Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums General Discussion Grading Rubrics

Just wondering....has it become common practice for teachers to provide the students with the rubric at the beginning of a project or assignment? (DS is in 5th grade, if it matters.)

I've not seen it before this year/state and I'm curious as to whether or not it's become the norm.

Thanks.

By rubric do you mean the criteria by which it'll be marked and how they'll be weighted? (The meaning I know is the instructions as to what the choice of questions is, but it doesn't make sense not to publish that so that can't be what you mean!) I don't know about in schools, but it's certainly considered good practice in everything I've read about teaching, so it makes sense. The reasoning is that it's just part of clarifying expectations.

My 2nd grader gets rubrics on writing assignments and projects.

Rubrics seem to be more popular here in Middle school where large assignments are given and the project will be weighted heavily in the final grade. They are very common in science and language arts assignments.

I use rubrics in my classes regularly and I do give them to the students at the beginning of the project/assignment. This way the students don't have to guess what I want for a passing grade or what I want for an A grade. (I teach high school.)

I also find them convenient, efficent, and fair for the grading process - this is HUGE when you have 120 of something to grade.

My DD in 5th grade also receives rubrics at the beginning of projects.

Thanks to all for the replies. It does appear to be a more common practice these days.

Yes, this is how I interpret the intent. It very clearly outlines the requirements for the different grades one could/will receive. I just hadn't seen this done at any of the other schools DS has attended.

Thanks again to everyone.

One of the things that was provided for me in highschool to combat my LD were rubrics. It was one of the things that helped me the most, but it got very, very strong push-back, so I stopped enforcing it. The gr 9 student I tutor gets rubrics for every single thing -- it's even marked in on tests.

My Athabasca U graders/tutors are about 50/50 happy to do it/ vehemently opposed.

My feeling is that the smarter the teacher the more willing they are to provide rubrics. Based on the conversations I've had (including with a terrible, but very intelligent tutor who headed the question off by sending rubrics and an admonition not to bug him in his introductory letter) around it, that's because the smart ones are less mystified by how knowledge is constructed, and the possibility of alternative rubrics on the same question.

I give rubrics when I teach art workshops, even though I'm not evaluating the work, because I noticed that my students were using them to self-evaluate right from the very beginning and it made their progress smoother and faster. I make a bit of a joke of it, right off the top, and typically give somebody really famous an "f" for something.

I REALLY like rubrics!

This is how DS6 is graded. We got a copy of the report card rubric in the beginning of the year and get an additional copy at the end of each of the 9 weeks (with grades, obviously).

Our kids (private independent school in the midwest) got rubrics for almost every major assignment in middle school. They still get them sometimes in upper school, but not as consistently. Since D1 started middle school 10 years ago, that is how long they have been around for us.

Ds9 has been getting them for projects, they seem very helpful to me, and I think he appreciates them. I recall getting 1 or 2 of these from college professors...back when dinosaurs roamed the earth.