Assessment Article for 685

I built my rubric around a Webquest on The Depression (http://teacherweb.com/IN/FloydCentralHighSchool/TheGreatDepression/h1.stm) I designed for a summer school class I teach. The rubric can be found in rgrade under the title Great Depression Webquest. It is a 5 category 4 column design and I used points (1-4). I alingned my rubric according to Indiana state Social Studies standards for U.S.History. RGrade is a neat program it really puts teeth into assessment. RGrade helps teacher and student to know exactly what is required and expected for a successful assessment.

This is my first attempt to put a rubric together on rGrade. Once I got the hang of it and understood how it worked I really liked it. I have done rubrics in the past but not with the ease of rGrade. I can see it being a standard for all teachers to develop rubrics. Administrators want to see assessments done in more clear and specific designs. They want to be able to share with parents and school boards how teachers are doing class assessments.Rubrics and rGrade fulfills all these needs.

To improve the rubric I would add maybe two more rows
that give students more guidelines to design the magazine. AS I used it with students I would make changes as I saw weaknesses. The points can be somewhat confusing because they are not standard for my classroom. I would change the point values.

Rubics have always been a pain in the butt, because they seem like extra work. I know that they serve a good purpose and are needed but I never really put a lot of thought into them. But whenever I do them they really complete an assignment.

In Rick Stiggins article? New Assessment Beliefs for a New School Mission, he says that, "High-stakes tests without supportive classroom assessment environments harm struggling students". We have to do a better job as educators of making clear to students what we are requiring for assessment. These struggling students can be easily lost and confused when we do not clearly layout what we are asking through assessment. Rubrics really make assessment clear for all involved.

In the article Knowing What Students Know: The Science and Design of Educational Assessment, the author clearly states assessment resides in relationships.
"The power of classroom assessment resides in its close connections to instruction and teachers, knowledge of their students instructional histories. When educators spend time getting to know their students and students understand what the teacher expects assessment can create success.

RGrade was a neat project it is valuable and fills a need in improving assessment. I hope to learn more about it and I have introduced it to my principal. He was really excited about it possibilities.