Sound Instructional Rubrics
Tweaking Your Learning Measures Can Make a Big Difference
The Power of a Rubric
Lots of teachers use rubrics to help students see what the assignment requires them to accomplish and whether what the student has done meets those requirements. Rubrics are enormously powerful tools. They force instructors to define and disclose learning goals, while holding students accountable for meeting those goals.
A Rubric’s Flexibility and Sensitivity
The form of rubric you choose to assist your students in meeting performance expectations makes a difference. You know a rubric’s power to guide learning. Do you, though, know its flexibility and sensitivity? Small adjustments in the objectives and their measures can prompt deeper, more precise, and better performance.
Rubric Measures
The measures you choose for your rubric are an example. Generally, rubrics measure each significant aspect of performance from (1) non-performing, to (2) basic but incompetent performance, then (3) competent performance and finally (4) mastery. How, though, does one measure each stage?
1. Non-Performance
Many rubrics characterize non-performing simply as not doing critical actions. List the critical actions that the non-performer has omitted, and you’ve adequately shown the non-performer what to improve.
2. Incompetent Performance
The basic/incompetent performance can be harder to describe but begins by lauding the partial performance while critiquing what’s missing from performance that makes it incompetent. Distinguishing the positive partial from the incomplete negative is the key. Moving students from basic/incompetent to competent is obviously critical to instruction, making this articulation key.
3. Competent Performance
Describe competent performance by identifying what makes the performance complete.
4. Masterful Performance
Try, then, to articulate what keeps the performance from being masterful. This distinction can be subtle, but if you cannot describe it, then it may not exist in sufficiently objective form for instruction to address. Describing masterful performance is generally easiest because it needs no negative critique, only affirmations.
Review your rubric to see if it guides students precisely enough for them to distinguish incompetent from competent and masterful performances. If we cannot describe it, then it may not be appropriate as an instructional goal.