Do you use a rubric or grading criteria when evaluating student work?

Consider providing opportunities for students to practice applying the criteria to sample work.  Discussion is likely to ensue, which is a great thing!  Students have a chance to ask clarifying questions and explore the meaning of items listed in the rubric or grade sheet before their own work is evaluated based on its contents.  This process can get a lot of the confusion out of the way early on and may even result in a greater number of high quality submissions from students(!).

For my intro-level class, I collect samples of student work across semesters, maintaining a collection of a few samples for each assignment type.  Important: I only use samples for which I have the student's permission - their work is their work!  I remove any of the student's identifying information and replace it with a generic label for each sample (e.g., Sample X, Sample Y, Sample Z) to use for reference purposes.

I am a fan of using the same type of assignment (as part of a variety) at least a handful of times throughout the semester, simply adjusting the topic to coordinate with our focus at various points in time.  I then vary topics from semester to semester, which works out well for practicing with the rubric as an in-class exercise.

Example:

The first short writing assignment from last semester focused on consumer spending, so when it is time to discuss consumer spending this semester, I pull out the coordinating student writing samples and set aside class time for the rubric practice activity.

• Step 1: The students cluster into small groups (size of group = number of samples), and I provide each group with a set of the student samples and multiple copies of the coordinating rubric (one for each student).   

• Step 2: In a round robin fashion, the students are to rotate through the samples, marking down their evaluation of each on their copy of the rubric.  Depending on the assignment type and the size of the groups, 10-15 minutes may be needed for this step in this process. 

• Step 3: Group discussion of evaluation results.  Some questions for the students to explore and discuss include: How similar are the group's ratings for each writing sample?  What the reasons for any differences in the ratings for a particular writing sample (be specific!)?  What details in the rubric need clarification before your group is comfortable re-evaluating the writing sample(s)?  Estimated time: 7-10 minutes

• Step 4: Debriefing with the whole class.  This is a great opportunity to hear from the groups about any sticking points with the rubric and to answer any lingering questions.  Estimated time: 7-10 minutes

I started using this activity in my classroom after taking part in an artifact read.  As the group of reviewers, we spent a considerable amount of time "calibrating" our use of the rubric and discussing the details it contained.  This was a necessary part of the process, particularly because the work we were reviewing fell outside our of primary disciplines most of the time.  When it came to disciplines for which I would consider myself a non-expert, the rubrics often seemed to be filled with jargon and muddy details; I often found that I could make more sense out of the language in a rubric once I saw a few examples that coordinated with the various levels.

As non-experts, especially in an intro-level course, I figured students might also benefit from a set of examples and practicing the art of matching them up with the criteria stated in a rubric.  The first time I tried this activity, I figured the minutes spent in the classroom would pay off in terms of students having a better understanding of the assignment type and how their work would be evaluated.  However, since the rubric contains elements for accuracy and clarity of the information about the topic, we often end up having great conversations about the topic itself, particularly when groups have feedback about examples/applications shared in the writing samples or share additional examples that may better illustrate the concept.