Understanding Rubrics
In this class, rubrics are used to determine how well a student shows understanding of a certain skill. The vast majority of work done in this class will be working to show mastery of the skills known as Science and Engineering Practices, and this mastery will be determined by the criteria laid out in the rubric for each SEP. Understanding how to not only read a rubric, but how to use the rubric to determine where a student has misconceptions and how to correct them is the key to being successful in science.
“Don't judge yourself by your past; you no longer live there.”
― Ifeanyi Enoch Onuoha
Rubric Layout
Rows
Each row of the rubric represents an individual component of the standard. Each standard has been split into individual skills. This helps to clarify all of the expectations for the students, gives them a checklist of things to include in their assignments, and allows the teacher to give more specific feedback when there are misconceptions or misunderstandings of the expectations. The letter and number on the far left is a guide to know which standards are being referred to in this feedback.
Since students may revise, rewrite, and resubmit assignments as their understanding improves, moving from right to left on each of these rows is the goal, and will lead to student success.
Columns
Each column of the rubric represents a different level of understanding. For each standard, students can move from right to left by increasing their ability to demonstrate this understanding through revisions or similar assignments covering the same standard. Scores from each row will be added to together to determine the overall score. Here is what those scores mean:
1 - The student shows very little understanding and does not meet the minimum expectations.
2 - The student meets the lowest level of expectations, but has room for improvement
3 - The student has met all of the expectations for this standard
4 - The student has gone beyond the grade level expectations
