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Checklist_v_Rubric

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on March 10, 2010 at 11:51:09 am
 

What deserves a rubric?

 

Designed with the goal of communicating expectations, Quality Rubrics take time to write, requiring student input, the use of anchors and exemplars, and most likely, multiple drafts. Tasks that deserve a rubric are typically complete processes, performances and products that are common outside of school.  These include debates, oral presentations, posters, book reviews or critiques, or authentic tasks like planting a garden, making a movie, or solving a problem. Examples of rubrics

 

Meanwhile, checklists are perfectly useful and reasonable tools for scoring and communicating our expectations for partial products, skills, and knowledge tasks that are used primarily in classrooms. These include sentences, answers to short essay questions, or solving a math problem in a particular way. You can also use them to support rubrics by helping students “check” the different rubric requirements as they complete them. Examples of checklists

 

Finally, use point systems for items that can only be right or wrong, such as computation problems or spelling words.  Examples of a point system

 

Checklist versus Rubric versus Point System

Deciding when to use a checklist versus when to use a rubric depends on your purpose and learning goals for your students. In general, checklists are helpful when you are looking for something specific. If you want them to use 3 vocabulary words, then create a checklist that lays out that expectation. Want them to use 3-5 sources when researching? Then put that on your checklist. A rubric is best when:

  • students will have opportunity to revise and get feedback,
  • the task is meaningful enough to warrant the time it takes,
  • most importantly, when you are more interested in quality than you are in quantity.

 

If it looks like a duck….

Understanding the attributes of a quality rubrics and when to use them make it easier to recognize that just because something is labeled as a rubric, doesn’t mean it is a quality rubric. Like many things in education, definitions of a term may vary depending on our own experiences or which experts or professionals we trust or consult. Many examples available from the internet label documents as rubrics seemingly because they are set up with rows and columns.

 

Example of a checklist that looks like a rubric

 

 

 

Not at all

1

2

3

Definitely

4

Speaks clearly.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Faces audience when speaking.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Speech is deliberate and evenly paced.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Voice is loud enough for all in room to hear.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Information is accurate.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Presenter is respectful of other’s right to disagree.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Beginning argument makes a clear point.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Closing argument sums of main points of presentation.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Satisfactorily answers opponents’ attack on position.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Polite and does not interrupt speaker.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Behavior is purposeful and focused.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The above checklist combines attributes of a Likert Scale which may lead to a confusion with rubrics. As quality rubrics are designed around two key principles (communicating expectations and student self-assessment), the above rubric doesn't provide students who score a 1 to make improvements in their presentation. Nor does it identify what makes a student's presentation a 4.

 

 

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