Grading form

Draft

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Introduction

A grading form usually refers to a rubric you can use to grade students' work based on specific criteria. Such forms can be paper-based or electronic. The latter can be found in so-called teacher productivity tools, learning management systems, etc. or can exist as stand alone tool.

See also:

• learner assessment
• Quizzing tools

Definitions

“Scoring rubrics are descriptive scoring schemes that are developed by teachers or other evaluators to guide the analysis of the products or processes of students' efforts (Brookhart, 1999). Scoring rubrics are typically employed when a judgement of quality is required and may be used to evaluate a broad range of subjects and activities.” (Moskal, 2000, retrieved 18:59, 17 October 2012 (CEST))

“A rubric is simply a scoring tool that identifies the various criteria relevant to an assignment or learning outcome, and then explicitly states the possible levels of achievement along a continuum (poor to excellent or novice to expert). Rubrics can be used to assess almost any type of student work be it essays, final projects, oral presentations, or theatrical performances. They can be used at the time that an assignment is made to communicate expectations to students, when student work is evaluated for fair and efficient grading, and to assess a program by determining the extent to which students are achieving departmental learning outcomes.” (DePaul University, , retrieved 18:59, 17 October 2012 (CEST)).

Purpose

Grading rubrics can have several purposes:

• Help the teacher think about expected learning outcomes
• Communicate expectations to students
• Help students plan, e.g. if the evaluation includes strategic elements, like "clarity of objectives"
• Help students to self-assess a work before they turn it in
• Clear summative assessment of performance (grading)
• Formative assessment of performance (the teacher can annotate rubric fields)
• Reduction of grading time
• Getting more out of students by evaluating intermediary products in project-oriented learning with a rubric

Types of student work that can be assessed with a rubric

Rubrics are clearly useful for the assessment of unstructured and/or complex productions such as:

• Essays
• Research papers
• field notes
• literature reviews or summaries
• Term projects

They are also useful for assessing "conversational artifacts", such as:

• forum discussions
• presentations
• portfolios
• note taking
• ....

Software

Rubrics support in LMSs

• Moodle 2.0 supports Rubrics. These are available under advanced grading forms. The rubric consists of a set of criteria. For each criterion, several descriptive levels are provided. A numerical grade is assigned to each of these levels. The rater chooses which level answers/describes the given criterion best. The raw rubric score is calculated as a sum of all criteria grades. The final grade is calculated by comparing the actual score with the worst/best possible score that could be received.

Standalone tools

• Rubystar is a free tool to help teachers create quality rubrics.

Links

Introductions to rubrics

(also may include examples)

• What is a Rubric ? DePaul University, retrieved 18:59, 17 October 2012 (CEST)

• Creating Rubrics. This five-part series explores how one teacher designs, refines, and implements rubrics in a variety of subject areas, retrieved 18:59, 17 October 2012 (CEST).

Resource sites

• Assessment and Rubrics This part of Kathy Schrock's Guide to Everything! is very complete.

Grading rubric examples

• Utah Education Network Grading rubrics tool. Login is required for creation of rubrics, but rubrics can be consulted. Retrieved oct. 2012
• http://www.carla.umn.edu/assessment/vac/Evaluation/p_7.html

To sort out

• Evidence-Based Assessment (but we would not qualify the "no child left behind" initiative as truly evidence-based).

• Assessment (Edutopia)

• Creative learning assessment

Bibliography

• Brookhart, S. M. (1999). The Art and Science of Classroom Assessment: The Missing Part of Pedagogy. ASHE-ERIC Higher Education Report (Vol. 27, No.1). Washington, DC: The George Washington University, Graduate School of Education and Human Development.

• Dornisch, Michele M. and Sabatini McLoughlin, Andrea. (2006). Limitations of web-based rubric resources: Addressing the challenges. Practical Assessment, Research & Evaluation, 11(3). Retrieved November 3, 2009.

• ERIC/AE, Scoring Rubrics - Definitions & Construction, http://ericae.net/faqs/rubrics/scoring_rubrics.htm, retrieved 18:59, 17 October 2012 (CEST).

• Huba, M. E. & Freed, J. E. (2000). Learner-centered assessment on college campuses: Shifting the focus from teaching to learning. Boston, MA: Allyn & Bacon.

• Johnson, B. (1996). The Performance Assessment Handbook: Designs from the Field and Guidelines for the Territory Ahead. Princeton, NJ: Eye on Education.

• Knecht, R., Moskal, B. & Pavelich, M. (2000). The Design Report Rubric: Measuring and Tracking Growth through Success, Paper to be presented at the annual meeting of the American Society for Engineering Education.

• Moskal, Barbara M. & Jon A. Leydens (2000). Scoring rubric development: validity and reliability. Practical Assessment, Research & Evaluation, 7(10).

• Lazear, D. (1998). The Rubrics Way: Using MI to Assess Understanding. Tucscon, AZ: Zephyr Press.

• Moskal, Barbara M. (2000). Scoring rubrics: what, when and how?. Practical Assessment, Research & Evaluation, 7(3), HTML

• Popham, W. James. (1997). What's Wrong--and What's Right--with Rubrics. Educational Leadership,55(2). Retrieved November 3, 2009.

• Stevens, D. D. & Levi, A.J. (2005) Introduction to rubrics: An assessment tool to save grading time, convey effective feedback and promote student learning. Sterling, VA: Stylus.

• Taggart, G.L., Phifer, S.J., Nixon, J., & Wood, M. (Eds.). (1998). Rubrics: A Handbook for Construction and Use. Lancaster, PA: Technomic Publishing.