creating rubrics

Opening Slide: Alex Dugan MA in TESOL

RubricsA Guide to Development and

Use

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Objectives

• By the end of the presentation you should be able to:– Describe a rubric (what is it?)– Describe the purpose of rubrics.– Describe the difference between holistic

and analytic rubrics.– List the characteristics of good rubrics.– Create/modify a rubric for an assignment or

activity in a class you teach.– Identify strengths and weaknesses in a

rubric.

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What’s a rubric?

• Rubrics are performance-based assessments that evaluate student performance on any given task or set of tasks that ultimately leads to a final product, or learning outcome.

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04/08/23 Lesson Builder 5

Which of these reasons are important to you?

• Importance of Reliability• Validity of the assessment• Reduction of bias in grading• Clarifying goals for you as the teacher• Communicating expectations to students• Improve students ability to judge their own

performance• Means for providing better feedback to

students

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Definition

• "Rubrics" explicitly state criteria for assignments.

• May lead to a grade or be part of the grading process.

• Are more specific, detailed, and disaggregated than a grade.

• Show strengths and weaknesses in student work.

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Another definition (Jon Mueller. Professor of Psychology, North Central College)

• Assess student performance along a task-specific set of criteria

• Measures performance against a predetermined criteria

• Includes essential criteria for the task

• Has multiple levels of performance

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Example: Wrting Criteria 4 3 2 1

Organization

Information in logical, interesting sequence which reader can follow.

Student presents information in logical sequence which reader can follow.

Reader has difficulty following work because student jumps around.

Sequence of information is difficult to follow.

Content Student demonstrates full knowledge (more than required).

Student is at ease with content, but fails to elaborate.

Student is uncomfortable with content and is able to demonstrate basic concepts.

Student does not have grasp of information; student cannot answer questions about subject.

Reference Work displays the correct number of references, written correctly.

Reference section was completed incorrectly

Work does not have the appropriate number of required references.

Work displays no references.

Neatness Work is neatly done.

Work has one or two areas that are sloppy.

Work has three or four areas that are sloppy.

Work is Illegible.

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Example: Wrting Criteria W

T4 3 2 1

Organization









Vocabulary Few errors; precise and appropriate

Fairly broad vocabulary; some errors

Adequate but repetitive ; invented words

Words don’t fit the context; hard to understand




Work is Illegible.

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Characteristics of Rubrics

• Increase an assessment's construct and content validity

• Increase an assessment's reliability – set criteria that raters can apply

consistently and objectively

• Established criteria reduces bias• Can help teachers clarify goals and

improve their teaching• Help learners set goals and assume

responsibility for their learning

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Characteristics Continued

• Help learners develop their ability to judge quality in their own and others' work

• Provides specific feedback about areas of strength and weakness

• Learners can use rubrics to assess their own effort and performance before submitting it

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Characteristics Continued

• Learners and teachers monitor progress over a period of instruction

• Reduces time spent grading• Engaging students in the design

empowers them• Moves away from subjective

grading

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Types of Rubrics

• Ask yourself:– For a particular task, do you want to

be able to assess how well the students perform on each criterion, or do you want to get a more global picture of the students' performance on the entire task?

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Holistic

• a holistic rubric does not list separate levels of performance for each criterion

• a holistic rubric assigns a level of performance by assessing performance across multiple criteria as a whole.

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Holistic Rubric (Accent)

Score Level

Criteria

4 The student’s accent has no trace of first language influence. Accent is fairly Standard American.

3 The student’s accent is very understandable by a native American although some intonation can be inconsistent and can be traced back to L1 intonation.

2 The student’s accent is evidently very much affected by L1 intonation. However, it is fairly understandable.

1 The student’s accent is very much affected by L1 intonation and it is difficult to understand.

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Analytic Rubric

Criteria 4 3 2 1 Organization









Vocabulary Few errors; precise and appropriate

Fairly broad vocabulary; some errors

Adequate but repetitive ; invented words

Words don’t fit the context; hard to understand




Work is Illegible.

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When to choose an analytic rubric

• Want to assess each criterion separately

• Involve large number of criteria • More variance across the criteria• Need to weight criteria differently

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Designing an Analytic Rubric

• Step 1. Re-examine learning objective to be addressed by the task.

• Step 2. Identify observable attributes you want to see (as well as those you don’t want to see) your students demonstrate in the product, process, or performance.

• Step 3. Brainstorm characteristics of each attribute.

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Design Analytic Continued

• Step 4b. Write thorough narrative description for excellent and poor work for each individual attribute.

• Step 5b. Complete the rubric by describing other levels on the continuum that ranges from excellent to poor for each attribute.

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Hint: Use Even Number of Levels

• Use an even number (4 or 6) of levels of performance on the scale.

• When there are an odd number of levels, the middle level tends to become a catch-all category.

• With an even number of levels, raters have to make a more precise judgment about a performance when its quality is not at the top or bottom of the scale.

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Hint: Arrange Levels High to Low

• High to low scale. • Students read first the description

of an exemplary performance in each criterion.

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Sample High to Lows

4 3 2 1

Exemplary Excellent Acceptable Unacceptable

Exceeds expectations

Meets expectations

Progressing Not there yet

Superior Good Fair Needs work

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More Hints

• Limited number of dimensions or criteria.– The criteria are those components that are

most important to evaluate in the given task and instructional context.

– A rubric with too many dimensions may be unworkable in classroom assessment.

• Equal steps along the scale. – The difference between 4 and 3 should be

equivalent to the difference between 3 - 2 and 2 - 1.

– "Yes, and more", "Yes", "Yes, but", and "No"

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4 3 2 1

Task All Most Some Very few or none

Frequency Always Usually Some of the time Rarely or not at all

Accuracy No errors Few errors Some errors Frequent errors

Comprehensibility

Always comprehen

sible

Almost always comprehensible

Gist and main ideas are

comprehensible

Isolated bits are comprehensible

Content coverage

Fully developed,

fully supported

Adequately developed, adequately supported

Partially developed,

partially supported

Minimally developed, minimally supported

Vocabulary

Range

Variety

Broad

Highly varied; non-

repetitive

Adequate

Varied; occasionally repetitive

Limited

Lacks variety; repetitive

Very limited

Memorized; highly repetitive

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Rubrics Online

• http://www.teach-nology.com

• http://www.rubistar.4teachers.org

• http://www.rubrics4teachers.com

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Review

1. Describe a rubric (what is it).2. Describe the purpose of rubrics.3. Describe the difference between holistic

and analytic rubrics.4. List the characteristics of good rubrics.5. Create/modify a rubric for an assignment or

activity in a class you teach.6. Identify strengths and weaknesses in a

rubric.

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Closing Slide: Alex Dugan MA in TESOL

RubricsA Guide to Development and

Use

creating rubrics

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