A Presentation by Deborah Smith, ELL Teacher, Brookline High School

* What are the pros and cons of using rubrics? * Which groups of learners can profit from writing their own rubrics?

* Student-centered practice * Fosters ownership—students make the choices * Understanding—students are asked to analyze models or exemplars before writing the rubric * Language at a level they can understand---most rubrics are written for the person doing the assessing

* Essays, including synthesis, argument and expository. * Class discussions * Projects, including drama, research and presentations using a tool like Prezi or PowerPoint * For younger students: the teacher provides pictures or simple phrases for them to choose from

* At the beginning of the course, introduce rubrics and demonstrate how they are used. * Consider presenting your own work to the group. For example, show students how you would answer an open response question, then have them use a pre-made rubric to assess it. * Consider having the class write a group essay or do a group project.

* Collect student work to use as models. Don’t just look for the best—there are great teaching moments in all student work.

* After defining the project/essay and looking at sample work, have students make a list of “Dos” and “Don’ts” * Ask them what the most important parts of the work are. Alternately, ask them what the least important parts are. * Allow them to rank the parts and determine values

* Intermediate Listening and Speaking, grades 9-12 * Culmination of 6 weeks unit on rights. Listened to several broadcasts and podcasts, watched a film and read 2 texts about the subject. * Students asked to write a synthesis and argument presenting a position on “Student Rights” * Sample work and group practice used to demonstrate what a synthesis and argument should look like * Students were then asked to create a grading rubric

* A rubric generator funded by the Department of Education; also has sample rubrics * Sample rubrics and rubric generator; some parts of the site require sign-up and subscription * Author who advocates student-led reading and writing as well as teacher modeling.