Rubrics

Rubrics are tools that teachers use to grade students. Some of the advantages of rubrics are that they help students to know what the teachers expect in the assignments. Rubrics help students recognize their strengths and weaknesses in their assignments. Rubrics are good tools to grade students because students know where the grades come from, and it gives fewer chances for arbitrary grades. For example, if a teacher is going to grade an essay, he or she needs to know what he/she is looking for in this assignment. It is going to be easier and fairer, if he/she has a rubric rather than just look at an essay and give a grade. Because what happens if she/he just graded an essay, but the next essay it is of a better quality than the previous one?

When I understood the purpose of rubrics, I started appreciating them. I understood what the teachers expected in the assignments, which helped me achieve better grades. I spent more time in the areas which really mattered. As a future educator, I am considering in using rubrics to grade my students.

I found this article, What Students Say About Rubrics where students gave their opinions about rubrics. It is interesting to see that students think that rubrics help them to improve in their assignments. However there are some students who say that "They're (rubrics) not always easy to understand." One of the things that I will consider is the grade level of the students. I do agree that sometimes, there are teachers who give students rubrics to follow, but the students do not have idea of what these rubrics are asking them to do. I will take my time to explain my students what I want in an assignment, but also I will transmit the message according to their grade level.

http://www.middleweb.com/CSLB2CubRub.html