A rubric is a tool designed to present students with a concise description of what constitutes quality work. It helps a student understand how an assignment will be evaluated and can assist a teacher with determining if the student's work meets all requirements being assessed.
Types of Rubrics
There are two general categories of rubrics: holistic or analytical, though the two are sometimes combined to form a hybrid. Holistic rubrics are generic grading guidelines which frequently take the form of a checklist and result in a single grade. Analytical rubrics provide a more categories and descriptions than holistic rubrics and frequently result in more than one grade or assessment result.
Creating Rubrics
Creating holistic rubrics tends to be quicker creating than analytical rubrics. Typically, these rubrics assign a value for different criteria; for example, correct spelling being worth 4 points and 1 point removed for each mistake. All values then determine a specific final score.
Creating analytical rubrics starts with determining all areas which should be evaluated, and then further defining those areas into specific criteria. For example, one area might be writing skills and a specific piece being assessed is spelling. The criteria are then further described by qualities that define the student's work as a novice, basic, proficient or advanced level. The final result is a rubric that can be left as a qualitative assessment tool, highlighting where the student needs to focus in order to improve.
Grading with Rubrics
A specific characteristic of all rubrics is that they are not used only by the teacher. Students should be provided with a copy of the rubric being used to assess the assignment before the assignment is due. One way is to provide students with a copy of the rubric when first introducing the assignment, which allows them to know how the final product will be assessed and where they need to focus their efforts for success. Another way is to wait until part way into a project, allowing students to self-assess their work and make corrections or additions where needed.
Holistic and analytical rubrics lead to two different ways of providing a grade. By their nature of being grading guidelines, holistic rubrics typically result in one final grade. Analytical rubrics, however, provide a detailed analysis of the student's work without assigning a traditional percentage or letter grade. The hybrid approach allows for teachers to adapt the analytical rubric so that it can provide a traditional grade, however these adaptations tend to be as different as each teacher's teaching style.
Overall, rubrics are a valuable assessment tool. They provide a systematic approach for teacher's to follow in order to create meaningful assessments. Rubrics also easily can be used for student self-assessment and self-evaluation. Finally, they can be used for traditional grading, skills assessment, or a combination of both.
Reference: Andrade, H.G. Understanding Rubrics. Educational Leadership, 54(4). 1997.
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