McGatha, M. B., & Darcy, P. (Feb. 2010). Rubrics as formative assessment tools. Mathematics Teaching in the Middle School, 15(6), 328-336.
Rubrics help develop students’ understanding and support then as independent thinkers. First, the purpose of rubrics is to benefit the students. Depending on rubric’s requirements, it sends a message to the students about what is important. For example, the authors describe two different rubric approaches: holistic and analytic. Holistic rubrics describe qualities of performance as a whole, which emphasize the thinking processes and overall communication of mathematical ideas. Analytical rubrics focus of essential traits of the task, such as understanding the problem, planning a solution and getting an answer. As a result, depending on the type of rubric, the teacher sends a message to the students about what is important. Additionally, when students create their own rubrics for problems, they come to better understand expectations. The students are able to see what constitutes full credit, so they know how much detail is required and what aspects of a problem solving are important. Lastly, rubrics support students in becoming independent learners. From the rubric, they can notice areas of weakness and see for themselves what aspects of problem solving give them difficultly.
I agree that rubrics can be a great tool to help deepen your students’ understanding. From my experience, I have only seen rubrics in relation to writing, so it at first seemed weird to relate them to mathematics. However, as I thought about it, rubrics are a great way to provide feedback that lets your student know more than if they have the right answer or not. It allows your students to realize areas of strength and weakness, which helps them become a better problem solver. Additionally, I think that it is essential that your students understand what aspects of math are important, and rubrics are a clear way to pass along that message of importance. It will be hard for students to misunderstand the important aspects of a problem when they have a rubric to compare the problem with. Finally, since rubrics are versatile, they can apply to a variety of areas. You can always create a rubric that applies to specific problem or many times a more general rubric can apply. As a result, rubrics are not limited and can help students learn no matter what you are studying.
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I think that you did identify a main point and you completed the assignment around the point. I think you gave enough details to know what was in the article as well. However, it took me a couple of times to read it before I really understood what was going on. I can't put my finger on the exact reason why. I finally think it is because it is such a unique idea. It seems like you proofread as well.
ReplyDeleteYou did a good job at keeping a professional voice and relaying the message of the article. You seemed to emphasize what was in the article rather than give your own opinion in the first paragraph, so that was good.
You definitely had a topic sentence that you stuck with throughout your paragraph. I wonder if you had been a little more detailed in your explanation if it would have been easier to read. Rubric is a common term, however I would have maybe liked a little bit of a definition for it, since it is so unique to have one in mathematics.
The only other thing I would have liked to read about is examples of types of rubrics that would be given. I am not sure if this was in the reading or not, or if the reading was vague about it, but it seems like a pretty good idea. Since it probably would benefit students, I would just like to know what the author thought one should look like.
Overall, you did a nice job.
It sounds like you found an article that was helpful to you. I also have seen rubrics mostly used with writing, although I know that math teachers sometimes create rubrics for grading math problems, particularly if more than one individual will be grading the same problem. For example, ETS creates very specific rubrics for grading the problems on the AP calculus exams so that the scores are consistent across graders.
ReplyDeleteI like the idea of using rubrics as a tool for learning, not just grading. I recently have been thinking about how to do this in my own teaching. I would have I have benefitted from a brief description of how the authors envisioned having students create their own rubrics.
I thought that the information you provided in your summary was very helpful and would make sense to someone who hadn't read the article. I particularly liked how you gave descriptions of the two different kinds of rubrics. I also thought that you developed a compelling argument in your critique paragraph for why rubrics can be helpful to students.
The main thing that confused me in reading your first paragraph was what you meant by rubric. It would have been nice to get a quick intro involving the author of the article so everything related back to the article and the author. I really liked the detail about each rubric and the main point from the article was clear. It is a really interesting topc, great job!
ReplyDeleteSounds like an interesting article. You did a good job to have a top sentence and to summarize the main point clearly. Good Job.
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