Sunday, November 22, 2009

Rubric Charts


The colored blocks enclose teams in my 1st Period (red), 2nd period (yellow), 3rd period (green), and 5th period (blue). Each row label has the full text of a rubric item.

Main Entry: ru·bric chart
Function: Noun
Definition: a poster-sized table that has rows and columns for each rubric item and each team. See above for example.
Eatamology: Eaten out of Tina Wyatt’s brain. She’s a freshman ELA teacher at Manor New Tech who uses the rubric chart to help her freshman pay attention to the rubric and to help them with time management.
Date: Some TAP cluster meeting in fall 2009 (will update with real date later)

I love rubric charts. It is a great visual to see which teams are making great vs. mid-range vs. poor progress on their projects. I stamp rubric items to indicate that (1) the team has attempted all parts of that rubric item and (2) I have given them feedback on that attempt. In our school, that would be called grading for Work Ethic.

Earlier this week, I didn’t have time to staple our current rubric chart to the wall; instead I had it laid it out on the workshop table near my desk so I could easily catch up on my stamping. My students checked the chart to see how close they were to completion. As normal, many teams used the chart to see where they stood relative to other teams and to stir up their teams to catch up or beat other teams.

And then it got interesting. Some teams starting holding informal group meetings around the rubric chart that focused on their progress on the rubric. Some students used the rubric items on the rubric chart as references to formulate really good questions about content and to request workshops. Since the chart was on the workshop table in front of the SmartBoard, some of the workshops occurred immediately after the requests.

In the future, I will continue to place the rubric chart in places that are easy to access by the students so they can continue to use it as a tool to get their teams motivated and organized. I also plan to expand the chart to include all the project TEKS.

Related tool: http://www.blockposters.com This is the website I use to convert jpeg versions of my letter-sized rubric charts into poster-sized pdf versions of the rubric charts. The pdf file splits up the poster into letter-sized sheets of paper that can be assembled into the poster.

1 comment:

  1. This is great information! I am about to start PBL in my classroom for the first time and I am totally excited and equally overwhelmed! I teach 8th grade science in Lufkin, TX. I have heard of all the wonderful effects PBL has had at your school. I am hoping my whole campus (of 1,800 6th-8th graders)are eventually transitioned to PBL. Thanks for the tips! -zlovejoy@lufkinisd.org

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