7.5.

Writing and Selecting

Effective Rubrics
 2 main defining aspects:

The criteria that describe the qualities that you and

student look for as evidence of student’s learning
Descriptions of levels of performance
 7.5.1. Desired Characteristics of Criteria for Classroom Rubrics
CHARACTERISTICS EXPLANATION
The Criteria Are:
APPROPRIATE Each criterion represents an aspect of a standard, curricular goal,
or instructional goal, or objectives that students are intended to
learn
DEFINABLE Each criterion has a clear, agreed-upon meaning that both
students and teachers understand.
OBSERVABLE Each criterion describes a quality in the performance that can be
perceived(seen or heard,usually) by someone other than the
person performing
DISTINCT FROM ONE ANOTHER Each criterion identifies a separate aspect of the learning
outcomes the performance is intended to assess.
COMPLETE All the criteria together describe the whole of the learning
outcomes the performance is intended to assess.
ABLE TO SUPPORT DESCRIPTIONS ALONG A CONTINUUM OF Each criterion can be described over a range of performance level.
QUALITY

Figure 15. Desired Characteristics of Criteria for Classroom Rubrics

 ORAL READING FLUENCY RUBRIC

Name__________________ Date ____________________________

EXPRESSION 1 2 3 4
No A little Expression Same Lots of
Expression Expression Expression
PHRASING 1 2 3 4
No A little Expression Same Very Good
Expression Phrasing Phrasing

SPEED 1 2 3 4
Way too slow or A little bit to slow Almost perfect Just right
way too fast or a little bit too but still needs
fast practice

Figure 16. Oral Reading Fluency Rubric

Characteristics Explanation
The Description of levels
Of performance are…
Descriptive Performance is described in terms of what is observed in the
work.
Clear Both students and teachers understand what the descriptions
mean.
Cover the whole range of performance Performance is described from one extreme of the continuum
of quality to another for each criterion.
Distinguishing among levels Performance descriptions are different enough from level to
level that work can be categorized unambiguously. It should
be possible to match examples of work to performance
description at each level.
Center the target performance (acceptable, mastery, passing) The description of performance at the level expected by the
at the appropriate level standard, curriculum goal, or lesson objective is placed at the
intended level on the rubric.

Feature parallel descriptions from level to level Performance descriptions at each level of the continuum for a
given standard describe different quality levels for the same
aspects of the work.

Figure 17. Desired Characteristics of Descriptions of Levels of Performance for Classroom Rubrics
 CRITERIA
Did I get my audience’s
attention?
Did I tell what kind of
book?
Did I tell something about
the main character?
Did I mention the setting?
Did I tell one interesting
part?
Did I tell who might like this
book?
How did I look?
How did I sound?
QUALITY
Creative beginning Boring beginning No beginning
Tells exactly what type of Not sure, not clear Didn’t mention it
book it is
Include facts about Slid over character Did not tell anything about
character the main character
Tells when and where story Not sure, not clear Didn’t mention setting
takes place
Made it sound interesting- I Told part and skipped on to Forgot to do it
want to buy it! something else
Did tell Skipped over it Forgot to tell
Hair combed, neat, clean Lazy look Just-got-out-of-bed-look,
clothes, smiled, looked up, head down
happy
Clear, strong, cheerful voice No expression in voice Difficult to understand - 6
inch voice or screeching
Figure 18. Book Talk Rubric
 7.6. Tips in Designing Rubrics

1  Aim for clear, precise and concise language.

 7.6. Tips in Designing Rubrics

2  Avoid “Creative”, “Innovative”, and “Vague”

Terms.

“if rubric is to teach as well

as evaluate, terms like these
must be defined for
students.”
 7.6. Tips in Designing Rubrics

Try words that can convey ideas and which

3 can be readily observed.
 Patricia Crosby and Pamela Heinz solve the same
problem in a rubric for oral presentation by actual
listing the ways in which students could meet the
criterion.(Fig. 19)
CRITERION QUALITY

Gains attention of Gives details or an Does a two- Does not attempt

audience amusing fact, a sentence to gain attention
series of introduction, then of audience, just
questions, a short start speech. start speech.
demonstration, a
colorful visual or a Gives a one-
personal reason sentence
why they picked introduction, then
this topic start speech.
 Specifying the levels of quality can often be very challenging. Spending a
lot of time with the criteria helps but in the end what comes out are
often subjective.
 There is a clever technique often used to define the levels of quality. It
essentially graduates the quality level through responses: “YES”. “Yes
but,” “No but,” and “NO.”(see Fig. 20)

CRITERION QUALITY

Gives enough Yes, I put Yes, I put in No, I didn’t No, I had
details enough details some details put enough almost no
to give the but some key details, but I details.
reader a sense details are did include a
of time, place, missing. few.
and events.
 7.6. Tips in Designing Rubrics

Rubrics  Are scales the differentiate levels of

student performance.
 Contains criteria that must be met by
the student and the judgment process
that will be used to rate the
performance of the student.
 7.6. Tips in Designing Rubrics

Examplar Is an example that delineates the desired

characteristics of quality in ways students
can understand.
Well-designed rubrics include:

 Performance dimensions that are critical to successful task

completion.;
 Criteria that reflect all the important outcomes of the
performance task;
 rating scale that provides a usable, easily-interpreted
score;
 Criteria that reflect concrete references, in clear language
understandable to students, parents, and other teachers;
and others.
 Summary:

 To design problem based test, we have to ensure that

both processes and end-results should be tested.
 7.7. Automating Perfomance-Based Tests

In order to automate
 Needs to identify a set of tasks which all lead
to the solution of a fairly complex problem.
 7.7. Automating Perfomance-Based Tests

Summary  Each Performance task/problem that is used in the test should be clearly defined
in terms of performance standards not only for the end result but also for the
strategies used in various stages of process.

 A user need not always to end up accomplishing the task; hence it is important to
identify important milestones that the test taker reaches while solving the
problem.
 Having define the possible strategies, the process and milestones, the selection
of tasks that comprise a test should allow the design of good rubrics for scoring.
 Every aspect of the problem-solving activity that we wish to test has to lead to a
set of changes in the system, so that the testing software can collect evidence of
the student’s competency.