I am a proponent of using rubrics to grade students’ work. This is for a variety of different reasons that could warrant their own blog post. Moreover, I strongly believe that grading is a critical element of the teaching and learning process. It is our chance as instructors to let all of our students know where they are exceeding expectations and where they might need to do a little more work to achieve our intended learning outcomes. 

As I began my grand adventure in educating college students, I committed to making grading not simply the exercise of assigning grades, but ensuring that grading was a teaching tool. This meant ensuring that grading was a formative process both for me as the instructor and for students’ in their learning. I thoughtfully and carefully constructed rubrics for every assignment I gave students, selecting criteria and then defining three to four performance levels for each criterion. When I graded, I agonized over exactly which performance level to place each individual’s work. Any time I did not assign students to the top performance level, I would take a lot of time to provide detailed feedback about what students could improve in their next assignment to achieve the top performance level.  Continue reading →