I have already used rubrics for assessment of two things in my classroom: speaking and multimedia presentations. So far a lot of traditional assessment takes place at our university. Multiple choice tests, which are sometimes not well elaborated, are widely used for testing most of the subjects including English. Many test development requirements are not met. Testing is curriculum driven. That is, the curriculum is determined first, and assessment aims at establishing if acquisition of the curriculum occurred. I find it only possible to be used for testing grammar knowledge. When it comes to speaking/writing as productive skills, it becomes clear that traditional assessment lacks objectivity, and teachers rely more on their attitude and emotions, students’ previous performance.
A rubric presents an objective and transparent tool for assessing student performance. It is a scoring scale with a specific set of criteria. The criteria are assessed according to a level of performance. It is helpful to communicate the criteria to students before giving them a task, so that they would know what is expected of them. A teacher assesses the level of student performance and can define areas that need improvement. Rubrics can be used by students (for self-assessment), peers (for peer assessment), and teachers.
Hi Tatyana,
ReplyDeleteI also worked with rubrics. I did so with teenagers at a secondary school. Both students and families knew about the tasks requirements, so when the moment of evaluation came, no one had bad surprises.
What is more, the same students came to me to talk and ask for help when they discovered they were not achieving the learning goals.
I think rubrics are great to help students become autonomous.
Cheers,
Gonzalo :-)
Hi Tatyana and Gonzalo,
ReplyDeleteI like your points referring to transparency and objectivity which really helps to raise the Ss' awareness of their own learning giving the way of new nontraditional tool of assessment.
Have a good day!
Hala