Your Rubric Is a Hot Mess; Here’s How to Fix It.

Hi Paul,
You make such an important point here: “Really, the greatest rubric in the world is worth little if there isn’t a conscientious teacher consistently drawing the students’ attention to it and making achievement of the goals attainable for the students who are willing to work at it.” You hit the nail on the head. I was definitely guilty of rushing through the post-mortem stage of many assignments. We all need to recognize that just because an assignment is “finished,” it doesn’t mean the learning has to stop. In fact, that may be the most important time for reflection and growth. I hope to hear back from you about your progress with this different format.
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Hey Bryan!

Mark beat me to it–I was going to say that this type of rubric lends itself beautifully to a no-grades system.
However, many teachers are not working in schools without grades (yet!), and you have to assign letter or number grades.

On a 10-point assignment, I would consider accomplishing everything in the center column equivalent to a 10 out of 10; the standards have all been met. For teachers working within a standards-based grading system, this would work well.

If you are used to traditional grades, it might seem as though an “A” should only be given to a student who exceeds expectations, but that either means the standards aren’t challenging enough or the assignment is being given as a one-shot deal, which means only students who can exceed the standards are rewarded with the A. Consider this: If meeting the standards earns a student an A, then every student should have the opportunity to earn it, even if it requires several attempts. This rubric offers specific feedback on how they can do that. Make the goals in the center column challenging enough and your typical “A” student will have to push to achieve them…everyone else, knowing they can work until they get there, will likely be motivated to try.

Hope this helps!
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Hi,
Sorry to come late to this but I was on vacation. We already use a system like this in many UK Universities, and we regard the “standard” to be a pass at threshold level. This means the underachievers fail – that is easy, and the over achievers get a pass + whatever extra they have brought to it. We work with learning outcomes which equate to your 4 rubric aspects and in order pass a module a student is expected to pass all learning outcomes at threshold level.
We do tend to describe how an A, B or C would be achieved (for us the D is the threshold pass), so we would say something like the following:-
C = pass + evidence of understanding and some ability to describe
B = C + evidence of research and able to discuss
A = B + adds own value through discussion and critique

Kim,
Having students contribute to rubric building is a wonderful way to boost the instructional power of any rubric. It also sounds like your additional columns offer an opportunity for fleshing out feedback for students who need lots of improvement. I went over to middlesoup to find the template, but I didn’t see an obvious link to it. Can you add one here? Thanks.
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I was looking for a button to like your post, Jim! I felt exactly the same way!

Kris, I would love to see both versions!
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Hi Kelli. That’s a great question. I think what I would do is add a new column to the right side of the rubric. Then I’d assign each row its own total point value. So for a 100-point project, maybe the “Introduction” row is worth 10 total points, the “Body” is worth 30, and so on. I would put a half-completed fraction in each cell of that last column; so for that “Introduction” row, put ____/10. Then when you have finished giving the written feedback, you assign a number of points to that section. Then at the bottom, just total the points up — their score is the total points out of the total points possible. Does that make sense?
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Hi Dwayne,

I’m glad you brought this up — I do think it’s a natural instinct to want to go with the level four. When working with the “full” rubric style with student teachers, many considered the 4 level to be the “goal,” and it took me a while to convince them that 3 was the real target, while 4 was beyond. I don’t think there’s a firm consensus out there about this. I believe that in the spirit of differentiation, there should always be room on a rubric — the full analytic rubric or the pared-down single-point — for “beyond expectations.” Students who are capable of going above and beyond should feel encouraged to do that, and those who are capable of meeting expectations shouldn’t be made to feel that they are constantly falling short.

Thanks for taking the time to comment!
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Steve did you create a single point rubric for lab reports? I am working on creating one but I am struggling to put it all together. Would love to see and hear about something you have used!

Thanks,
Heather