Description
Rubrics are a useful way to communicate our expectations for writing assignments, projects or research endeavors. Rubrics aim to guide students’ engagement and process, help us frame responses, manage grading and reduce the need for extensive comments or grade justifications. But even the most well-intentioned rubric might not be as transparent or useful as we hope. Often overloaded with explanatory language, rubrics might accidentally limit creativity and engagement, establish the minimum effort required or be ignored by students altogether.
In this interactive workshop, Hannah Rule offers a way to increase the impact rubrics have on learning by having students discover and articulate evaluative criteria. She will briefly share current research on rubrics and learning, her own experience conducting a collaborative rubric process, and the benefits and outcomes of this process. Participants will then engage in guided activities that will help them design a collaborative evaluative process suitable for their classroom. No previous rubric experience is necessary! Participants are encouraged to bring along an assignment (descriptions, prompts, guides or sample student work, etc.) to work with during the guided activities.
About the Facilitator
Hannah Rule is an assistant professor of English with a research focus in composition theory, pedagogy and English education. She teaches courses in first-year writing, composition studies and the teaching of writing.
This event is sponsored by the Center for Teaching Excellence.