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Off The Grid: The Debate About Rubrics--and What it's Missing.
by: Barry Gilmore
Barry Gilmore is an AP English teacher. In his article he discusses the ongoing debate of effectiveness of using rubrics to grade writing assignments. I found this article to be interesting and it also shed a new light on the idea of using rubrics as grading tools.
Being a math teacher, my only experience with rubrics for writing assignments, was when one of my own teachers used a rubric to grade my own writing. And as a student, I must say I HATED it! Often times, with my experience at least, this method of grading assignments would involve the same rubric regardless of the assignment given. There was rarely a detailed explanation as to why I received the grade I had, and it was never gone over with my teacher/professor. But perhaps, as Gilmore describes, this isn't the proper way to use a rubric.
Gilmore explains that rubrics should be more focused on as a "teaching" tool, rather than an "assessment" tool. He says that the rubric should really help the teacher focus their own thoughts and comments, and not replace them. Often when he uses rubrics he explains in detail his feelings of his students' work. I think this explanation of using a rubric makes a lot of sense! I also agree when Gilmore says that rubrics need to be explained to the students in detail, what each of the categories mean. When one is "organization" or "voice" for example, a description of what is expected should be discussed in the class prior to the assignment.
The only time I've ever used a rubric was when I developed a project for a math class. I would have handed out the rubric to the class, so there were no surprises and rather, a clear explanation of what the project was to include. In writing assignments too, Gilmore states that there needs to be some student exploration and maybe even student involvement within the development of the rubric.
I think as long as educators focused on using the rubric for writing assignments in addition to also commenting or maybe giving the student feedback personally, that I would be in favor of rubric use for such assignments. Simply just using a rubric would be an injustice to a writing classroom, especially if there were to be just one generic one used for each assignment. I'm not sure I would have the students involved in the development of one, maybe in a setting such as AP English, but not so much for younger grades. Nevertheless, no matter what age or level of writing the students' are at, they still deserve a comment about their piece directly from the teacher, and a rubric more catered to a specific assignment.
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