I am a firm believer in rubrics! I especially enjoyed reading chapter 8, "Reinforcing Effort", in our course book Using Technology with Classroom Instruction that Works, by Pitler, Hubbell, Kuhn, and Malenoski. The "Effort Rubric" shown in this chapter is a great example of how we can pair technology with behaviorism in the classroom. Rubrics are a great way to guide students as they learn and participate in activities. It shows students exactly what is expected of them and exactly the grade they will be getting based on their performance. In every project that I ever assigned, I had a rubric that the students could follow to help them during the process of completing their work. This kept projects from being overwhelming and help break the project down into categories, making the task at hand seem manageable.
What about homework and practice? "Homework and practice give students a chance to review and apply what they have learned" (Pitler, Hubbell, Kuhn, and Malenoski, 2007). In chapter 10 some good points were made about homework: parental involvement should be kept to a minimum, it should be something the students already know how to do, and if it is going to be assigned it should be checked for completion or commented upon. Something that I have found in my few years of teaching is that students know which class to do their homework in and which classes not to do their homework in. The decide this based upon whether or not a teacher will check or grade their homework assignment. Homework is often perceived as a waste of time to students, because too often teachers assign homework then never look at the students work. Homework and practice are essential to student learning, students must practice something 24 times before mastery is accomplished (Orey, 2010).
By using technology, educators are able to assign homework and practice in a more appealing way to students. Technology lends itself to addressing skills in many different forms, such as, online encyclopedia's, online article's, video, word processing, etc. Teachers must embrace this technology to better educate our student's.
Laureate, Education, Inc. (Producer). (2010). Behaviorist Learning Theory [DVD]. Baltimore, MD: Orey, M.
Pitler, H., Hubbell, E., Kuhn, M., & Malenoski, K. (2007). Using technology with classroom instruction that works. Alexandria, VA: ASCD.
Hi Emily,
ReplyDeleteI also find rubrics to be extremely helpful. With a rubric, a student can be more self-directed--a well constructed rubric defines what a student needs to do in order to meet expectations.
Without a rubric, students sometimes submit work with the same mindset they might have if they were buying a lottery ticket. They turn it in and then hope for a good grade like they'd hope for a winning number. A rubric takes the surprise out of grading--and encourages students to evaluate their own work as well--to be more active in the assessment process.
Susan
Emily,
ReplyDeleteI love rubrics! Besides making sure grading is kept fair, they also make grading faster. When the students have the rubric while working on an assignment, there is no question later about why they received a particular score. It also helps to encourage students to work harder and produce a better product. No student looks at a rubric and says, "I only want to get a 'D'."
Amy
Hi Emily,
ReplyDeleteEvery time I post my comment it says that it is too large. So I am going to post it in two sections.
Hi Emily (Part 1)
ReplyDeleteI have had every intention to use Rubrics in my classroom but have not had an opportunity to use them so far. I do believe that they are good visual representations for students. I teach third grade and my students are not very familiar with them. I need to have a detailed lesson with my students to teach them about rubrics, but with so many curriculums to cover, I tend to shy away from it.
I agree with you that homework should have minimum parent involvement. I had a student a few days ago who handed me his homework with an adult handwriting on his math page. When I confronted the student, he told me that his father was explaining the homework and filled in the answers while doing it. Parents tend to believe that homework is graded and try to do it for their children. If this phenomenon keeps happening, giving homework would be pointless because we would have no idea if our students were learning the concepts or not. On some occasions, I do not have time to correct the homework the same day and students do not receive the feedback from me immediately.
(Part 2)
ReplyDeleteI concur with your comment, “By using technology, educators are able to assign homework and practice in a more appealing way to students. Technology lends itself to addressing skills in many different forms, such as, online encyclopedia's, online article's, video, word processing, etc. Teachers must embrace this technology to better educate our student's.”
The homework that I see my students do diligently is the blog homework I assign them every week. Students are regular in doing it and every morning we read all the responses on the blog and discuss the homework. Students come in every morning and want me to display the blog on the smart board and they are always very excited if another teacher or our Principal comments on their work.
I use rubrics a lot, as well. I find they are *most* beneficial when the students themselves understand how to create them. When the class writes their own rubric for a given project, they also have a greater investment in the outcome and are more motivated to do well. Do you provide the rubrics or do you guide your class through creating their own?
ReplyDeleteHi Emily,
ReplyDeleteI agree with what you said about homework and how students know which classes to complete it for and which ones not to. I teach eighth grade and my students most definitely know which teachers check homework. I assign homework each day and then the next day I check to see if the work is complete. Each student receives a grade for their effort. I then post the answers on the board and each student checks their work for accuracy. Finally, I answer any questions students may have on problems they missed.
How do you address homework in your classroom?
Lisa, I typically design my rubrics based on the project at hand, but on occasion I let the students help me in creating a rubric. This allows them to be actively involved in the process and allows them to see how rubrics are created and why.
ReplyDeleteJudith, I typically did not give homework. The nature of my class did not require me to do so, therefore only on certain occasions did I give homework. If I did assign something for homework, you can be sure that we used the information or that it was graded.