I have been on the student end of using rubrics many, many times. I usually like having a rubric because it tells exactly what is expected from your assignment. It is helpful from student to read the rubric before they start creating their project and then again after they complete it, so they can be sure they didn't miss anything. I thought creating my own was going to be relatively easy, but I did have a few bumps in the road.
I actually created two rubrics for this assignment. One follows the the instructions concerning the number of scoring categories we had to have, the content items and the grading scale. This rubric is an expanded version of the rubric I would use when I actually use this assignment. I only intended the Book Talk videos to be 3-5 minutes long and count for 10 points. Since the Book Talk project is really intended to promote books to fellow students, I do not want it to become a large project that takes weeks to complete.
Creating the basic rubric was easier once I made a list of items I wanted included in the Book Talk. This gave me the content criteria. In order to meet the requirements for our class, I expanded the required elements in 3 categories from 3 items to 5 items and my final category is the appearance of the project.
I am including both rubrics and would welcome comments on either or both examples. I can see the benefits of having a more detailed rubric for a larger more detailed project but for my little projects; I think the 10 point rubric would be just fine.
Book Talk Rubric - 10 Pts
Book Talk Rubric - 100pts
I know what you mean about bumps in the road. I always struggle to find the right verb. Last year at this time I was in Dr. Hirumi's Instructional Systems class and learned the importance of the right verb. It has to be measureable and then measure what your objective is (SSS in our case). Good rubrics, I like that you put them on YouTube, although I do wonder why you did not just take a screen shot and post a static picture instead of a static video from YouTube.
ReplyDeleteAaron H
I also found that I had to write out exactly what I wanted to see, and then input it into a rubric. I also found myself getting tied up in the guidelines that were given to us for the class. I found once I stopped worrying about the guidelines for the class, and did what I knew was best for my first graders, the rest just fell in line.
ReplyDeleteAnd if you want this to be a project that the students do quickly, and don't worry about, then I would stick with the shorter rubric. I know that as a student, when I see the longer rubrics with five columns, that will stress me out more than the one with three. I do like both rubrics, but if you want this to be a quick thing, then I would stick with the three columns.
Megan H
I agree with your point about not wanting the students to spend weeks creating the project to share information about one book. The idea is that they will be able to share many books, I am assuming, and so it is only appropriate the assignment (and rubric) not be too overwhelming. For this purpose, I agree that the three column rubric would be more fitting for the task.
ReplyDeleteAlso, I agree with you about giving students the rubric prior to the project and when they were concluding the task. I mentioned the same idea in my project description. I would, however, give students an actual hard copy of the rubric to have throughout the creation process. This would help cut down on process questions, as well! Nice rubrics :)
Alyssa P