Andrade: Teaching With Rubrics

The importance of using rubrics became more evident to me this past school year, especially in the English classroom. A special colleague of mine introduced me to how a rubric could be used as well as how to design a rubric to meet the needs of writing assignments. I tried this assessment tool and found 'rubric' was a measurement tool all teachers and students would benefit from.

So, when I read Heidi Andrade's article "Teaching With Rubrics", her researched words of wisdom reinforced how useful and beneficial I initially experienced this tool of measurement could be and more so. Andrade also pointed out some positives and negatives to consider when using using an instructional rubric as an assessment tool of student writing as well as some tips of what a teacher should be aware of when designing a rubric. One key tip Andrade stressed was for teachers to practice the language of the desired rubric with students; do not assume that students understand all the parts of the rubric. And yes, with practice, students then are able to focus on what their writing should look and sound like, and not focusing on the teacher.

Using instructional rubrics is an assessment tool which has and will aid my classroom instruction and communicate to students and parents the assignment expectations which I feel will allow quicker feedback on the progress of the students' writing performance. I found some rubrics were simple to co-design with the student or by myself; including the input from other team colleagues when designing rubrics on collaborative assignments was critical and beneficial. I appreciate the research information, recommendations from other colleagues, and rubric websites on the subject of using instructional rubrics; I am convinced that rubrics are a valid and credible assessment tool to use in the classroom.