Rubrics: A Teacher's (and Students') Best Friend

Hey all! It's Kelli from Tales of a Tenacious Teacher! I'm here to share about my love (and sometimes hate... but mostly love) relationship with rubrics and why I choose to use them in my classroom.

Now, think of your best friend.

Trust me on where I'm going with this.

My best friend is none other than my husband. He supports me in what I do. He guides me towards becoming a better person. He helps me grow and understand things more. Much like what a rubric does for teachers and students alike.

Don't let my husband know that I just compared him to a rubric, though.

But that is why I've really latched onto the idea of using rubrics in various aspects of my classroom. Not only do rubrics guide me as the teacher, but they can be a great support for students as well.

I'm going to share with you how I come up with my rubrics so they are regular and routine, how I roll them out in my classroom, and how I keep them relevant. I'll also be sharing where I've gone wrong in implementing them in the past to better help you use them in your classroom!

I try (try being the key word) to make all my rubrics consistent and routine. That way, I don't have to teach about what each level means. When I introduce a new topic- anything from an academic focus to keeping desks clean (yes, there's a rubric for that)- I can use the same layout and students know what it means. Here's what to think about:

My ideal answers for my classroom:
1) 4
2) Beginning, Developing, Meeting, Exceeding (these can have interchangeable names as shared below)
3) Seed, Seedling, Tree, Apple Tree

You can change this up for your style! Only want 3 levels- go for it. Don't like those names for each level- gone! Prefer smiley faces, hand signals, or dancing penguins- switch 'em out (just try to make them make sense).

I go with the "growing" theme for a few reasons. We teach about seeds and life structures in 3rd grade- great connection to our science curriculum. It also instills the growth mindset that they are growing in their understanding of a topic. My team and I started out with numbers- but those just didn't really intrigue students. Then we tried the smiley faces, but we didn't like the negativity (like we had a sad face for level one, straight face for level two, etc.) Then, one of my genius teammates thought about using this seed thing instead and it stuck! I love it!

I even got lovely new custom clip art to use this year for things- that's how much I buy into this thing.

So here is my scale I use for all my rubrics (starting this year, well, starting midyear last year). My students refer to themselves as seeds, seedlings, trees, and apple trees on various topics when they are discussing their progress.

Whatever visuals, levels, and so on you choose to use:  Make it regular and routine!!

Alright- your scale is decided on! Doesn't that feel good?

But now what?

It's time to roll 'em out. But not... so... fast...

You'll need to plan out your expectations before you share them with students. This is probably the most time consuming part depending on the topic, but obviously- the most important part. This is where you can clearly share your expectations with students. I typically try (again, key word) to make up my own to use first before I share with students.

Character Traits- The death of me at times.

Once you have your expectations set up, it's time to share them out with your students! Last year, I used my hand drawn plant symbols and then added post-its underneath to describe what that "level" would look like for each topic. This one below is on our book log expectations. To make it more engaging, I would cover up certain words and have students discuss and guess what word would be underneath it. After each piece of labeling tape was removed, we discussed what that would look like in our work by showing examples (either student examples with names removed or ones I generate to fit that level). We sometimes include these examples on our rubric as well for an extra visual.

However, if you want to make it super engaging, you can even have students help create the rubric expectations! Start this process in reverse. Show examples and have students discuss and notice what each example has or is missing. Then use that to help create your expectations and fill in your rubric together as you go. This is much more time consuming, but can be very powerful and gets students able to recognize and distinguish differences between a "seedling" piece of work and a "tree."

Your rubric is regular and routine. You've rolled it out. Now- how do you keep it relevant and in the front of students' (and your own- let's be honest) minds?

DISPLAY 'EM!

Have them visibly up in your room for students to reference and look at. 

Because they are displayed, I often have students draw a little picture of what level they think their work is at before they turn it in. For example, before they turn in their book log, I would have them stop and reflect on theirs and compare their work to the rubric expectations. They would then draw a little seed, seedling, tree, or apple tree next to their name to self-reflect. And more times than not, they are spot on! No shock to them when I draw my own symbol on their paper to show that I agree with them based on our rubric!

I'm making a more permanent display this year for our rubrics that we are actively using on one of the bulletin boards.

The first things up for when we come back to school: using our paper correctly, using our best handwriting, coloring, and accountable talk. We'll change these out/move them to other parts of room when we need more space for newer topics, but I like the idea of having it in one location.

Also, haves students interact with the rubric as they go through a process. When we were doing poetry, I had them put their rubrics in our Smart Pals and rate themselves on their progress in the middle of our unit. That way, they could see where they could continue to grow and improve.


Naturally, I made a rubric to rate myself on my own use of rubrics.

As you can see, there's many areas of improvement in my implementation thanks to my trusty rubric I made! You can use rubrics in a variety of settings in the classroom- want expectations to be clear on something? Try a rubric!

If you are interested in using a "growth" theme scale in your classroom this year, grab this freebie and watch your students grow!