Evaluating Learners: Where do they stand

One of the toughest jobs of a teacher is deciding what grade to give a student. Let's say that a student tries extremely hard on a project, but doesn't identify all major points that need covered, should he/she get a failing grade just because not all information was covered. Or lets say you have a student that meets all requirements for a project, but doesn't work well with their team, and only puts in the bare minimum. Just because this student met the requirements, does it mean they deserve an A.

As teachers, we should try to make our lives easier by utilizing the resources given to us. Rubrics especially. Rubrics can be designed around the idea of pushing what you think is truly important, and it gives students a good basis for what to base their assignment around. If you believe teamwork is most important in your parliamentary procedure project, then students can always look back to that Rubric to make sure that they are working as a team, instead of on their own.

While it may seem oversimplified, Rubrics don't have to be complicated, and can be an easy inclusion on any assignment. Simply list out what are the top 4-6 things that are most important about that assignment, and then decide which you believe has more emphasis and deserves to be weighted heavier. If you believe all aspects have equal importance, then break everything down evenly, but you will often find that the item you list first in your mind is usually the one that you would weigh the heaviest.

If your still having trouble with this rubric idea, their are plenty of resources to help you, like online rubric builders. You can do customized ones, or depending on what your teaching, can upload ones created by other teachers. Edudemic has a list of 6 sites that they find helpful in making Online Rubrics.

Rubrics; just one simple tool to help you expand as a teacher.