After hearing our one and only mini lesson, we spent the rest of the time learning how to create a Rubistar grading rubric for our Unit Paper (the Research Essay; not the newspaper article yet).
The good thing is: YOU will determine what you want to grade with the rubric when you do peer-editing.
You will create your own Rubistar rubric for what is important for you to grade when you peer-edit essays. That also means you must stick to your own guidelines. Here is an example rubric that I developed for a theater play (script writing task) for middle school students.
YOU get to decide what you want to grade about a research essay. Establish certain criteria first, and put them in order according to importance:
1)
2)
3)
4)
5)
etc.
TIP: a good idea is always to look at the prompt for the assignment! (You didn't get that yet for the research essay/newspaper article.) What were the original things I asked you to do with your paper? Was there a list of guidelines? Have they been fulfilled? Then, add your own qualifiers. (You could call it, "follows the prompt.")
You need to have a certain hierarchy of your qualifiers, i.e. you need to weigh them. There are always components that are of major importance in a task, and others that are of minor importance. For example, if the tone of the speakers is more important to you than their costumes, you could determine that the tone is worth 30% of the overall grade, and the costumes are worth 10% of the overall grade the artists will get for their staging. Make sure your percentages add up to 100%!
Thus, a student who speaks loud enough but has a simple costume might get a better grade than a student who whispers so that the audience cannot understand him, but has a very elaborate costume. You can figure out the overall grade by weighing your qualifiers. If a student has all A's in the important qualifiers, but a C in something that is only worth 5% or 10% (like, for example, the costumes), this student will still get an A overall. But if a student writes a script in which the characters are not well developed (which should be a major requirement), he will get a C or D, even if he speaks loud enough and wears a nice costume.
MODELING OF RUBRIC CREATION
STEP 1:In order for you to create your own grading rubric (that you will later use for peer-editing the unit paper), you will need to log into Rubistar. Click on sign up and fill in your new user form.
STEP 2: Then, click on "choose a customizable rubric below." (The only one that makes sense for our Research Article assignment. We will do the newspaper article later.) When you define the qualifiers for your rubric in the menu list on the left, also click on the button that says, "no, my rubric is permanent." If you don't do that, you will say, "yes, my rubric is a temporary rubric," which means your rubric will be lost as soon as you print it out for your use. However, if you choose the first option (what we will do), your rubric won't be deleted after you have printed it out (and we can't print from our room!), but will always be available online until you delete it from your profile.
STEP 3:Fill in your rubric. In the left column, you put your qualifiers. You can either select from what is already there, or invent them by yourself.
On top, you put how you want to grade; either in points, in words, or in letter grades (for example: 100-91 pts., 90-80 pts., 79-70 pts.; 69-60 pts., 59 and below; or: "basic," "intermediary," "advanced"; or: A, B, C, D, F).
Then, you put in each column what your student (i.e., the peer whose essay you are peer-editing) has to do.
For example, in the A column, put "student forgot 0-1 sentences when performing," in the B rubric put "forgot 3-4 sentences," in the C rubric, "forgot 5-6 sentences," etc.
If there aren't enough columns, you can add some.
When you're done, click on SUBMIT, and then on MAKE AVAILABLE ONLINE. This way, your rubric is permanently saved. Remember your password. Anytime you log into Rubistar, you can access your previously created rubrics. You can also edit them again. We're going to use them several times in the semester; once for a WebQuest (an online lesson plan; would be a rubric for media), once for the research essay or newspaper article, and once for our readability assessment (last task of the semester).
For those who missed today's class: create your account with Rubistar from home, and do the same steps for your first rubric! If you have questions, ask in class or email me.
HAVE FUN!!!
