Rubrics in the Classroom: Designing

How to Design a Rubric

Rubrics Outline

Why Rubrics?

Defining

When to Use

How to Design

The Guide

How Do I Design a Rubric?

When creating a rubric, the answer to the question, "How do I design one?" may be found by utilizing a decision making grid entitled "Rubric Design Principles: Guide." This guide allows educators to create rubrics to match of the purpose/users of the rubric to five (5) design principles. The principles are:

Word Choice,
Visual Appeal,
Student’s Role,
"Fix" Correctives and
"Why" Statements.

They appear vertically on the left side of the grid. Explanations of each are included. The purpose/users are listed across the top of the grid.

Designing a rubric begins by selecting the purpose and users of the rubric from the top of the grid. Once determined, the design principles may be addressed by paying attention to the indicators and suggestions listed vertically in the column beneath the selected heading. For example, if a teacher wants to create a rubric that will be shared with students for a performance assessment task (PAT), conscious attention should be paid to the suggestions for the five design principles in the column under "Great Potential for Learner and Teacher." But, if the rubric for the PAT is being designed to insure inter-rater reliability between two teachers who will be scoring student work and it is not intended to be shared with the learners, then adhering to the suggestions listed under "Great Potential for Teachers To Be Consistent" may be adequate.

Two Teacher Tips for Designing More User-Friendly Rubrics

The "Rubric Design Principles Guide" models two tips invented to make using rubrics effective and efficient. One is the use of "skinny" columns. They are thin columns drawn between the vertical columns. When used in a rubric, the skinny columns allow a teacher to honor a student’s improvement from an initial review to subsequent reviews when the improvement was not adequate to advance the student to the next level of competency. A teacher could place pluses (+) in the thin columns, hopefully maintaining the student’s motivation toward continued improvement, rather than creating a picture that no improvement had occurred.

The second tip modeled on the grid that could be incorporated on a rubric, is the wide column entitled "Legend." It was invented to encourage students ranking at the highest proficiency to continue to look for ways to make their work outstanding. It is often called the "Legend in Your Own Time" column. It has no indicators listed. It is simply an open invitation for students to extend themselves beyond the stated expectations/requirements.

Both skinny columns and "Legend in Your Own Time" tips were developed to take rubrics beyond merely a grading tool and make it a coaching tool. The two tips were invented to encourage the learner to use a continuous improvement mindset rather than merely asking, "What can I do to get a grade?" Rubrics are like training wheels to a learner. They should be used to help assist a learner in becoming self-reliant, self-directed and self-assessing. If used effectively, rubrics develop a strong sense of student ownership in their achievement.

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