Journal: Week Ten

What are your experiences with using rubrics (being graded by them and/or using them to grade students)?
-What do you see as strengths and limitations with using rubrics?

Almost every class I've had in high school and college has included a rubric to assess work. With social studies, much of the work includes presentations and papers, and these assignments are often graded using a rubric. I have recently used a self-made rubric for instruction for the first time in my class with the 21st Century Individual Lesson plan.

I generally like rubrics for assessment in high school and university classes. With rubrics, teachers are held accountable for the grades they give and must explain why they scored a certain way. I also believe it gives teachers a more structured way to assess the students with the learning goals being more concrete. Without rubrics, I think some teachers grade with their present emotion or judging by how they feel about the student. Rubrics also help students know what is expected of them before they do the assignment and which areas are worth more points or need more focus on completion.

Though I still feel that rubrics provide the teacher's expectations and allow for explanation of grades, I left out some of the weaknesses I have discovered with rubrics. With rubrics teachers must grade all students exactly the same, which may sometimes be helpful, but hinders success in some students. More advanced students may need to be graded on a more difficult scale based on what they are capable of doing. However, I believe many IEPs may lead teachers to use different rubrics for certain students. Also, I think rubrics may sometimes prevent students from being rewarded for work that is not a criteria on the rubric. Although there are limitations, I think that the strengths of rubrics greatly outweigh the weaknesses.

Journal: Week 7

* In the lesson I teach at my PDS, I hope to teach "responsively" by… (make reference to topic of your lesson and concepts from chapter 6).
* In the lesson I teach at my PDS, I hope to teach for (deeper) understanding by … (make reference to topic of your lesson and concepts from chapter 7).

In my lesson, I am planning to be a responsive instructor by allowing them to choose their own topic for the assignment I will give, making it possible for them to choose the topic of most interest to them. I also would like to encourage writing in my assignment so I plan to do a RAFT assignment, a strategy recently discussed in the seminar. The students will be able to choose their own event that affected the formation of the U.S. Government, and write a mock Facebook invitation asking a certain group to attend the event.

The lesson will encourage deep understanding by forcing the students to ask questions such as: Why do I want people to attend this event? What is important to know about this event? The point of using the Facebook idea for this assignment is that it allows the students to apply the events of the past to a setting they are familiar with and ultimately increase understanding. The students will then respond to each others' events as a critique to their events.

Looking back on this idea and after a little research, I now realize that the event invitation portion of my idea is very difficult to implement. I never intended to allow students to use Facebook for the assignment, but rather an online template not connected to the site. Unfortunately, finding this type of document has been impossible, so I am now changing my plans.

Is there a different way or medium I can use to carry out the original plans for my lesson, or would a simple writing assignment be more suitable? Will the RAFT writing technique be appropriate for a seventh grade class?