Topic #4- Scoring Tools

Guiding Questions:

• How can I develop scoring tools to evaluate the evidence I’ve collected about student learning?
• What types of tools are there and what are the tools good for?
• Why might I want to use a checklist instead of a rubric or vice versa?

I want to reflect first on using checklists versus using rubrics. On top of my four years of undergrad, and my building experience, I still base a lot of my decisions as a teacher, on reflections of the experiences I had as a student. And as a student I remember rubrics being the most often used scoring tool. Subconsciously I have then transitioned into the mindset that grading is not “fair” with out the often wordy explanation of each graded criteria. But as I looked at the resources provided, and in the video Leslie created, I realized that the projects I introduce to students often have elements that should be a checklist rather than different variables on a scale. Leslie speaks to the fact that sometimes there is a requirement that is simply a yes or not situation; for example a size requirement. She says, the students don’t get some points if it is a little less than the requirement, and a little less points if it is less than that. They simply met the requirement or didn’t. Which seems obvious now that I think of it more, but I can clearly think of times were I did just that in a rubric. Students then are able to say to themselves “well I can still get a passing grade if I get close to this requirement, but I don’t have to exactly meet it.” Which is NOT the mindset I want students to be establishing in my classes, and that is simply often NOT how life works outside the classroom.

I also listened to the Cult of Pedagogy episode, “Five ways to improve your rubrics” to help thinking about ways to adapt rubrics and assessment tools I have already created. The first topic they talk about is figuring out what how to measure what really matters. They discuss the difference between just putting the easily observable and measurable goals on a rubric, like correct grammar, or supporting requirements, instead of making the the more meaningful goal or purpose of the assignment clear. I definitely can identify situations like this in my own rubrics, because it answered the question of showing evidence. But at the same time I can remember finishing grading a students work and not feeling satisficed that the score represented the students work, that it felt like the deeper part, that more meaningful goal, wasn’t a big enough part of the score because it was harder to find that evidence for, it sometimes can see more subjective. They talk about this factor as mentioned above, that those more “safe” objective evidence forms can be taken out of the rubric and still be valued as a checklist, because it is often a case of “did you have it or not”.

Some additional resources that I have found is the Art of Educations short article on different types of rubrics, this helped me visual the different ways we can organize rubrics for different benefits for us as teachers and for students. Link here: https://theartofeducation.edu/2017/03/14/5-types-rubrics-use-art-classes/ I also looked at an article that shows the possibility of students self assessing through visuals instead of lengthy written rubrics. I think this a really interesting concept that helps if we think about self assessment maybe at an elementary level, maybe for our EL students, or just as a different way to engage students who have a hard time reading all the directions needed for full understanding. You can look at the visual rubrics created and read more about it by downloading this article, Self‐Assessment in Art Education through a Visual Rubric.

A question I have in relation to scoring tools is how do we best introduce students to this criteria and how they will be assessed using the scoring tool? I often have a hard time walking that line of what is too much information and what is not enough for student comprehension. What is the best way of presenting this information as well?