Rubrics for formative assessment Diana Foran Storer dianaforan.eu@gmail.com

In keeping with the rationale of CLIL, RUBRICS measure performance Make students aware of and responsible for their own improvement Provide feedback about strengths; areas in need of improvement Valuable: both teachers and students An authentic assessment tool for teachers and students Define performance quality Provide clear guidelines for quality Show students how to fulfill the guidelines

HOLISTIC vs. ANALYTICAL Defined separate facets; independently valued, and scored. Provide more detailed information; useful in planning and improving instruction, communicating with students Time consuming to articulate components Difficult to write language clear enough to define performance levels effectively: “very clear” and “very organized” (may be clear, but not organized or vice versa) Views a whole; describes characteristics of different levels of performance. Criteria are summarized for each score level. Takes less time to create. But does not provide detailed information about student performance in specific areas of content or skill. Student may exhibit traits at two or more levels at the same time.

Holistic Research Rubric 3 - Excellent Researcher included 10-12 sources no apparent historical inaccuracies can easily tell which sources information was drawn from all relevant information is included 2 - Good Researcher included 5-9 sources few historical inaccuracies can tell with difficulty where information came from bibliography contains most relevant information 1 - Poor Researcher included 1-4 sources lots of historical inaccuracies cannot tell from which source information came bibliography contains very little information

ANALYTICAL Rubric Level = degree of success (1,2,3 points or “good”, “poor”) Criteria = what is considered important for the completion of the task, activity.

Designing a Rubric Identify what you want your students to know and be able to do -- your standards. Develop authentic tasks they can perform. Ask yourself how students can demonstrate that they have met your standards after completing the task. What are your absolutes? What MUST be present? Each task or activity demands different criteria. Steps followed correctly? Data adequately referenced? Grammatically correct? Neatness? Creative thinking? Task completion? Determine which elements are "non-negotiable".

Designing a Rubric Brainstorm all the aspects (standards) and then prioritize your list: How important is the overall "look" of the project (interest, appeal, creativity)? Is “effort” important to you? Keep the number of criteria manageable. You do not have to look for everything on every assessment. Are the criteria at each level defined clearly enough to ensure that scoring is accurate, unbiased and consistent? Could several teachers use the rubric and score a student’s performance within the same range?

Remember that rubrics... Need to be piloted or tried out a few times first. Need to be discussed with students to create an understanding of expectations. Remember that you are rating the paper, product or performance, not the student. This is just one performance assessment--not overall ability.

and remember that... “If a student can achieve a high score on all the criteria and still not perform well at the task, you have the wrong criteria" (Wiggins, cited in Clementi, 1999). Expectations in the rubric should be directly aligned with the instruction of the lesson/unit. Students shouldn’t be expected to do what they haven’t been previously taught or shown. An odd-numbered scoring scale is anti-productive: Beware of the dreaded "mid-point catch-all“.

GROUP WORK: RUBRICS