Practical Assessments * Research and Evaluation

Synopsis

By Licda. Guiselle Weelkly

Designing Scoring Rubrics for Your Classroom 

are a scoring scale consisting of a set of criteria that describe what expectations are being assessed/evaluated and descriptions of levels of quality used to evaluate students work or to guide students to desired performance levels.

There are two types of rubrics:

1. Holistic Rubric  requires the teacher to score the overall process or product as a whole without judging the component parts separately. This type of rubric is probably more appropiate when performance tasks requires students to create some sort of response and where there is no definitive correct answer.  It is also a quicker scoring process than the use of analytic rubrics.

 

2.  Analytic Rubric    is when the teacher scores separately, individual parts of the product or performance first,  then sums the individual scores to obtain a total score.  Usually it is used when there may be one or two acceptable responses and creativity is not an essential feature of the student's  responses. 

The degree of feedback offered to students-and teachers- is significant when taking into account the analytic rubric.

Five Reasons Why Analytical Rubrics Are Helpful

1. Differentiated Instruction

As in the example above, the rubric can serve as diagnostic and formative assessment to enable the teacher to differentiate instruction. Charting these assessments on whole class recording matrices can help the teacher group students for efficient instruction, such as mini-lessons, or assign individual worksheet practice to help students master and apply writing skills.

2. Progress Monitoring

Because analytical rubrics isolate discreet writing tasks that are components of different writing assignments, performance level data can be charted on recording matrix from one writing assignment to the next. These data can be analyzed by class and individual performance and serve as progress monitoring.

3. Student Involvement

Analytical rubrics provide road maps for student writers to follow. Specific expectations are set at the beginning of the writing assignment. As in the example above, students can complete peer response checklists on each writing task and then use the revision checklist to respond to the teacher’s diagnostic assessment and/or the peer response.

4. Flexibility

Analytical rubrics allow the teacher to assess parts of a student writing assignment and not have to grade each writing task. Examples: A teacher might choose to assign an on-demand timed writing and then diagnostically assess and record levels of performance on variety of evidence. A teacher might choose to have a reader or parent assess and record levels of performance on spelling, punctuation, and citation format. A teacher might choose to work with colleagues in a read-a-round, with each colleague assessing a different set of writing tasks.

5. Language of Instruction and the Writing Process

Analytical rubrics provide the language of instruction for writers, peers, parents, and teachers to discuss each writing task throughout the steps of the writing process. These specific writing tasks help students and teachers plan, draft, revise, edit, and publish their writing.

Let's   take our students, step by step,  they will be glad for the HELP.

Basic Reading & Writing Techniques - Part 1: Alphabet Study

The Advantages of Rubrics

Reaction Paper 

By

Licda. Guiselle Weelkly W.

PART ONE

Teachers are interested in evaluating their students'  performance which are based on the sum of a full range of criteria rather than single numerical score,  that is what we know as a scoring guide or rubric.

Rubrics can be:

1.  A way of enhancing the quality of direct instruction.
2. A working guide for students and teachers which can be handed out before the assignment begin so that they( students) can know exactly what is expected from them.
3. An authentic assessment  tool used  to evaluate students'  works.

Why use rubrics?

Many experts believe that rubrics improve students's  end products and increase learning as well.  Two major reasons for using rubrics are:

• They are guides students can use to build on current knowledge.
• They should be part of a planning time,  not as an additional time commitment to teacher's  preparation.

Some activities rubrics can be used for are:

1. Reviewing.

2.Reconceptualizing.

3.Revising the same concept but from a different angle in order to improve the understanding of the student's lesson.

Advantages of using rubrics:

* Teachers can increase the quality of their direct instruction by providing focus, emphasis,  and attention to particular details as a model for students.

* Students have explicit guidelines regarding teacher's  expextations.

*Students can use it as a tool to develop their abilities.

*Teachers can reuse rubrics for various activities.

PART  TWO

Anybody involved in teaching will gladly embrace the opportunity they have in learning how to develop rubrics for their assessments.

To get started is important to take in account the following:

• Determine the concepts to be taught.
• Choose the criteria to be evaluated.
• Develop a grid.
• Share the rubrics with students before they being writing.
• Evaluate the end product.
• Place it on a bulletin board or distribute it by hand out.
• It should be visible at all times.

PART  THREE

Analytic  vs   Holistic Rubrics

There is a clear difference between both:

• Holistic Rubric assess students work as a whole.
• Analytic Rubric identify and assess components of a finished product.

Rubric Reminders:

1.  Neither the analytic nor the holistic rubric is better than the other one.

2. Consider your students and grader(s) when deciding each type to use.

3. For modeling,  present to your students examples in order to help them  with their performance.

PART FOUR

How to Weigh Rubrics?

First of all, the  weighted rubric is an analytic rubric in whic certain concepts are judged more heavily than others.  It clearly communicates to the students and their parents the important parts that they should focus on in an activity.  It also focuses attention on specific aspects of a project permiting the students to be aware of what is being taught,  while provinding meaningful context to support their entire experience.