Cutting Edge-ucation: RUBRICS SAVE LIVES (OF TEACHERS)!

Friday, March 25, 2011

RUBRICS SAVE LIVES (OF TEACHERS)!

Photo by Jannie Faye Santos
The one thing I hated the most as a student was getting a number or letter grade that did not explain why I got that grade (ok, second only to CAT training in the rain). Was I assessed for my own merits, or was my work placed side by side with others' works, and ranked accordingly? Now that I've been doing some educational legwork, I'm just stoked about discovering RUBRICS. In my book, it's the most student-friendly way of evaluating outputs, performance, and projects. Olive Estrella Coronado writes: "...This tool aims to describe the quality of their (students') work. (http://www.brighthub.com/education/early-childhood/articles/77875.aspx#ixzz1HgR0vjA3).

I agree. Through specific, descriptive statements of quality of work, students and parents have a clearer picture of what and how learning takes place. For instance, making students put up a theatrical play is equal to evaluating learning on various, intertwining levels. To simply throw them an 80 or a 95 is hardly fair, after all the effort they've put in. A rubric would provide a more tangible means of telling students how well (or badly) they've done that soliloquy from Hamlet, or that balcony scene from Romeo and Juliet.