Week 8: Rubric as an Assessment Tool

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1618692/

(I apologize for being so far behind, I'm hoping to be caught up with everything by Monday the latest)

Rubrics in a K-12 setting are very important. Not only for a teacher, but for the student as well. I know that I have often gotten excited about a project and strayed from what the teacher was looking for, and having a rubric is what brought my projects back on task. I find that they are also helpful for when parents are reviewing their child's work, and helps them understand the grade their child received at the end.
I like how this article referred to a rubric more as a checklist, making it more understandable to students that they have to go through their work and check to make sure that they have all of them in order to receive the highest grade. It also is very clear cut what the teacher is looking for. The article makes reference to the idea of a "private curriculum" or that "hidden curriculum," having a rubric means that a teacher cannot grade a student on things that aren't on there.
It also brings out that a teacher can use a rubric to not only grade a student on what they have learned, but what they already knew about the topic at hand.

"In this case the prompt is a challenge in which students are to respond to the statement, “Plants get their food from the soil. What about this statement do you agree with? What about this statement do you disagree with? Support your position with as much detail as possible.” This assessment prompt can serve as both a preassessment, to establish what ideas students bring to the teaching unit, and as a postassessment in conjunction with the study of photosynthesis."

What I find is a benefit of a given students assignments instead of exams, is that you can properly assess what they know. A test is only geared towards the good test taking students, where as a assignment with a rubric allows students to express what they know in the best way they know possible. As a teacher we want to see specific understandings reached, but who are we to judge HOW a student can show that. Rubrics give students just enough freedom, without letting them run wide. The only downside is that it takes time to grade everyone on what they have learned, whereas the exam is straight cut and dry and can be graded by a scantron machine.