This week in class we took a look at rubrics. I received a few rubrics in high school but I honestly didn't use them much. In high school I found them as more of a nuisance. Looking back, I don't think I fully understood how to use them. Throughout my college career I have fallen in love with rubrics! If I don't have one I feel like I'm driving blind, especially on big assignments. Rubrics tell students exactly what the teacher/professor expects. It gives you a target to aim for and tells you exactly what you need to do to hit that target.
I don't know how frequently I will give my students rubrics in my math classroom. I could see creating one for a project, but I am also toying with the idea of giving students a rubric for the entire year. This rubric would tell students what I am expecting from them every day. It would include ideas like participation, completed homework, critical thinking, mathematical reasoning, respect towards teacher and peers, cooperation during group projects... They may or may not receive an official grade at the end of the year on some of these, but it would give students a sense of direction in my class as well as tell them what I expect of them as learners.
Rubrics allow the teacher to demonstrate leadership (NCPTS 1) as well as reflect on their practice (NCPTS 5). A teacher's expectations may sometimes be to high for the students. A rubric would allow the teacher to see how many students are reaching or exceeding her expectations and can make changes accordingly.
Hi Sarah!
ReplyDeleteI think you have some really good ideas about including rubrics in the math classroom! I am in music and we use rubrics all the time. It helps eliminate any bias that we might have when grading playing/singing tests. I now see that is might be hard to implement them into math, however it sounds like you are ahead of the game! I might also give my students a rubric on year-long expectations. I think it would be good for them to refer to.
Rubrics seem like a popular thing in this class. I understand why a rubric would be great for a general ed. classroom, but I just don't see me using a lot of rubrics in the music elementary classroom. After reading Josh's comment, I guess I could see using rubrics in an upper level music class. I just think giving a rubric to an elementary school student would be kind of confusing for them. Although, I have never put it to the test. I may give them a chance one day in my classroom.
ReplyDeleteHey Sarah,
ReplyDeleteI have fallen in love with rubrics since beginning college as well. For larger projects or assignments they're so great for getting a glimpse inside of my teacher's head to see what they expect from me. I'm really looking forward to putting them to use in my music classroom for practice tests and things like that, but I had never thought of using one almost like a map for the year showing what I expected from them on a daily basis. This idea is really interesting and I want to look into it more.