'Paper-Slide Video Rubric and Planning Guide 1 of 3' photo (c) 2013, Wesley Fryer - license: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/

I’m generally not a big fan of rubrics.

I think they tend to take too much time for me to create; having students co-create them is obviously much better, but doing that takes even more time; that often students don’t really pay much attention to them, anyway; and that they can often result in formulaic student work.  I prefer to show students good examples of previous student work, and research (see links below) has shown that strategy is often more effective than having rubrics.

There is one case where I do use them, and I’ve written extensively about it at My Revised Final Exams (And An Important Lesson). In this case, I use an “Improvement Rubric” where students can compare their writing at the beginning of the year with what they can do at the end of the year, and measure their improvement in several specific areas. Based on that self-assessment, they then determine in what areas they would like their next year’s teacher to help them on. That is one powerful lesson.

Other than in that case, this is the kind of feedback/assessment process I’ve usually done and that has worked well:

1) Review a short, simple criteria for a successful project in writing and in pictures & then have students put it in their own words and in pictures.

2) Show lots of good models.

3) Give students lots of individual feedback, as well as using the inductive learning process of concept attainment to help the entire class.

4) Identify students who are doing specific things well, and pair them up with others who are having challenges in those areas so they can help them.

That’s the process I use for extended student projects. I used a shortened version for less involved ones.

You might reasonably be wondering why I am posting this “The Best…” list if I’m not a fan of the usual kinds of rubrics teachers use.

A reasonable question, and I have two responses.

One, some of the publisher’s reviewers of my upcoming book, Student Self-Motivation, Responsibility, and Engagement:Practical Answers to Classroom Challenges, said they’d like to see rubrics for the lesson plans there. I’m doing all I can to wiggle out of creating many of them, but I did thought it would be useful to be able to refer readers to easy online rubric-makers for those who might want them.

And, two, I thought it would be a good opportunity for me to stretch my thinking a bit on the topic by inviting readers of this blog to share their own thoughts.

So, with those introductory thoughts out of the way, here is a very short list of my choices for The Best Rubric Sites:

Rubistar

Rubric Builder (go to the sidebar to find the link)

Quick Rubric

Of course, Kathy Shrock’s Assessment Rubrics is the “Mother” of all rubric resources. If it’s not on that page, it’s probably not that useful (a few of the links there, though, might be a little outdated).

Teachnology Rubrics

R Campus has an impressive Rubric Gallery with thousands of free rubrics available.

Reframing The Rubric is a very thoughtful article worth reading.

Feedback is welcome — both on additional resources and your own thoughts on the use of rubrics.

How To Use A Rubric Without Stifling Creativity is by Grant Wiggins.

Show Us Your #SinglePointRubric is by Jennifer Gonzalez.

That’s Not a Rubric, and You’re Using It Wrong: 5 Ways to Clean Up The Mess is by Angela Stockman.

Rubrics: What My Students Had to Say About Them is from Crawling Out Of The Classroom.

4 Easy Tips and Tricks for Creating Visually Engaging Rubrics is from Edutopia.

You might also be particularly interested in The Best Resources For Learning About Formative Assessment.

Assessment – it’s all in our heads is by Andy Tharby.

History Lesson: Giving Students Freedom to Create Their Own Projects is by Brison Harvey at Ed Week. One point he makes that I think is particularly intriguing is letting his students develop individualized rubrics for their independent projects.

Dylan Wiliam advises: Forget the Rubric; Use Work Samples Instead is a pretty important post by Doug Lemov. Be sure to also check out Dylan William’s comment on it.

Calling for a “Timeout” on Rubrics and Grading Scales is by Rick Wormeli.

How Feedback Can Be More Kid-Friendly is from Middleweb.

Essay Tagger Common Core Rubric Creation Tool

Beyond The Bullet: Do Rubrics Corrupt Thinking? is by Heather Wolpert-Gawron.

Have a different perspective on rubrics?

Why I Threw Away My Rubrics is by Jennifer Hurley.

New Direction in the Development of Rubrics is by Thomas Guskey.

 

Meet the #SinglePointRubric is by Jennifer Gonzalez.

6 Reasons to Try a Single-Point Rubric appeared in Edutopia.

4 Fantastic Rubric Tools for Google Docs is from is from Eric Curts.

NEW STUDY SAYS STUDENT SELF-ASSESSMENT EFFECTIVE & IT MAKES ONE PARTICULAR USEFUL POINT

Rubric Repair: 5 Changes that Get Results is from Cult of Pedagogy.

Roobrick is a new online tool for creating rubrics.

Using Rubrics to Teach Science Writing is by Michelle Newstadt & Amanda Godley.

A critical review of the arguments against the use of rubrics appeared in Science Direct.

Rubrics and the Dehumanization of Education appeared in Medium and is a bit over the top, but does make some thoughtful points about rubrics.

Revitalizing Rubrics is from Impact.

Using Rubrics for ‘Targeted Feedback’ is the headline of one of my Education Week columns.

Introducing the HyperRubric:A Tool that Takes Learning to the Next Level is from The Cult of Pedagogy.

What Is The Difference Between A Scoring Guide And A Rubric? is from Teach Thought.

Cult of Pedagogy has collected all of their posts about rubrics in one place.

6 Key Questions to Build Better Rubrics is from Edutopia.

Interesting Study On How Students Can Self-Assess, Though It Seems To Miss Some Key Elements

If you found this post useful, you might want to look at the 500 other “The Best…” lists and consider subscribing to this blog for free