Using+Rubrics

=﻿= = = =Module 6: Using Rubrics for Assessment=

Rubrics can be designed in a varitey of formats and provide a way for assessing whether a goal was met or not and to what degree that goal was met. Rubrics can contain a Likart scale such as from 0 - 5 with 5 being complete and 0 being incomplete and the other steps being scaled in between. Rubrics can also be in a format of earning points for each required aspect present and/or being correct. One great thing about assessment rubrics is that when set up properly, they can remove or greatly reduce subjective grading so teachers can be confident in the results. Another great thing about rubrics is that they can be given to students at the beginning of the project or activity so the students can see exactly what the expectations are. Well made rubrics help to focus on the purpose of the project and provide a tool for assessment that keeps that focus for fair grading.

The following items are found below:

 * 1) A brief summary of the lesson.
 * 2) Student artifacts from the lesson and the scored rubrics for these artifacts.
 * 3) A reflection of the assignment.

Standards:
SC.912.L.17.9 - Use a food web to identify and distinguish producers, consumers, and decomposeres. Texplain the pathway of energy transfer through trophic levels and the reduction of available energy as successive trophic levels. SC.912.L.17.5 - Analyze how population size is determined by births, deathes, immigration, emigration, and limiting factors (biotic and abiotic) that determine carrying capacity. Topic 5.1.1 - Define //species, habitat, population, community, ecosystem// and //ecology.// Topic 5.1.2 - distinguish between //autotroph// and //heterotroph.// Topic 5.1.9 - State that light is the initial energy source for almost all communities
 * Florida Next Generation Sunshine state Standards**:
 * International Baccalaureate Topic Assessment Statement:**

Goal:
The goal of this lesson is to provide students with a review of pre-requisit vocabulary terms that are necessary for the current course. The vocabulary terms for this lesson are a review of terms that focus around Ecology.

Objectives:
Special Note: This project occurs at the beginning of the year to be part of a refresher of past courses. The students will show their presentations to the class as an additional review of terms.
 * 1) Define review terms (listed in the PowerPoint presentation for this activity).
 * 2) Given a set of vocabulary terms, students will select 10 terms to represent in a presentation that relates common images in the real world to the selected vocabulary terms.
 * 3) Given the selection of terms, students will take 10 photos to use in a presentation and students will add text to define the term and how the photo relates to that term.
 * 4) Students will design and develop a project that will present their selected 10 vocabulary terms in a way that all students can view.

Items Provided to Students:
Presentation of Project

Assessment Rubric for Lesson

Summary of Lesson:
Students entering into the International Baccalaureate program have taken prerequisite courses of Biology Honors and Chemistry Honors. At the beginning of the school year it is a good idea to do a quick refresher review of terms and concepts that should already be known. This lesson involves one of those reviews where students are given a large list of terms that they should easily understand. The project involves students selecting at least ten terms to document in some form of a presentation. Students are shown a small sample of what is expected along with the grading rubric for expectations that will be assessed for the lesson. Cameras are used to take photos of objects that represent the selected terms and then these images are placed in some form of presentation where text is added to connect the word to the image. The students are required to include an object in their images such as their key chain, a toy, a cell phone, or other object to show that they took the photo. The assessment rubric not only assesses if students have taken appropriate images to represent the term but also if the student has correctly defined the term in their own words as it relates to the photo. This lesson is used to ensure the background information is in place to continue with course requirements. The assessment rubric was used to deterime if the students met the requirement for development of the presentation. Data reflects that the student are comfortable with the information and the only grade reductions seem to be a result of not including certain details. The lesson produces a set of presentations that allows for all students to review a variety of vocabulary terms in a less traditional format. Students requested that this same format be use again with other topics of review.

__﻿2. Student artifacts from the lesson with scored rubrics__
Student artifacts are in either PowerPoint Presentation format, PDF format or Word Document format. The names of students have been removed for privacy.
 * Sample Number || Artifact Document || Scored Rubric ||
 * Sample 1 || [[file:Sample 1.docx]] || [[file:IB Bio Vocab GR Sample 1.docx]] ||
 * Sample 2 || [[file:Sample 2.pdf]] || [[file:IB Bio Vocab GR Sample 2.docx]] ||
 * Sample 3 || [[file:Sample 3.pdf]] || [[file:IB Bio Vocab GR Sample 3.docx]] ||
 * Sample 4 || [[file:Sample 4.pptx]] || [[file:IB Bio Vocab GR Sample 4.docx]] ||
 * Sample 5 || [[file:Sample 5.ppt]] || [[file:IB Bio Vocab GR Sample 5.docx]] ||
 * Sample 6 || [[file:Sample 6.pdf]] || [[file:IB Bio Vocab GR Sample 6.docx]] ||
 * Sample 7 || [[file:Sample 7.docx]] || [[file:IB Bio Vocab GR Sample 7.docx]] ||
 * Sample 8 || [[file:Sample 8.pdf]] || [[file:IB Bio Vocab GR Sample 8.docx]] ||
 * Sample 9 || [[file:Sample 9.pptx]] || [[file:IB Bio Vocab GR Sample 9.docx]] ||
 * Sample 10 || [[file:Sample 10.pdf]] || [[file:IB Bio Vocab GR Sample 10.docx]] ||

__﻿3. Reflection of the assignment__
When assessing student learning, a variety of tools can be used. Although we are constantly bombarded with standardized testing that requires students to perform under stressful conditions, those summative standardized assessments are not the only way to determine if learning has occurred. This lesson includes an assessment that could be considered a summative assessment for the review unit or a formative assessment to determine where the students are with past information. The use of a rubric allowes for a focused assessment that is impartial and objective. The photos taken were not assessed for their quality and composition so the rubric did not include an assessment of that. The rubric was set up to match the requirements of the project and allowed for format flexibility while maintaining specific requirements. The key requirement was to tie common, real-life images to vocabulary topics with the definitions. Students are required to take the vocabulary concepts beyond the classroom and move those concepts into their own world.

Student comments were enthusiastic and excited. They expressed their enjoyment of this project and included that this helped to make the vocabulary terms come to life. After the projects were turned in and graded, the projects were displayed for the class to use as a review. Students were also responsible for grading five different projects using the rubric. This allowed them to see how the rubric connects to their projects. Remarks included that they like having the rubric ahead of time so they know exactly what is expected and that they use the rubric as a check list to keep themselves organized.

This assessment rubric was in the format of a checklist in that the item is either there or not and points are awarded accordingly. This is a simple rubric but very effective for both teacher and students. The assessment format is more on the formative level but based on the fact that vocabulary terms and concepts were required to be correct and the image needed to be a correct representation of the term, this could be used as a summative assessment as well. I used this assessment in a formative way because it allowed me to see which words were commonly missed and from that I was able to reinforce those terms. Overall, I prefer using projects and their rubrics to assess my students because of the variety of different types of projects that can be completed. This variety allows for different learnings styles to shine since students are given options (in many cases) as to how they want to complete the project. Standardized tests do not have that type of variety and although they have a place in our education system, I prefer to mix things up to allow students to show me what they know in the format that works best for them.

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