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.
