And Away We Go!!

How Is It Going?

Well this the question I asked myself today at the end of a two day collaborative rubric creation process with my students.  I decided that it was relevant and important to have my students not only understand how to use a rubric to guide their learning and improve their understanding but what goes into developing a rubric!  So the students took a little "pre-test" on what the standards that we were going to accomplish meant and then we discussed what standards are and how teachers use them to drive our lessons.  We then took the two standards that I wanted us to meet and worked collaboratively as a class to create the rubric that would guide the development of their final projects and would be used to give them a final grade for the project.  This was a very productive and empowering process for the students.  They had great insights into how to set high but achievable standards in the time frame given while assuring creative freedom in the process!  I have included a sample rubric below.

Criteria	Pass	Fail
Design	Student builds a project using technology (other than Pearltrees).	Student did not use  technology to build their project.
Academic Program Requirements	Student uses information from Pearltree/checklist to create their project.	Student does not use information from Pearltree/checklist to create project.
Managing Your Learning	Student has project completely done on time, has met all criteria, and project meets the 3-5 minute time requirement.	Student does not turn project in on time or an incomplete project.
Assessing Progress	Student completes a self-evaluation and a peer has evaluated their project.	Student is missing one or more required evaluations.
Organization	Project is neat, professional, and easily understood.	Project is sloppy and challenging to understand.
Presentation	Student is enthusiastic,  projects their voice, speak clearly, make eye contact, and face the audience.	Student is boring, unclear and does not make eye contact.
Preparedness	Student is able to answer questions about their topic.	Student inadequately answers the questions.

Comment: Discuss how your project went.

Overall, I really enjoyed working through this process with my students and I expect that due to this process that the students will not only achieve better scores on the project but will have a more clear understanding of how and why we use rubrics in the classroom.