scoringrubrics.docVIP

Scoring Rubrics [FOR WRITTEN ASSIGNMENTS AND ORAL PRESENTATIONS] Diane Ebert-May Lyman Briggs School Department of Botany and Plant Pathology Michigan State University WHY USE RUBRICS? Has a student ever said to you regarding an assignment, “But, I didn’t know what you wanted!” or “Why did her paper get an ‘A’ and mine a ‘C?’” Students must understand the goals we expect them to achieve in course assignments, and importantly, the criteria we use to determine how well they have achieved those goals. Rubrics provide a readily accessible way of communicating and developing our goals with students and the criteria we use to discern how well students have reached them. WHAT IS A RUBRIC? Rubrics (or “scoring tools”) are a way of describing evaluation criteria (or “grading standards”) based on the expected outcomes and performances of students. Typically, rubrics are used in scoring or grading written assignments or oral presentations; however, they may be used to score any form of student performance. Each rubric consists of a set of scoring criteria and point values associated with these criteria. In most rubrics the criteria are grouped into categories so the instructor and the student can discriminate among the categories by level of performance. In classroom use, the rubric provides an “objective” external standard against which student performance may be compared. WHAT IS INVOLVED? Instructor Preparation Time: Medium to High Preparing Your Students: Continuous; but students catch on fairly quickly Class Time: Variable. As students use rubrics, they become better writers and oral presenters; hence the time instructors spend evaluating students’ work is reduced. Disciplines: All Class Size: All. Rubrics are easy to use in small classes, and are particularly useful in large classes to facilitate scoring large numbers of written or oral assignments. Individual/Group Involvement: Both. Analyzing Results: The level of analysis depends on the instructor’s