RUBRICS

What is a Rubric?

A rubric is a great tool for students because defines in writing what is expected of the student to get a particular grade on an assignment.

Not only is this tool useful for students, it is helpful for teachers as well. A rubric is a great tool for teachers because it is a simple way to set up a grading criteria for assignments.

Heidi Goodrich Andrade, a rubrics expert, defines a rubric as "a scoring tool that lists the criteria for a piece of work or 'what counts.' “For example, a rubric for an essay might tell students that their work will be judged on purpose, organization, details, voice, and mechanics.”

A good rubric also describes levels of quality for each of the criteria. These levels of performance may be written as different ratings (e.g., Excellent, Good, Needs Improvement) or as numerical scores (e.g., 4, 3, 2, 1) Under mechanics, for example, the rubric might define the lowest level of performance as "7-10 misspellings, grammar, and punctuation errors," and the highest level as "all words are spelled correctly; your work shows that you understand subject-verb agreement, when to make words possessive, and how to use commas, semicolons and periods."

Why use Rubrics?

1. Rubrics help students and teachers define "quality."

2. When students use rubrics regularly to judge their own work, they begin to accept more responsibility for the end product. It cuts down on the "am I done yet?" questions.

3. Rubrics reduce the time teachers spend grading student work and makes it easier for teachers to explain to students why they got the grade they did and what they can do to improve.

4. Parents usually like the rubrics concept once they understand it, and they find rubrics useful when helping with homework. As one teacher says: "They know exactly what their child needs to do to be successful."