific to open-ended, with fewer or more examples. The elements of assessment can vary as well. Technology Tip for Rubrics: Needless to say, computers have greatly increased the ease with which rubrics can be made, stored, edited, and shared. The best rubric web sites provide at least three functions. They allow you to
Two free sites that meet these criteria are: Rubric Builder from the Landmark Project This free site lets you build and store your own rubrics on line. It also provides a searchable set of rubrics built by other teachers. For instance, the key word “Pueblo” results in seven rubrics, while the term “Native American” returns over one hundred. You can clone existing rubrics and make changes to them. The number of objectives per rubric can be set from one to nine, as can the number of performance indicators. It can be a bit slow but the advantage of being able to find rubrics by subject is worth it. Remember to view other teacher’s rubrics critically: do they really measure the elements of quality that you want students to focus on? RubiStar RubiStar is a free site that offers templates that can be customized for a wide range of project-based learning activities, including oral projects, products, multi-media presentations, science projects, and work skills. Based on the type of project, appropriate suggested performance indicators can be selected from a pop-up menu. Once a performance indicator is selected, suggested performance indicators appear in a 4 level rubric. These are based on model teacher rubrics and can be edited. Registered users can save their rubrics online for one year. The site also lets you enter student scores for a particular rubric and analyze the class results. There are a limited number of pre-made rubrics, categorized by topic, for browsing. Some sites offer a collection of pre-made rubrics which can also be helpful. The sites listed in resources below will help when you are looking for a rubric designed for a specific grade level or for an unusual type of project. Return to Tips for Differentiated Instruction Home Page. |
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