[ARCHIVED] Need some tips on creating a helpful rubric!

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campbellj
Community Member
‎02-24-2016 09:07 AM

FYI - I'm using Canvas in a middle school classroom.

I have a weekly journal assignment that my students complete every day. Currently, I create one assignment for the entire week. On Monday, they submit the assignment normally. On Tuesday-Friday, they submit their next response as a comment. To grade this assignment, I have created a rubric with Monday-Friday each as their own criterion. However, any time we don't have school, I can't just negate one of the columns from that rubric.

So - I added two zero-point ratings to each day's grade. One says Incomplete, and one says No School Today. Both are worth 0 points. But when I go to grade a students' assignment, selecting one rating automatically highlights both of them.

Parents have been asking me to simplify my scoring of these daily journals so that they can understand what their children are losing points for. I'm desperately trying to tweak rubrics to meet their requests, but am having a hard time designing a rubric that will work. Any suggestions you might have are greatly appreciated. Should I be using a different type of assignment altogether? I've never used Discussions before - might that be a better avenue?

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KristinL
Community Team
Community Team
‎02-24-2016 09:33 AM

Hi Jessica -

I understand your frustration with the rubric. With your rubric, you could move to the free response option. You could then provide a score by clicking, but provide your own comments. That would elongate the process, but it would clarify the outcome to students and parents. Another option is to make a second and third rubric with 3, 4, 5 days of school rather than labeling things M-F. This way you could apply the 3-Day-Week rubric to specific weeks, 4-Day-Week rubric to others, etc.

This year, I moved from individual assignments (with multiple submissions) to a private discussion with each student. I am able to reply to them through threaded entries, and I adjust the total points possible each time I grade the journal. Additionally, I provide information about scores within the comments, separate from my replies in the discussion. Depending on your institution's privacy settings within Canvas (enabling/disabling observers' abilities to see announcements and discussions), parents will not be able to see the dialog between you and their child. So, if you need parents to be involved, discussions may not be the best route.

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