Published using Google Docs
Zuzula, Zak-CEP 813-Rubric 1.0-mod 1
Updated automatically every 5 minutes

Rubric 1.0 CEP 813

Zak Zuzula

        For this module I’ve been asked to look into some information on assessment and evaluation and try to come up with a few ideas and aspects that I would like to put into my own rubric for assessments.  For this rubric I do not have a particular project or paper in mind for what I would like to do yet. I am just currently thinking about the broader aspects of a rubric and what I would like to see encompass all of my projects and papers throughout the year. I know that my rubrics to be detailed and clear for the students so they know what they need to be doing. Shepard (2000) suggested that you need to have explicit criteria set up for the student so they “know the rules” ahead of time for what they need to be doing (Shepard, 2000, p. 11).  I am still building the ideas behind the rubric. In my mind I have so many things that I am trying to incorporate without overinflating the rubric with needless or too overpowering for the teacher ideas. Trying to set up a path for student learning instead of an evaluation is my mindset as of right now.  I have three things that I am looking for on the first draft of my rubric. It started with 6 but I realized that some of these could be pushed in together to help make it more streamlined for the student.

  1. Rubric will be set up with goals not grades-

The first thing I thought about when setting up my rubric was that I wanted it to not focus on points or on grades but on accomplishments or levels of completion. Many rubrics that are used give 4-5 boxes of information with a given amount of points for each box and describe what should be done in order to receive that amount of points. When reading about student self esteem in Black & Williams (1998) they mention how grades can negatively affect a student because they think they are not capable of achieving high scores. I want my rubric to be a building block for them. “What is needed is a culture of success, backed by a belief that all pupils can achieve” (Black & Williams, 1998, p. 142). I would like the student assessment to start at one point and work its way up to the highest level.  Instead of awarding points I would like a student to be able to identify their progress with the rubric and continually use it as a guide to how they are working on their assessment/project.  I was thinking along the lines of Excellent, Acceptable, Needs work, and getting started; as my four options on the rubric instead of points awarded.

  1. Multiple looks into the project

        I would like my rubric to have a section that give the students an opportunity to have their work check multiple times. So in the section of multiple looks an Excellent assessment/paper/project would have the student have their project reviewed by the teacher, student, group, whole class, parent, and self. Then there would potentially be a feedback section where the student would comment on the feedback given to them at each of these multiple looks.  This way the student can try to show their understanding of the topic in two ways. One if their initial work is done where people can understand their idea/concept the readers will be able to give them feedback about their content and help them discuss their understanding of the topic. If not then the student feedback response will be an opportunity for them to explain why the person reading may not have understood what they were trying to do or trying to say with their work.

         “opportunities for pupils to express their understanding should be designed into any piece of teaching, for this will initiate the interaction through which formative assessment aids learning.” (Black & Williams, 1998, p. 143)

I would also like to use this portion of the rubric to help clarify feedback for the student.  Shepard (2000) suggests that feedback is best when not directing a student towards a particular answer but guiding them by asking questions why they are doing what they are doing (Shepard, 2000, p. 11).  Having multiple looks at the project and multiple opportunities to reflect on the feedback from a variety of sources can help the student put a more concise and clear path for what they want people to know about what they are doing. As a teacher I can look at the reflection piece from the student and talk to them about their thoughts and ideas and where they want to go with their project to help guide them in the right direction with looking for a specific answer.

  1. Self assessment portion of rubric

        Shepard (2000) and Black & Williams (1998) both discuss the importance of self assessment on student learning and understanding. Black & Williams discuss that pupils need to be trained to self assess in order for them to be able to understand the topics better (Black & Williams, 1998, p. 143).  Shepard discusses how self assessment brings more responsibility and ownership to the student creating a greater interest in success (Shepard, 2000, p. 12).  I would like my rubric to feature multiple self assessments by having the overall rubric be viewed and filled out by the student numerous times throughout the student’s work.  I would feel that I would schedule reflection times with the rubric and have the student assess where they are in each category so they can get an understanding of what they need to do to accomplish their task. I do have a concern with this though, I feel that some students will use this time to just mark on their paper and not actually look into their project and rubric to figure out what they need to do to improve their work.  This will probably be something that will be a trial and error type assessment for myself.

References

Black, P. & Wiliam, D. (1998). Inside the black box: Raising standards through classroom assessment. Phi Delta Kappan, 80(2), 139-144.

Shepard, L. (2000). The role of assessment in a learning culture. Educational Researcher, 29(7), 4-14.

Rubric comparison rough draft for blog

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1Juq6ay1k_PBGEyrS_zpY5qqVtcXVIc_VLmetyHf5sUU/pub

Take a critical look at the design of your assessment. Read it over and answer these questions:

a) How would I describe the design of this assessment? (e.g., is it a test? a cloze activity? a group project? an essay assignment? a portfolio assignment etc.?)

        This project is a group project. It was designed to help students work together to analyze the standard for the Constitution section of U.S. history. The students tend to struggle on the constitution so the intention was to allow them to discuss and work out together the complex answer of only one of the seven sections.  

b) What is the purpose of the assessment?

        The assessment is there to help students explain the complex standards of the Constitution. The standards are usually quite confusing for the students and when put all together can be very daunting to understand. This assessment came after lectures/discussions on the topics and the creation of the Constitution. The students had an opportunity to look into just one aspect of creating the Constitution and then explain it in a way that they understand for their classmates to get a better understanding of as well.  The opportunity for students to be able to present their information any way they saw fit would help them find a creative outlet for their information to help it make sense more to them and to others.

c) What assumptions have I made about this assessment?

        Assumption 1-  the students understood the basics of the Constitution during the prior lessons taught on the subject.   Without the prior understanding the students would be at a very big disadvantage when they try to take on the more complex standard.  

        Assumption 2- the students would know the vocabulary of the standards by this point.  Without understanding of the vocabulary the question just looks like a bunch of gibberish to them.

        Assumption 3- the students would be able to come up with something that fully answers the standard.  The students do not know the answer and without guidance and discussion they will have a very difficult time arriving at an answer that helps explain what happened.

        Assumption 4- each student would fully participate in the assignment without having one student take full control over getting it done.  If a student sits back and lets the other group members complete the task they will not actually be retaining anything and I have no checks or assessments to see if all students are understanding their question.  

        

Assumption 5- The teacher will be completing daily assessments by walking around and helping each group complete their projects. This can be tough because there is no built in model to help not just the students but the teacher know what types of things they are looking for Shepard (2000) mentions explicit criteria set up to “know the rules” and this does not set up many rules for the students to follow (Shepard 2000, pg 11)

THIRD: Take another look at your assessment through the lens of your Rubric 1.0. How does this assessment reflect (or not!) the criteria that you've identified so far as being important? Please note that you'll often need to look beyond the piece of paper (or PDF, etc.) in front of you to judge your criteria. For example, if you've based one of your criteria on Black and Wiliam's (1998) definition of formative assessment (that is, assessment that informs future teaching), you might not be able to tell from the assessment itself whether it gets used to make tweaks to future teaching. In that case, draw on your own history and memories to add a little extra information!

        I don’t think the assessment is terrible on the idea of the content it is trying to help the students understand but the three major things I want to do with my rubrics are not prevalent in the project.  I ask the students to complete the work on their own without any forms of assessment being done during the project besides the final due date. Now I am aware that I assumed that I would be helping the student along the way and be doing some assessment.  But as Shepard (2000) mentions that students need an explicit criteria to help them along the way (shepard 200, pg 11).  I feel this is incredibly important for not only the students but also the teacher. I can assume that I would be able to check and assess the students projects on a daily basis but without anything concrete for me to follow how do I check for understanding? I like the idea of being able to talk with the students to look for understanding but I feel that something needs to be tracked in order for me to better assess and help the students learn.

        

I also think that this assessment needs to help the students by creating goals for each question that they are trying to attain. Like I had mentioned in Rubric 1.0 the students need to know what an excellent answer looks like and where they need to be to fully complete their project. I gave very vague points for “fully answering the question” that doesn’t help the student reach a goal at all it just gives me a place that I can award points.  So the evaluation portion of this assessment is not very well put together if I want to students to be able to understand their question and not just turn something in. This is very much set up for them to complete the one answer that I wanted them to find and not actually learn the material.   “there is a tendency to emphasize quantity and presentation of work and to neglect its quality in relation to learning.” (Black & Williams 1998, pg 141) This quote from Black & Williams sums up exactly what I was doing in this assessment.

        I do know that when completing this assignment there were many students who did not fully understand their question and were not able to present the information as well as I had planned. The project was successful for the most part but there were groups here and there in each class that did not meet expectations. I feel that if I would have had the three parts from rubric 1.0 in this assessment I could have helped prevent this by seeing things ahead of time when the students were completing their work.