R elevant, U ser-friendly B enchmarks; R einforcing I nstruction; C ultivating S uccess

1. Relevant, User-friendly Benchmarks; Reinforcing Instruction; Cultivating Success

2. Teaching as a Subversive Activity • Have Humanities faculty instruct Math, Math instructors Business,… • Limit teachers to three declarative sentences per class, and 15 interrogatives • Prohibit teachers from asking any questions to which they already know the answers • Require all teachers to take a test prepared by students on what the students know

3. Today’s Objectives • Getting the lay of the land • Showing you the sights • Leaving you with the tools for flying solo…. sort of

4. I can’t explain it. It just wasn’t an A paper. ~ pre-rubric educators

5. Getting the Lay of the Land: Defining The Jargon Rubric • a guide used to score performance assessments in a reliable, fair, and valid manner • generally composed of: • dimensions for judging student performance • a scale for rating performances on each dimension • standards of excellence for specified performance levels (SRI International)

6. Why Rubrics? • Provide students with expectations about what you will assess • Inform students on the standards they must meet/work towards meeting • Indicate to students where they are in relation to course/program goals • Increase your consistency in ratings or performance, products, or understanding • Gather data to support grades

7. Jargon Cont’d Authentic Assessment • meaningful, real-life learning experiences • includes: • recording evidence of the learning process • applications in products and performances • integrations of new knowledge • reflecting on one's own progress • interpreting meaning (Herberger College of the Arts, Arizona State University)

8. Jargon Cont’d • Analytic Rubric:outline or list of major elements that students should include in a finished work • Highly prescriptive • Holistic Rubric:less objective than analytic; levels pre-determined and you assign • Highly subjective • Annotated Holistic Rubric:hybrid of above; defined quality levels plus commentary • Reduces ambiguity, increases efficiency, and allows students to see road to improvement (IMHO)

9. Validity is Key • Reliability: measures educational objectives as consistently as possible • Relevance: measures educational objectives as directly as possible • Utility: provides formative or summative results effectively - clear implications for evaluation and improvement

10. If the only tool you have is a hammer, you tend to see every problem as a nail. ~ Abraham Maslow

11. Add Rubrics to Your Toolkit; Don’t Throw Out Other Tools Rubrics are best used when: • Assignments are multi-faceted; combining lower and higher order skills • Your subjectivity is/could be called into question • Assessing an action or combination of actions rather than a thing

12. Let’s Not Reinvent the Wheel There are current and authoritative resources that can save you immense amounts of time Ontario College Writing Exemplars • developed by the Heads of Language (HOL) with funding from School/College/Work Initiative program of the Ontario Ministry of Education College Diploma and Certificate Program Standards • from the Ministry of Training, Colleges, and Universities

13. 2. Showing You the Sights We’re taking the economy tour… Five Questions – That’s It!

14. Question 1: What dimensions ensure highest quality? Hint:Can include knowledge, skills & abilities/Content specific or life-long goals Consideration: Students may experience difficulty with course specific mixing with life-long goals Most Common Misstep:Learning outcomes don’t match assessment • LO = critical thinking; assessment dimensions = format, mechanics, and citation style

15. Some Usual Dimensions From high school, students are familiar with categories: • Knowledge and Understanding • Thinking • Communication • Application

16. Bloom’s Taxonomy Knowledge Comprehension Application Analysis Synthesis Evaluation Big 6 Task Definition Info Seeking Strategies Location and Access Use of information Synthesis Evaluation Some Usual Dimensions Or adopt a learning theory

17. Question 2 How many levels of achievement/performance to include? Hint:Give yourself some wiggle room Consideration:Letters vs. levels vs. descriptors • A, B, C, D vs. 1, 2, 3, 4 vs. unacceptable, marginal, proficient, exemplary vs. novice, apprentice, proficient, distinguished Most Common Misstep: Using too many levels of achievement

18. Question 3: What is a clear description at each level? Hint:Try to determine qualitative differences that characterize work or performance. Start with B/acceptable/proficient level Consideration:Comparative language alone fails to highlight unique features, but using unique language may connote different meanings Most Common Misstep:Including value laden terms that showcase judgement, but little guidance

19. Question 4: What rating scheme/ weighting of dimensions do I use? Hint:Add this in a way that fits with your philosophy and course requirements Consideration:Different assignments may measure the same dimensions in differing degrees. One rubric could serve an entire course. Most Common Misstep:Using a weighted rating in your head, but not communicating it to the students

20. Question 5: What worked and what didn’t? Hint:Do a trial run with colleague(s) rather than one, entire class Consideration: Do you need more focus on content, format, delivery? Was one dimension weighted too heavily? Etc… Most Common Misstep:Viewing rubric as a permanent panacea

21. Rubrics Recap • Decide which assignments suit a rubric • Use our 5 questions as a checklist or frame • Get help/feedback/constructive criticism whenever and wherever you can • From colleagues • From students • From the literature

22. Flying Solo… sort of • Supporting Resources • Will be sent as an email as it is hyperlinked • Helpful Hints • Ontario’s Ministry of Education: Secondary • If you are searching most databases, try scoring rubrics as a subject search rather than relying on a keyword search. You will retrieve more precise and relevant results

23. Whew!

24. If you think of any… Peggy French 905.575.1212 ext 3223 peggy.french@mohawkcollege.ca

25. Research Paper Grading Rubric • For Research Component • Uses: • To set performance expectations by distributing to students when a paper is assigned. • To evaluate the portion of a student’s paper related to research and information use.

26. Analytic Rubric Example

27. Email to Follow • Sample rubrics • Reading list • Online pathfinder

28. Comparative Versus Unique • Almost never – infrequently - frequently - almost always • Infrequently- sometimes - usually - almost always