Thankful for Rubrics

More in more in my teaching I have been finding the need to communicate detailed feedback to my students.  Simply marking items wrong on a test is not the only way I want to communicate to my students how they are growing.   I would love to turn the grading game into one of "leveling up" rather than "knocking down".

For this very reason many of us are incorporating performance assessments into our evaluation strategy toolbox. Rubric scoring can give more of a sense of achievement in its nature to see one acquiring skills rather than being knocked down by missed test questions.

For years I knew that rubrics were the tool I wanted to use to assess my students, but there was always some part of their development or employment that left a bad taste in my mouth.   Sometimes they just took too long to make, but premade rubrics were too vague.   I would get frustrated as well when the math just did not work out in the student's favor.  In addition they would often establish a "ceiling" to some of our best students.

As I continue to design, implement and revise the rubrics I use in my classroom, I wanted to open up the discussion about how you all battle with fairly evaluating student work.  Additionally I will use this Tech Tuesday to share out some of the resources I have found while taking courses, through blogs and during the ACTFL conference this weekend.   Please use the comments to share other things you have found and work for you in your classrooms.

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For Quick Rubric Design & Personalized Feedback: 

The Single-Column Rubric

Resources:

Edutopia: 6 Reasons to Try a Single-Point Rubric

Cult of Pedagogy: The Single Point Rubric

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To Weigh Categories & Auto-Calculate Scores

Rubric Tab

Resources:

Teacher Tech:  Epic Rubric on Google Sheets

Make a Copy of the Template 

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To Calculate Fair Numerical Grades from your Traditional Rubric

Roobrix

Resources:

Roobrix Score Calculator*

Common Errors with Rubric Scoring

Turning a 4-Point Score into a Letter Grade

*Change your settings so that the "1" has your desired value (e.g. 50%, 60%, 70%).

There are certainly more tools and ideas out there such as Google Forms & Orange Slice.  

Google Classroom is even coming up with their own rubric feature that is currently in beta testing, so be looking forward to that feature as well! 

Comment below with your tips & techniques for rubric scoring. 

As always reach out if you would like me to come and work with you on your next rubric. 

NEW Easy Grade Google Form Questions

Google Forms Quizzes are awesome because they:

• self grade
• give quick formative assessment data
•  easy to edit, enhance & adapt
• can be in "locked" mode on district Chromebooks 
• Ss cannot access other websites while taking the quiz

And, all was well and fine when questions elicited only one correct response.   However, when an open-ended question was given, teachers were manually scrolling through individual responses or using the spreadsheet to view answers.

Both were cumbersome and time consuming.  Leading us to limit ourselves to DOK Level 1 style questions when using Forms.

But the wait is now over!  

In your Google Form "Quiz" Responses you will notice a new button called "Question".

By choosing "Question" the teacher can grade each open-ended response quickly by going down through the list.  Evaluating all of the class's responses for the same question at once.  

Scores are automatically tallied in the total.  

The grading process is similar to those of Actively Learn and EdPuzzle.

There are options to:

• quick check "correct" or "incorrect" 
• give partial credit
• add feedback

Now go back in those Google Forms and add your Open-Ended questions!  
Analyze., Explain., Predict., Compare., How?, Why?, Elaborate., etc

The Google Classroom QUESTION

The Google Classroom Question feature is quick, easy and versatile.   If you have a written assignment that involves only a paragraph or two of text, it is worth looking into. 

Teachers can easily scroll through responses, assess and give feedback without opening 30 documents.









Teachers at SMASD are also using the Question feature to provide a platform for classroom discussion.   Simply turn on the "Students Can Reply to Each Other" switch.   Note: Cool thing is that students can only see peers' answers AFTER they themselves have provided a response.

• History teachers have had students make comments and ask questions while watching a video. 
• Language teachers have used questions and replies for interpersonal speaking tasks.  
• ELA teachers have used the discussion board as a place to post presentations/projects.  Classmates are required to view 2 projects, and post reactions and questions to them.  Great alternative to having every student present in front of the class! 

See how our own Mrs. Meeker is having her students peer review presentations via Google Classroom Questions.  Students answer with a link to their project.  Peers reply with 2 things they learned and a question they have. 

Google Classroom Questions are a great no-prep solution for quick responses, feedback and discussion boards.  

How have you used Questions in your classes?   Comment below. 

Want a helping hand setting up your first question? Contact jtamburlin.youcanbook.me

Creating a YouTube Playlist

One of the popular tips from the Google Session during the October In-Service was creating a YouTube Playlist for your classes.

YouTube Playlists are collections of videos to help you organize them by content or topic.  These lists can be private to you, or can be shared with your classes and/or colleagues.   They are live lists, meaning that those who have the link will see when you update the content by adding or deleting videos.

Ideas for YouTube Playlists:

- Unit Planning
- Flipped Learning

- Videos to Help with a Research Project

- Future Ideas for Activities to Try

- Tips and Tutorials

- Themed Background Music for your Lesson

Watch this video below to see how to create a playlist and add videos.

Are you missing the option to create a new playlist???

Watch this video below to see how you can quickly change your YouTube settings to allow for playlists by creating a channel.

*Special thanks goes out to Mrs. Jackson & Mrs. Gabler who helped to solve this mystery for those who could not create playlists during the in-service.