When I think of assessment or even assignments, the first thing that pops into my head is rubrics. Rubrics are "one of the most versatile and effective assessment tools" (Drake, Reid & Kiloton, 2014). These forms of assessment are crucial for a student and their ability to succeed, as it provides guidelines and expectations that the teacher/instructors are looking for, which you should follow in order to achieve a good mark.
I found this section of the textbook very interesting as I was not aware of the different types of rubrics. I may have seen them within my education, but was never taught about specific types of rubrics, which is why I thought I would share these types of rubrics with you all, as it really interested me. So with saying this, Drake, Reid & Kiloton (2014) state that there are four different types of rubrics, which are: analytic, holistic, generic and task-specific.
Starting with the first type of rubric, after reading this chapter of the textbook, I learned that an Analytic Rubric focuses on specific, separate criteria, striving to look for more specific expectations for each section within the rubric. I have definitely come across this rubric many times throughout my schooling years, but I would definitely say that this type of rubric would be used within older grade classrooms, as it has more specific expectations for different sections within the assignment's rubric. Below is an example of an Analytic Rubric, just to refresh everyone on what this type of rubric looks like.
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(Sorry this image is very big, but it is the only way you'll be able to clearly see the expectations within this rubric, as the font is very small).
The last and final rubric used for assessments is the Task-Specific Rubric. It is pretty self-explanatory when this rubric is used- for specific tasks. This rubric is looking at the quality of work based on the specific tasks provided by the teacher/instructor. I feel like this rubric would not be used as often as the rest, and would only be used by certain teachers for certain tasks. Here is an example of this rubric.
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What do you all think? Which type of rubric do you like best?
As bad as this may sound, I believe that many students bypass rubrics because they are too lazy and believe they know what they are doing and what the teacher expects just based off what the teacher says about the assignment in class. I find this very shocking and unfortunate, as rubrics are there to help you succeed, and many students pass up the opportunity because it's too much effort to "look at the rubric". I know I always have the rubrics right beside me when I do my work, just so I know that I have covered all the expectations and done all I can in order to achieve the best mark I can.
Thinking back to high school, most of my classes had very vague and general rubrics. I remember being very frustrated with classes/teachers because I never truly understood what the expectations were and did not find it fair that the teachers did not provide us with this information. I felt as if some teachers did not care about how we did on the assignment, which really affected my motivation towards the work/assignments I was assigned. Because of this experience, it makes me think of how I would set the expectations in my future classroom and how I would want to really emphasize what I (as a teacher) am looking for and how these students can get a level 4 (80%-100% mark). To me this shows that the teacher really cares about their students and their success by providing them with the information and expectations they need to know in order to achieve great marks.
Have you ever had a bad experience with rubric expectations? What kind of rubric was it?
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Overall, I truly believe that all students should use rubrics as guidelines when doing their work, to make sure they are on the right track and have covered all the expectations. These forms of assessment are handed to us so we can succeed, so I strongly believe we should take full advantage of these resources.
Thanks for reading!
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So funny that you decided to do your blog on rubrics the same week we were learning about them in lecture! Reading your blog actually prepared me for this past week’s class. We went through the four different types of rubrics so quickly in class that I don’t think I would have grasped a strong understanding of the differences between different rubrics if I didn’t read your blog beforehand. So thank you for that!
ReplyDeleteJust like you, I did not realize that there were different types of rubrics. I think I have seen examples of all four rubrics before but I just thought it was how different teachers personally designed their rubrics. Moving forward, I am glad I have been exposed to the different types of rubrics so I can decide what one I think is best for different types of assignments.
Personally, I like the analytic, generic, and task-specific rubric best. They are all similar, except they are broken down into different types of categories. I think this gives students an understanding on the main things they should focus on when completing and assignment. I do not like the holistic reason for two reasons. First is that it does not give students a clear understanding on what they did right or wrong. In result, they do not know what they should try to improve on next time. Although the teacher could provide additional comments (i.e. two stars and a wish), I still don't think the rubric provides enough information. Secondly, I do not like the terminology used on the exemplar of the holistic rubric you included. It used words such as “weak” and “unacceptable” which doesn't leave a positive message for the students. This does not give students a growth mindset, because it tells students their work is “unacceptable” instead of “it can get better from here”.
Although I understand the purpose of rubrics and why teachers so often use them, I prefer not to use any rubrics at all. I think we, as the next generation of teachers, have a very interesting perspective on rubrics because we were part of the generation where they were first introduced. Because of this we know the pros and cons of rubrics as students and we can apply this knowledge when we design our rubrics or other evaluation criteria in the future. As a student, I prefer when I receive a list of success criteria. I can use this as a checklist to make sure I fill all of the assignment requirements. I find that there is an overwhelming amount of information on rubrics. Even when I do take the time to read the rubric the information is always vague and doesn't give me a clear understanding of what needs to be done.
I do believe that it is important to provide students with evaluation criteria, but rubrics are not the most effective type of evaluation criteria. I know you mentioned that you think rubrics are important, but have you ever used any other type of evaluation criteria that was helpful to you as a student?
Hi Vicky!
ReplyDeleteYou wrote about a topic that is very important to the world of teaching. Rubrics are something I have always been fond of as a student. I agree with you, in that they have helped me succeed academically, more so than if I was to accomplish tasks without them. As students, I think that we value, embrace, and thrive off of rubrics because of the way we were raised in the ‘the school is like a factory setting’ system. From day one, we are taught to follow the rules down to the very last bell. These stimuli dictate where and when we go, what we learn, and how we go about acquiring this information. As a result, it does not surprise me that when presented without a rubric, students tend to panic. More specifically, the first time I was faced with this experience was in one of my third year Child and Youth Study classes. The final paper for the class was presented with only potential topics to choose from. There was no discussion on page limit, expectations, style or structure, etc. For the first time, I felt lost. Though asking the professor proved to be of little help, I proceeded to write this paper, and felt as if I were doing so through the eyes of a first-year student; I felt unfamiliar with what was expected of me, hesitant as to what was correct, and what was not, and angry, because I felt that there would be no way for this professor to justify his reasoning’s for giving me a poor grade, if it were the case. In the end, I wrote a successful paper, however the entire writing process was stressful, and was something I wish to never go through again. And for that, I am very appreciative for rubrics.
With regards to your blog, as always, you do a wonderful job incorporating visual components in order to keep the reader engaged and make the topic more interesting. You also took the time to briefly express your frustrations with regards to your troubles with understanding a particular rubric’s expectations. It would have been great if you had gone into some more detail about for which subject/assignment this rubric was for; possibly even if you recall what grade you were in, and how you handled your misunderstandings overall. It would work to create nice depth to your piece, and help you to possibly uncover new insights in the process.
Looking back on your experiences, do you think that there is any rubric in particular that would not work to benefit students at a specific age/grade level? Is there any rubric that you wish your teacher had used in place of another? I am also curious as to whether you were ever given an assignment for which you thought should include a rubric. Did it hinder your academic ability to complete the assignment? If so, how?
Overall, I believe that you follow the established blog criteria well. However, think about incorporating some hyperlinks, directing the reader to further detail, so that we can analyze your topic more deeply!
Thanks for sharing!
Hey Vicky,
ReplyDeleteOnce again, great blog post! I would have never thought to explore the various types of rubrics, so I’m so glad that you chose to do this post. I will definitely keep your blog handy for when I am designing rubrics for my students in the future. As I have mentioned before I think that all of your blog posts have hit all of the posted success criteria for our class’s blogs. You have incorporated additional links and have included them in APA format in a reference section at the end of our blog. Well done!
I have to agree with you when you said that most students usually bypass rubrics. I have to admit that I am usually one of these students. I have found that even in high school I wouldn’t really look at the provided rubric because I didn’t feel that it would help me do better on my assignment. I think that this may have been because my teachers have not put enough emphasis on the importance of benefit of using them. After reading through your post it is clear that there are numerous benefits of incorporating them into your student’s lives.
I have really enjoyed reading through your entire blog over the past couple of weeks and I think that you have done a really good job at taking our constructive comments into consideration. Awesome job!
-Morgan