Journal # 3

From a student's perspective, I had always thought that we were given rubrics so that students can decide what grade they want to achieve based on the requirements given by the teacher. I thought that this rubric or guideline was given to us so we know what an 'A' paper or project demonstrated. To be honest, I never really liked rubrics because they were always so broad and general in terms of what was required to get a good grade. I had always preferred criteria or an outline of each task that was expected of us. However, reflecting back on it now, I realize that I grew up during a time when us students were always expected to pass and get a good grade or else we don't meet up to the "standards" of the school; I could see why I never appreciated the use of a rubric.

Reading this article from a teacher's perspective was very interesting and now I can see why rubrics can be helpful. Susan Brookhart (2013) explains that the, "main purpose of rubrics is to assess performances." Given a rubric, a teacher may be able to assess the progress of a student in regards to their performance throughout a project or paper. I learned that an analytic rubric allows a teacher to evaluate a student based on each criterion. On the contrary, a holistic rubric evaluates all the criteria and scores are based off of the overall quality of work. General rubrics describe the criteria and tasks across all areas that will be graded. Lastly, a task-specific rubric describe the criteria and tasks in a specific content area. All these different types of rubrics have their own advantages and disadvantages, it typically depends on the what is being assessed and how the teacher wants to assess the student's performance.

It was interesting to learn that rubrics allow teachers to lay out what "you intend students to learn rather than what you intend to teach [and] actually helps improve instruction" (Brookhart, 2013). I believe that the purpose of a rubric is to assess the quality of a student's work rather than the quantity (grades). I can see why rubrics can be beneficial to both the student and the teacher. As a future teacher, I will be able to assess a student's learning throughout the assignment. I will be able to judge whether or not they have learned the material based on their performance and the quality of their work rather than grade based off of specific tasks they accomplish. Student's in turn are more involved in their learning and they get to choose how they will be successful in the assignment. Students become responsible for their own learning in that they are the ones who will choose which level of tasks they want to accomplish, not the teachers. Student's will be able to self-assess and evaluate their own performance as well. One disadvantage I can see with a rubric is that it seems to be time consuming if a teacher has to create a rubric for each assignment given. But ultimately, I can see the long term benefits of a rubric and how it contributes to a student's learning.

Source: Brookhart, S. M. (2013). What are rubrics and why are they important? Retrieved from: http://www.ascd.org/publications/books/112001/chapters/What-Are-Rubrics-and-Why-Are-They-Important%C2%A2.aspx