Creating Effective Rubrics Using Online Tools LearnIt Conference, 2012 Cynthia Campbell, PhD Dept. of Educational Technology, Research and Assessment Northern Illinois University

What is a Rubric? A systematic approach for scoring student work consistently Provides “rules” for evaluating quality

Rubrics: Why Use Them? Improves student performance by making expectations clear Communicates the “what” and “how” Encourages student metacognition Reduces teachers’ scoring time Increases scoring consistency (when well designed) Decreases “scoring drift” and scoring bias Leads to fair assessment for ALL students

Scoring Constructed Response Holistic scoring – focuses on the overall content Analytic scoring – specific point allocation

Developing a Scoring Rubric Step 1: “Unpack” critical knowledge and skills (refer to objectives that assessment is aligned) Step 2: List Criteria (in first column) Step 3: Define Criteria (in second column)

Identify and define criteria for assessing students’ ability to make a peanut butter and jelly sandwich

PBJ Rubric Criteria PB, jelly, & 2 pieces of bread Spread Description Ingredients PB, jelly, & 2 pieces of bread Spread PB & jelly coverage on bread Ratio PB & jelly about equal Assembly Bread Alignment; PB & jelly on inside Integrity Bread appearance

Developing a Scoring Rubric Step 4: Determine points and weight for each criteria Step 5: vividly describe performance expectation across point levels

Criteria 3 2 1 PBJ Rubric Description Sequence 1. bread Sequence 1. bread 2. PB or jelly 3. put bread together Correct sequence Incorrect sequence Spread PB & jelly coverage on bread Both ingredients are crust to crust (ctc) Both ingredients almost ctc (< .5 inch from crust) Only one ingredient is ctc or almost ctc Both ingredients blobbed in middle-very little spread Ratio PB & jelly ratio Approx. equal Slight difference Moderate difference Extreme difference Assembly Bread Alignment; PB & jelly on inside Aligned to bread shape & ingredients on inside Mostly aligned & ingredients on inside Aligned or mostly aligned, however, ingredients on outside Poor alignment & ingredients on outside Product Integrity Bread appearance No holes or tears 1 hole or tear 2-3 holes a/o tears 4+ holes a/o tears

RubiStar A free online site to assist in creating rubrics Intended for teachers who want to use rubrics, but do not have time to develop them from scratch.

Benefits Build on content specific templates Create original rubrics Customizable Examine existing teacher created rubrics Store your classroom rubrics Interactive design

New User Registration http://rubistar.4teachers.org/

Design a Rubric to Assess a Written Report