What's in a Rubric?

“As long as it doesn’t drive the instruction, it could conceivably play a constructive role.”

” But all bets are off if students are given the rubrics and asked to navigate by them.”

“Standardizing assessment for learners may compromise the learning.”

The three statements above are from an article by Alfie Kohn, entitled The Trouble with Rubrics.

I have used rubrics in the past and didn’t think much of it. It allowed me to understand my grading procedure so that I was fair with my grades and not constantly rewarding the best band students. It worked for me too.

I believe rubrics are very helpful as long as the teachers don’t only use the rubric to teach.  We are to teach the student not just the content.  They should shape the course in which a teacher presents the material. I think they are a great tool for beginning teachers. At the same time a teacher has to account for themselves and intuition and not rely on a checklist.

In addition to this, if a student knows the rubric a they will answer the rubric not the question, they won’t engage in thought, or the journey of learning about a topic.  If students are aware of the rubric ahead of time then it is up to the teacher to design a rubric called a “process rubric”. The student needs to demonstrate in hoe the came to answer their assignment. This will help prove that they took the time to research their topic and make their own conclusions.

There are a few different designs of the rubric that are very helpful to grading ad keeping the content exploratory and most importantly the student learning at the forefront of the assignment.

I found Edutopia to be very informative on rubrics.  There is a listing of different types of rubrics, how they can be used and most of all student centered.

These are scenarios that Alfie Kohn had pointed out and I think number four is my choice.

Scenario 1.  Protection: The teacher must justify the grade if it is a low grade.  The parents will want to see why their child received so a low grade The idea of using something similar to a checklist or even similar to something similar to the teacher eval where there is criteria met and a description of what the students need to be able to do to earn that grade.

Scenario 2 the checklist A.K.A. “Gotcha” Now the teacher doesn’t actually have to read with the student in mind.  The student is now a number and the material in the assignment is more important than the student who wrote it.

Scenario 3 Of Mice and Men Students can check their own progress. If the rubric is a checklist for themselves they can be more aware of what they need to present.  Downside they write within a criteria and not care not of the enrichment of the assignment just the grade.

Scenario 4. Student Centered For the student to improve Use the rubric as a guide for thoughts and needed information as to check progress and then throw it out when it’s time for grading. 

Performance rubrics are a bit different than an academic rubrics and here are two that I have created.

Unit or piece Interactive Rubric middle school band

Piece: Taiko	Distinguished	Proficient	Apprentice	Novice
Syncopation check out this lesson	Can play all syncopated rhythms	Can play most	Has trouble transitioning from standard rhythms to syncopated rhythms	Has trouble with anything other than basic quarter note rhythms
Expression Musical Expression Lesson	Can play all dynamics	Can play most of the dynamics, but is not always paying attention to dynamic markings	Can play either forte, mezzo, or piano dynamic markings. Has to be able to play crescendos and decrescendos	Pays no attention to dynamics

Ex.  Overall H.S. Rubric

	Distinguished	Proficient	Apprentice	Novice
Sight reading	Can sight read at 80 bpm w/o Mistakes	Can sight read at 60-70 bpm Few mistakes	Can sight read at 60-70 bpm Starting and stopping	Has difficulty with sight reading and does not have knowledge of accidentals
Scale Knowledge	Can play in all twelve keys eighth notes at 70 bpm	Can play in eight – ten  keys eight notes at 70 bpm	Can play in six keys eighth notes at 70 bpm	Can play in only 3 keys eighth notes equal 60-70
Preparation of music	Can play all band pieces at tempo w/o mistakes & with expression	Can play all band pieces at tempo With very few mistakes and with expression	Can play all band pieces at tempo With few mistakes still working on expression	Can play through some of each piece many mistakes and no expression.
effort	On time with instrument, folder, practice sheet	On time with instrument, folder, practice sheet	Within 2 minutes after bell rings for class with instrument, folder, practice sheet	Not on time Has folder Instrument assembled after expected time