Assessment Rubrics: Roadmap for Student Success
Assessment rubrics need to be made before instruction begins. The best ones are clear, easy for students to use and every grade level should have them.
What is a rubric? It is essentially a scoring guide.
Harry and Rosemary Wong state in their book The First Days of School that "A scoring guide defines achievement so students can work for accomplishment (p. 268).
A scoring guide takes away the option to fail.
Assessment rubrics come in many forms, but there are always three things in common: - Criteria (what it is that will be scored)
- Point values (I keep mine to 4 or less)
- Performance expectations (a description of what must be shown to achieve each point value)
All students deserve to succeed. Rubrics allow your students to know exactly how to succeed in your classroom.
Rubrics assist students towards lesson mastery, and also are an integral part of classroom management.
When students understand expectations with assessment rubrics, they will work towards achieving those and be on task.
Poster Rubrics
"Scoring rubrics (performance assessments) should be written in specific and clear language that the students understand." (Moskal, Barbara M. (2003).
This is one of the poster rubrics I have hanging in my classroom.
It is an anchor chart that the students use to check their illustrations they draw to support their writing.
It is written in "kid language" that we did together.
Rubrics can be written for anything. The number of performance expectations vary according to the lesson objectives.
I also developed a simple rubric for writing. I custom ordered a stamp that has just the essential writing skills my students need to develop, including mechanics of writing. Instead of numbers, I used the marks we give on our report cards as the parents and students all are very aware of what they mean.
You can view it at the bottom of the student's page. This not only makes writing a snap for me to evaluate and make solid instructional decisions with, but also for my students to know what their performance objectives are.
It is also important to let students know what each score "looks like." This is called an anchor paper, as referenced aboce, and it is so important for your visual learners.
"A set of anchor papers with students' names removed can be used to illustrate to both students and parents the different levels of the scoring rubric," (Moskal, Barbara M. (2003).
Free Sample Rubrics
Imagine the success your students will have through using scoring guides like assessment rubrics.
But why imagine it? Use them and watch your students achieve more than you thought possible.
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