{"id":4257,"date":"2014-08-20T11:34:43","date_gmt":"2014-08-20T17:34:43","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/minkhollow.ca\/beckerblog\/?p=4257"},"modified":"2019-04-26T14:08:24","modified_gmt":"2019-04-26T20:08:24","slug":"students-drop-a-bomb-at-the-gafesummit-vancouver-we-dont-like-rubrics-a-stick-in-the-sand","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/minkhollow.ca\/beckerblog\/2014\/08\/20\/students-drop-a-bomb-at-the-gafesummit-vancouver-we-dont-like-rubrics-a-stick-in-the-sand\/","title":{"rendered":"Students drop a bomb at the #gafesummit Vancouver: \u201cWe don\u2019t like rubrics.\u201d | A Stick in the Sand"},"content":{"rendered":"Approximate Reading Time: <\/span> 3<\/span> minutes<\/span><\/span>

Do students really like rubrics? Are YOU using them right?<\/p>\n

\"CH043082\"Students drop a bomb at the #gafesummit Vancouver: \u201cWe don\u2019t like rubrics.\u201d | A Stick in the Sand<\/a>.<\/p>\n

For my part I quite like rubrics, but I also think many, if not most teachers create unrealistic rubrics.<\/p>\n

Grant Wiggins<\/a> (of Understanding by Design<\/a> fame, among other things) has written some must-read posts<\/a> about rubrics.<\/p>\n

Consider how a valid rubric is born. It summarizes what a range of concrete works looks like as reflections of a complex performance goal. Note two key words:\u00a0<\/span>complex<\/i>\u00a0and\u00a0<\/span>summarizes<\/i>. All complex performance evaluation requires a\u00a0<\/span>judgment<\/span>\u00a0of quality in terms of one or more criteria, whether we are considering essays, diving, or wine. The rubric is a\u00a0<\/span>summary<\/span>\u00a0that generalizes from lots and lots of samples (sometimes called models, exemplars, or anchors) across the range of quality, in response to a performance demand. The rubric thus serves as a quick reminder of what all the specific samples of work look like across a range of quality.<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The place where I see many (if not most) rubrics falling down is that they don’t actually summarize lots and lots of samples.<\/p>\n

Now, I can create a pretty good rubric for a programming assignment, but that’s because\u00a0I’ve seen 1000’s of programming<\/strong> assignments<\/strong><\/em>. In order to be able to describe the various levels of achievement in a piece of work,\u00a0you have to have seen a very large number of samples of that particular<\/strong><\/em> work.<\/strong><\/p>\n

I can’t speak for K-12, but I can say that education faculties LOVE rubrics, and when I teach a course in an education faculty, I am usually\u00a0to produce rubrics for every single “learning task” I create –\u00a0even if it’s a brand new<\/strong><\/em> task<\/em>.<\/strong> To me this reveals a lack of understanding of what rubrics are and how they should be used. How can I possibly know what exemplary looks like if I have never seen any examples? Well, the answer is I can’t. What I\u00a0can<\/em> do (which is what most teachers do when they are creating rubrics) is to invent a wish list of things we want to see. That’s not a rubric. That’s a wish list.<\/p>\n

Here’s an example of what I do now:<\/p>\n

\"COMP1103<\/p>\n

While this has many of the same ideas as are intended with a rubric, it allows for a great deal more flexibility – especially since I add comments on each of the categories.<\/p>\n

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Update: April 26, 2019<\/p>\n

The original webpage that prompted this post appears to be gone, so i have taken the liberty of repeating it here (thanks to the WayBack Machine<\/a>)<\/p>\n

Students drop a bomb at the #gafesummit Vancouver: \u201cWe don\u2019t like rubrics.\u201d<\/h1>\n
On May 8, 2014 by\u00a0Braddo<\/a> With 11<\/strong>\u00a0Comments –\u00a0Education<\/a><\/div>\n
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Update: Here\u2019s a\u00a0Storify story<\/a>\u00a0with as much of the conversation on Twitter as I can capture:<\/em><\/p>\n

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\"rubrics\"<\/a><\/p>\n

student\u2019s note from the panel discussion<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

This year we assembled\u00a0a panel of students at the\u00a0Google Apps for Education (GAFE) Vancouver Summit<\/a>\u00a0we hosted at Mulgrave School. The thinking was, it\u2019s about time we talked to our customers, so to speak.<\/p>\n

We had 5 high school students students from three local schools sitting round the table blue-sky-ing the future school. I\u2019ll be posting more of their thoughts later but I thought I\u2019d start with this bomb: the students hate rubrics!<\/p>\n

Rubrics are the bread and butter of assessment these days. The IB Diploma program, for example, depends on them. One student did say that on the upside, rubrics provide some security against teacher bias (real or perceived.)\u00a0But, all of the kids said, rubrics\u00a0feel too standardized: \u201cWe want something more personal than a number or letter that refers to some canned comment.\u201d<\/p>\n

Good rubrics are built by students and teachers, collaboratively, so this comment from the kids might mean we\u2019re not doing a good enough job consulting the major stakeholders in the assessment. My sense was, however, that this was not the problem and that students were touching on something much deeper. As Yong Zhao said in the summit keynote, so long as outcomes\u2013whether employable skills or university entrance requirements\u2013are prescribed by an external body, schooling becomes an exercise in squeezing all students through the \u201csausage-making machine.\u201d It\u2019s an impersonal activity, by definition, because in this structure we are not cultivating personal talents but rather bending and shaping people to meet some externally determined standard.<\/p>\n

\"Zhao<\/a><\/p>\n

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For an outstanding example of what cultivating talent looks like, watch this video of Benjamin Zander teaching a 15-year old student to play cello. It remains the best teaching I\u2019ve \u00a0seen. \u201cYou can give an \u201cA\u201d to anybody,\u201d says Zander. Listen to him explain what great\u00a0teaching and assessment look like at about 5:45 on.<\/p>\n