I have a hate-love relationship with rubrics. It started during my practicum semester at Georgia Southern. I was taking 15 credit hours and working a part-time job against the advise of the practicum instructors. I was trying to graduate a semester early and I needed the job because I was supporting myself financially in college. Maybe it was the stress of being overworked and the fear of failing the practicum course because our class size had shrunk after the mid-term. People, people who were already teachers with a degree trying to earn a MAT, were asked to leave the program! I didn't even have my four-year degree yet and it made me nervous. So back to my hate-love relationship with rubrics. I created my own rubrics for the unit plan I had to create for the course. Creating the rubrics was not a big deal, the problem happened when I used the rubrics to grade the students' projects. I realized my rubrics were not what I needed to give the appropriate grade the students deserved. I love using rubrics because it is a tool teachers use to defend why a student earned the grade they got, but I hate creating the perfect rubric that will give the student the grade I think they deserve. For example, some rubrics do not grade for neatness or creativity and that is important to me. Thankfully, there are plenty of sites on the web offering free rubrics to teachers. I will look at rubric templates then create my own rubric. Last week a parent emailed me why her child earned a failing grade on the PowerPoint project. I emailed the parent the rubric I used to grade the projects with her child's project attached to the email. I explained in the body of the email where her child lost points. The parent was very appreciative for the explanation. Thank goodness for rubrics! Though, I sometimes I hate them. Over time and with more experience I will find that perfect rubric that will change my hate-love relationship to pure love.
The rubrics posted below might be useful in a virtual classroom.
Example 1 from Rubrics4Teachers
Example 2 from Rubrics4Teachers
The rubrics posted below might be useful in a virtual classroom.
Example 1 from Rubrics4Teachers
Example 2 from Rubrics4Teachers