Rubrics and Cookies

What better way to learn about rubrics than by using chocolate chip cookies. We practiced writing rubrics by creating one of our own that was to be used to judge the BEST chocolate chip cookie. We had to create categories, scores, and descriptions for each of the expectations we had of our cookie contestants. By the time we got to judge the cookies, we realized there were flaws in our rubrics, but the best way to learn is by making mistakes.

While creating rubrics, there are many things to consider. First of all, what happens when what is being graded isn’t of the correct format, such as an Oreo being judged like a chocolate chip cookie? There may be times when students submit work that is not what was assigned, but you still need to be able to grade it accordingly. You also have to realize that what you might think of as acceptable work might be different than someone else’s. Some people might prefer warm cookies, but that may not be how someone else likes it or be a reasonable expectation.

Rubrics will never be perfect. A lot of students look towards rubrics as a guideline to write a paper or do a project, but the terminology used to grade different expectations can be confusing and subjective. It’s hard to judge what work is “good” or “precise” because the way it is interpreted depends on the reader. And more than likely, you will put too much into the rubric and forget other parts that are important, and you won’t realize it until you are actually grading. The biggest thing to remember whenever this happens is to accept defeat – let your students know that you made a mistake and provide everyone with a fair chance.

Back in March, I actually went to the Rhode Island Writing Project conference and saw a presentation by Keith Sanzen regarding the use of rubrics in his English/Language Arts class. Instead of creating a 0-4 rubric scale with a list of expectations, he provides the students with a list of things to work on, like spelling and run on sentences, asks the students to choose 5 things from the list that they are going to focus on as they write their papers. He uses the categories and keeps track of areas that students are excelling in and need more improvement in and will use that to have discussions with his students to help them improve their writing. This provides students with the opportunity to focus on a few aspects of writing as opposed to worrying about everything, which would detract from the content when writing and while grading. It’s hard for the teacher to grade content when they can’t get past the grammar.

Personally, I don’t like the use of rubrics for anything besides being a checklist to help me make sure that I am covering everything that I need to. Rubrics can be criticizing when taken too seriously and most people don’t know how to write a good rubric.