A rubric is a descriptive set of guidelines used to assess the comparative quality of a piece of work According to Gunning (2006) rubrics are more than just scoring guides, they serve as ‘instructional illuminators’ and they have the power to improve instruction. Well designed rubrics specify the essential tasks that students must complete or the key element that must be included in order to produce an excellent piece of work. This helps both the teacher and the student focus on key skills.
An effective rubric should therefore:
• Be concise – it should contain only three to five evaluative criteria otherwise both teacher and student can get lost in the details
• Contain only one teachable skill for each criterion for each evaluative criteria, which may be clarified with the use of examples
The rubric should form the basis for providing feedback to students, and if possible students should be involved in the process of constructing rubrics as it leads to a better understanding of what is expected of them. I have found that the practice of involving my student in the process of preparing question papers together with the marking key for course work assignments often leads to improved performance in the end of term assessments; in fact occasionally when I designate reading assignment, rather than provide guiding questions I ask students to write questions based on the reading text assigned. I have also used student constructed questions for tests and quiz. This is an excellent strategy for developing critical skills and problem solving strategies as students must read and comprehend before they can compose questions. With practice and guidance students learn to and compose higher order questions with ease over time.
So teachers let’s get them actively involved to improve their literacy skill – remember they will be the future teachers and PARENTS!
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