I don't know why.
Possibly a public service announcement?
Moving on, I'll tell you a secret. Not only do we not have "Yank" magazine, but, in Oklahoma (Cue state song from horrible Rogers and Hammerstein musical.) I never even KNEW what a rubric was until I enter the College of Education. So, in my first graduate course 2 things happened:
1. My paper was thrown back at me because it was in MLA format. (Prof mutters under breath,"english majors" and gives me 4 hours to return it in APA format.)
2. We were passed out a rubric.
Of course, I had heard the word before. I didn't have to looked it up in the dictionary. But, it was sort of a non-issue for me. In English department rubric = do WELL, get GOOD grade, do assignment POORLY, get BAD grade, DON'T DO assignment, FAIL. This makes sense to me because the professor decides what is good, bad, in between, etc. Especially in our field of study. It's very difficult to quantify a good essay, poem, etc. For the past month we've had trouble even defining the 6 traits of writing. How can we objectively quantify them?
In addition, I believe rubrics cause students to ask, "Is this what you want? Is this what you mean?" (i.e. curriculum unit) just a little to much. They can get caught up in the idea that they are not going to meet your criteria that they lack the creativity that is the essence of composition. They may also feel very frustrated when they though they met your expectations, but you feel differently. (I made two supporting points just like it says right here!)
Most of all, as a student my concern has been that I will not get enough feedback because my professor will feel that I should know what is required of me and that I should be meeting those criteria listed in the rubric. I, on the other hand, will be cruising along, assuming I'm doing a good job no my assignment, when really I could make an improvement. (This is more of a concern with semester long assignments, such as journal entries, blogs, etc.)
For me the jury is still out on whether I'll use rubrics. Probably not because I don't think you NEED them. Simply put, they hinder more than they help. Everything I just said has probably already been said somewhere by someone, so it's good to know there are people out there that agree with me.
And that is the end of the most boring blog entry ever. My apologies. DO check out this link, poets.org. It's got audio clips, lots of contemporary poets, events/readings. It has nothing to do with the readings, but who cares? I don't. I only slept 30 min. last night.
2 comments:
I agree with a lot of what you said, Jodi. Putting too much emphasis on a rubric can make kids churn out the same kind of formulaic, minimal-effort stuff we all hate to read.
On the other hand, I think the real value of the rubric is the accountability issue. If someone disputes the grade you've given, you've got something to show to a third party (parent, administrator) that justifies the grade. Even then, though, the grade-grubbers will nitpick over every criteria in the rubric, so there you go.
Well said.
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