"Posted rubrics can become a fraud, an activity in which we go through the motions of sharing with students the standards for what counts as a quality piece of work without really helping them come to grips with what quality looks like and more important ,how a quality piece differs from one that fall short. I don't think rubrics have any value unless we involve students in examining what in means for a piece to have a certain feature..." (Brenner, 267)
Can I get an AMEN? So many times during my first year of teaching, I would distribute a rubric for projects and whatnot. To my surprise, many of these rubrics were left behind by students in the desks, on the floor, and in the garbage. We went over each rubric as a class so that it would be clear what I expected of them. But why did they care so little? A large project's grade was at stake! I now know that students must be invested in the assessment. I can stand at the front of the room and explain a project until I am blue in the face, but if the student body helped me create the guidelines, maybe I could save some oxygen (maybe?).
Nevertheless, I do have an excellent resource that I want to share with everyone. This site helps you create your own rubric: Rubistar.com Try it out. It really is a wonderful help.
Last thing: How come we as college (undergrad & grad) don't partake in creating rubrics for our projects? Interesting, I think.
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I agree entirely. In all of our classes we are told about rubrics and how they are the greatest thing since sliced bread and flush toilets, but I really have precious little success with them this year. They took forever to create and the kids didn't seem to use them AT ALL!! By the end of the year, I ended up using scoring guides and holistic grading instead and gave up on rubrics entirely. Maybe I'll give them another try next year, but....
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