Opening Slide: Alex Dugan

MA in TESOL

Rubrics
A Guide to Development and
Use
 Objectives
• By the end of the presentation you
should be able to:
– Describe a rubric (what is it?)
– Describe the purpose of rubrics.
– Describe the difference between holistic
and analytic rubrics.
– List the characteristics of good rubrics.
– Create/modify a rubric for an assignment or
activity in a class you teach.
– Identify strengths and weaknesses in a
rubric.

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 What’s a rubric?
• Rubrics are performance-based
assessments that evaluate student
performance on any given task or
set of tasks that ultimately leads
to a final product, or learning
outcome.

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08/02/09 4
 Which of these reasons are
important to you?
• Importance of Reliability
• Validity of the assessment
• Reduction of bias in grading
• Clarifying goals for you as the teacher
• Communicating expectations to students
• Improve students ability to judge their own perfo
• Means for providing better feedback to students

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 Definition
• "Rubrics" explicitly state criteria
for assignments.
• May lead to a grade or be part of
the grading process.
• Are more specific, detailed, and
disaggregated than a grade.
• Show strengths and weaknesses in
student work.
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 Another definition
(Jon Mueller. Professor of Psychology, North Central College)

• Assess student performance along

a task-specific set of criteria
• Measures performance against a
predetermined criteria
• Includes essential criteria for the
task
• Has multiple levels of performance

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 Example: Wrting
Criteria 4 3 2 1
Information in Student Reader has Sequence of
Organizatio logical, presents difficulty information is
interesting information in following work difficult to
n
sequence which logical sequence because follow.
reader can which reader student jumps
follow. can follow. around.

Content Student Student is at Student is Student does

demonstrates full ease with uncomfortable not have grasp
knowledge (more content, but with content of information;
than required). fails to and is able to student cannot
elaborate. demonstrate answer
basic concepts. questions about
subject.

Reference Work displays Reference Work does not Work displays

the correct section was have the no references.
number of completed appropriate
references, incorrectly number of
written correctly. required
references.
Neatness Work is neatly Work has one or Work has three Work is Illegible.
done. two areas that or four areas
are sloppy. that are sloppy.

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 Example: Wrting
Criteria W 4 3 2 1
T
Information in Student Reader has Sequence of
Organizatio logical, presents difficulty information is
interesting information in following work difficult to
n
sequence which logical sequence because follow.
reader can which reader student jumps
follow. can follow. around.

Content Student Student is at Student is Student does

demonstrates full ease with uncomfortable not have grasp
knowledge (more content, but with content of information;
than required). fails to and is able to student cannot
elaborate. demonstrate answer
basic concepts. questions about
subject.

Vocabulary Few errors; Fairly broad Adequate but Words don’t fit
precise and vocabulary; repetitive ; the context;
appropriate some errors invented words hard to
understand

Neatness Work is neatly Work has one or Work has three Work is Illegible.
done. two areas that or four areas
are sloppy. that are sloppy.

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 Characteristics of Rubrics
• Increase an assessment's construct and
content validity
• Increase an assessment's reliability
– set criteria that raters can apply
consistently and objectively
• Established criteria reduces bias
• Can help teachers clarify goals and
improve their teaching
• Help learners set goals and assume
responsibility for their learning

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 Characteristics Continued
• Help learners develop their ability
to judge quality in their own and
others' work
• Provides specific feedback about
areas of strength and weakness
• Learners can use rubrics to assess
their own effort and performance
before submitting it
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 Characteristics Continued
• Learners and teachers monitor
progress over a period of
instruction
• Reduces time spent grading
• Engaging students in the design
empowers them
• Moves away from subjective
grading
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 Types of Rubrics
• Ask yourself:
– For a particular task, do you want to
be able to assess how well the
students perform on each criterion,
or do you want to get a more global
picture of the students' performance
on the entire task?

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 Holistic
• a holistic rubric does not list
separate levels of performance for
each criterion

• a holistic rubric assigns a level of

performance by assessing
performance across multiple
criteria as a whole.
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 Holistic Rubric (Accent)
Score Criteria
Level
4 The student’s accent has no trace of first language
influence. Accent is fairly Standard American.

3 The student’s accent is very understandable by a

native American although some intonation can be
inconsistent and can be traced back to L1 intonation.

2 The student’s accent is evidently very much affected

by L1 intonation. However, it is fairly understandable.

1 The student’s accent is very much affected by L1

intonation and it is difficult to understand.

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 Analytic Rubric

Criteria 4 3 2 1
Information in Student Reader has Sequence of
Organizatio logical, presents difficulty information is
interesting information in following work difficult to
n
sequence which logical sequence because follow.
reader can which reader student jumps
follow. can follow. around.
Content Student Student is at Student is Student does not
demonstrates full ease with uncomfortable have grasp of
knowledge (more content, but fails with content information;
than required). to elaborate. and is able to student cannot
demonstrate answer
basic concepts. questions about
subject.
Vocabulary Few errors; Fairly broad Adequate but Words don’t fit
precise and vocabulary; repetitive ; the context;
appropriate some errors invented words hard to
understand

Neatness Work is neatly Work has one or Work has three Work is Illegible.
done. two areas that or four areas
are sloppy. that are sloppy.

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 When to choose an analytic
rubric

• Want to assess each criterion

separately
• Involve large number of criteria
• More variance across the criteria
• Need to weight criteria differently

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Designing an Analytic Rubric

• Step 1.  Re­examine learning objective to be 
addressed by the task.

• Step 2.  Identify observable attributes you want to 
see (as well as those you don’t want to see) your 
students demonstrate in the product, process, or 
performance.

• Step 3.   Brainstorm characteristics of each attribute.

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 Design Analytic Continued
• Step 4b.  Write thorough narrative 
description for excellent and poor work for 
each individual attribute.
• Step 5b.  Complete the rubric by describing 
other levels on the continuum that ranges 
from excellent to poor for each attribute.

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 Hint: Use Even Number of
Levels
• Use an even number (4 or 6) of levels
of performance on the scale.
• When there are an odd number of
levels, the middle level tends to
become a catch-all category.
• With an even number of levels, raters
have to make a more precise judgment
about a performance when its quality is
not at the top or bottom of the scale.
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Hint: Arrange Levels High to
Low
• High to low scale.
• Students read first the description
of an exemplary performance in
each criterion.

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 Sample High to Lows
4 3 2 1
Exemplary Excellent Acceptable Unacceptable

Exceeds Meets Progressing Not there yet

expectations expectations

Superior Good Fair Needs work

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 More Hints
• Limited number of dimensions or
criteria.
– The criteria are those components that are
most important to evaluate in the given
task and instructional context.
– A rubric with too many dimensions may be
unworkable in classroom assessment.
• Equal steps along the scale.
– The difference between 4 and 3 should be
equivalent to the difference between 3 - 2
and 2 - 1.
– "Yes, and more", "Yes", "Yes, but", and
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 4 3 2 1

Task All Most Some Very few or none

Frequency Always Usually Some of the time Rarely or not at

all

Accuracy No errors Few errors Some errors Frequent errors

Comprehen Always Almost always Gist and main Isolated bits are
sibility comprehen comprehensible ideas are comprehensible
sible comprehensible

Content Fully Adequately Partially Minimally

coverage developed, developed, developed, developed,
fully adequately partially supported minimally
supported supported supported

Vocabulary

Range Broad Adequate Limited Very limited

Variety Highly Varied; occasionally Lacks variety; Memorized;

varied; non- repetitive repetitive highly repetitive
repetitive

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 Rubrics Online
• http://www.teach-nology.com

• http://www.rubistar.4teachers.org

• http://www.rubrics4teachers.com

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 Review
• Describe a rubric (what is it).
• Describe the purpose of rubrics.
• Describe the difference between holistic
and analytic rubrics.
• List the characteristics of good rubrics.
• Create/modify a rubric for an assignment or
activity in a class you teach.
• Identify strengths and weaknesses in a
rubric.

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Closing Slide: Alex Dugan MA
in TESOL

Rubrics
A Guide to Development and
Use

08/02/09 27