Tips For Effective Rubric Design

How to:

design a rubric that does its job

write precise criteria and descriptors

make your rubric student-friendly

Expert Input

Experts agree:– Rubrics are hard to design.

– Rubrics are time-consuming to design.

– ―A rubric is only as useful as it is good. Using a bad rubric is a waste of time…‖

--Michael Simkins in ―Designing Great Rubrics‖

Experts disagree:

– how to design a ―good‖ rubric

Bottom line: Is it working for you and for your students?

The Cookie

Task: Make a chocolate chip cookie that I would want

to eat.

Criteria: Texture, Taste, Number of Chocolate Chips,

Richness

Range of performance:

– Delicious(14-16 pts)

– Tasty(11-13 pts)

– Edible(8-10 pts)

– Not yet edible(0-7 pts)

The Rubric

Delicious

4

Tasty

3

Edible

2

Not yet

edible

1

# chips Chips in

every bite

75% chips 50% chips Less than

50% chips

texture Consistently

chewy

Chewy

middle,

crispy

edges

Crunchy Like a dog

biscuit

color Even golden

brown

Brown with

pale center

All brown

Or all pale

Burned

richness Buttery, high

fat

Medium fat Low-fat

flavor

Nonfat

flavor

Assess The Cookie

Overall score– Delicious

– Tasty

– Edible

– Not yet edible

By criteria– Number of chips

– Texture

– Taste

– Richness

Oops, What Went Wrong?

Did the ―product‖ match

expectations?

Effective rubrics don’t

exist in a vacuum.

The good news…

Holistic Or Analytic—Which To Use?

HOLISTIC—views product or performance as a whole;

describes characteristics of different levels of

performance. Criteria are summarized for each

score level.

(level=degree of success—e.g., 4,3,2,1 or ―Tasty‖)

(criteria= what counts, facets of performance—e.g.,

research or number of chips or presentation)

Holistic Or Analytic?

HOLISTIC—pros and cons

+Takes less time to create. Well…

+Effectively determines a ―not fully developed‖

performance as a whole

+Efficient for large group scoring; less time to assess

- Not diagnostic

- Student may exhibit traits at two or more levels at the

same time.

Holistic Example

Cookie

Delicious level (4)

Chips in every bite

Consistently chewy

Even golden brown

Buttery, high fat

Holistic Or Analytic?

Analytic=Separate facets of performance

are defined, independently valued, and

scored.

Example: Music—skill=string improvisation

development

Facets scored separately: melody; harmonics;

rhythm; bowing & backup; confidence

Holistic Or Analytic?

Analytic—pros and cons

+Sharper focus on target

+Specific feedback (matrix)

+Instructional emphasis

-Time consuming to articulate components and

to find language clear enough to define

performance levels effectively

Sample Of Analytic Rubric

See Packet

The Debate

Is the whole the sum of its parts?

Wiggle room or valid criterion—

Overall Development

Overall Impression

Overall impact (See ―purpose‖)

Thomas Newkirk

Weighting

Number range (70-74 or 70-79)

Tip #1

Don’t make task-specific rubrics.

– Efficiency issue

– Two heads or three or four or five…

– Make one, get two or three or four…

– ―Generalizable‖ or template rubric

– Unless you need it for tomorrow…

(See Tip #8)

Tip #2

Don’t use generic or ―canned‖ rubrics without

careful consideration of their quality and

appropriateness for your project. These are your students, not someone else’s.

Your students have received your instruction.

Tip #3

Avoid dysfunctional detail.

– ―…in most instances, lengthy rubrics probably

can be reduced to succinct…more useful versions

for classroom instruction. Such abbreviated

rubrics can still capture the key evaluative criteria

needed to judge students’ responses. Lengthy

rubrics, in contrast, will gather dust‖ (Benjamin

23).

--Includes wordiness, jargon, negativity

Tip #4

Limit the number of criteria

– Well…

– Don’t combine independent criteria.

―very clear‖ and ―very organized‖ (may be clear but not

organized or vice versa).

Tips #5 and #6

Use key, teachable ―criteria‖ (What counts)

– Don’t vaguely define levels of quality.

– Concrete versus abstract

―poorly organized‖ (Organization: sharply focused thesis,

topic sentences clearly connected to thesis, logical

ordering of paragraphs, conclusion ends with clincher)

―inventive‖ ―creative‖ ―imaginative‖ UNLESS…

Key Question to ask yourself: What does it look like?

Tips #5 and #6

Use measurable criteria.--Specify what quality or absence looks like

vs. comparatives (―not as thorough as‖)

or value language (―excellent content‖)

---Highlight the impact of the performance

--Was the paper persuasive or problem solved?

(Note importance of PURPOSE)

--What are the traits of effective persuasion?

--Be sure that the descriptor is not the criterion and vice

versa

Tip #7

Aim for an even number of levels

– Create continuum between least and most

– Define poles and work inward

– List skills and traits consistently across levels

Tip #8

Include students in creating or adapting

rubrics

Consider using ―I‖ in the descriptors I followed precisely—consistently—inconsistently—MLA

documentation format.

I did not follow MLA documentation format.

Tip #9

Motivate students to use rubric.

Instructional rubric (―Buy one, get one…‖)

―At their very best, rubrics are also

teaching tools that support student

learning…‖ (Andrade 13).

Do they understand the criteria and descriptors?

How do you know?

When do you give the rubric to your students?

Tip #10

Provide models of the different performance

levels.

The Assignment Sheet

Don’t forget the importance of the assignment sheet

Connection to rubric (Use same language!)

– The lawyers in your class

―But the rubric doesn’t say that…‖

Project/paper/presentation must meet all requirements of assignment

– Due date and late penalty

– Format requirements

– Non-negotiables

Skills and reasonable expectations

Don’t Forget the Check-in Stage

Use your rubric as a formative assessment to

give students feedback about how they are

doing.

– Isolate a particularly challenging aspect

– Have student isolate an area of difficulty

– Center revision instruction around rubric

Steps in Developing a Rubric

Design backwards—rubric first; then product/performance.

Decide on the criteria for the product or performance to be assessed.

Write a definition or make a list of concrete descriptors—identifiable-- for each criterion.

Develop a continuum for describing the range of performance for each criterion.

Keep track of strengths and weaknesses of rubric as you use it to assess student work.

Revise accordingly.

Step back; ask yourself, ―What didn’t I make clear instructionally?‖ The weakness may not be the rubric.

Steps in Modifying a “Canned” Rubric

Find a rubric that most closely matches your

performance task.

Evaluate and adjust to reflect your

instruction, language, expectations, content,

students

– Criteria

– Descriptors

– Performance levels

It’s hard work…

Expect to revise…and revise…

– One problem is that the rubric must cover all potential

performances; each should fit somewhere on the rubric.

―There are no final versions, only drafts and

deadlines.‖

When you’ve got a good one, SHARE IT!

When to use these rubrics

Usually with a relatively complex assignment,

such as a long-term project, and essay, or

research-based product.

– Informative feedback about work in progress

– Detailed evaluations of final projects

The Mini-Rubric

These are the quick ones.

Fewer criteria and shorter descriptions of quality

– Yes/no checklists

– Describe proficient level of quality and leave other boxes for

commentary during grading.

– Use for small products or processes:

Poster

Outline

Journal entry

Class activity

Mini-rubric Example

Vocabulary Poster Purpose: to inform

Content criterion (50%) 4 3 2 1

____written explanation of denotation—accuracy/thoroughness

____examples in action—accuracy/variety

____visual symbol or cartoon conveys word meaning—accuracy/clarity

____wordplay---weighs synonyms for subtleties of meaning--accuracy/thoroughness

Presentation criterion (50%)

4,3,2,1--neat

4,3,2,1--clear organizational pattern

4,3,2,1--no error in Conventions

4,3,2,1--uses visual space to catch and hold attention

Score= Content__+Presentation___divided by 2=______GRADE

Miscellaneous Suggestions

#1--Describe proficient level of quality and leave other

boxes for commentary during grading.

#2--―Box‖ the acceptable—proficient—level

#3--Translate the rubric’s 4,3,2,1 into number that

represents middle of grade range (e.g., B=84)

OR, give a point range (e.g., A=90 (indicates just made

category)

BUT A=95 (indicates solid in category

Caution

Don’t let the rubric stand alone:

ALWAYS, ALWAYS provide specific

“Comments” on your rubric and/or on the

student product itself.

Sentence Stems

To establish 4 levels of performance, try sentence stems.

Example:

Yes, I used surface texture and deep carvings effectively to create individualizing detail.

Yes, I used surface texture and deep carvings, but I needed to include more for individualizing detail.

No, I did not use surface texture, but I did use deep carvings –or vice, versa—to create some individualizing detail.

No, I did not use surface texture or deep carvings.

Rubric Criterion Across The Curriculum

Content (substance, support, proof, details)– Relevant

– Specific

– Thorough

– Synthesized

– Balanced

– Convincing

– Accurate

Rubric Criterion Across the Curriculum

Research

– Uses variety of sources (primary, secondary,

electronic, traditional, human)

Note: Watch minimums—Is minimum ―minimal‖ or is

minimum ―proficient‖?

– Uses appropriate sources (credible, timely,

scholarly)

– Documents sources accurately

The Best Rubrics

Analytic and holistic

Developmental

―Generalizable‖ and specific

Instructional

The best rubrics WORK

for students and teachers!

Acknowledgments

Joyce, for technical help—without her help this PowerPoint presentation would be even

less visually appealing and more boring than it is.

Myra, for technical help—see above

Myra, for ―Special‖ input and rubric samples

Veronika, for rubric quiz idea

Jeff, for rubric sample

Works Cited/Consulted--draft

Andrade, Heidi Goodrich. ―Using Rubrics to Promote Thinking and Learning.‖ ASCD. Feb. 2000

Baggio, Christine. ―Designing Rubrics: Revising Instruction and Improving Performance.‖ PowerPoint presentation. www.edutech.org.br.

Benjamin, Amy. An English Teacher’s Guide to Performance Tasks and Rubrics. Larchmont: Eye on Education, 2000.

Classroom. Assessment Framework, Grades 4-8. PDE, Fall 2002.

Leavell, Alexandra. ―Authentic Assessment: Using Rubrics to Evaluate Project-Based Learning.‖ PowerPoint. WEBLIBRARY.