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 Fostering
Student-Created Rubrics
As your students become familiar with rubrics, they
can assist you in the rubric design process. Not only are students empowered
by this involvement in the teaching/learning process, but they also become
engaged in the process of understanding what needs to be done on a given
learning task and how it is to be done. This ultimately results in students
taking more responsibility for their own learning and having a clearer
picture of what is expected in terms of a specific product or performance.
In essence, their learning becomes more focused and self-directed.
How can you best involve students?
- First of all, start out small. Begin with a rubric
that is nearly completed except for the anchor points and ask for input
in setting up the performance standards at each level. When students
are given the opportunity to make suggestions about aspects of performance
at each level, they become more involved in the learning activity and
have a clearer idea of expected outcomes.
- Once students seem comfortable with the "anchor
point" aspect, give students a very simple task for their first
full rubric. This learning task should be an activity with which students
have some familiarity and one that can be mastered quite easily by the
entire class. It should also fit well as a holistic rubric.
- Share with students the gist of the objective or learning
outcome. Focus on what skill and/or understanding will be assessed and
write it down. Now ask the students to help you break the learning task
into smaller components. What are the factors that must be a part of
mastering this task? Write these down, as well.
- Now decide with students how many achievement levels
there will be (3 or 4 is a good start). Label these descriptively so
that they represent a continuum of achievement.
- Using the various components of the learning task,
ask students to generate descriptions of achievement at each of these
levels.
- Once the rubric is together, discuss with the class
the process of creating a new rubric and the components that were involved.
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