Using Rubrics for Teaching without Suffocating Yourselves or Your Learners

I won’t hide the reputation that rubrics have developed, which is that they are like wearing gym socks with leather sandals. Rubrics have all the sex-appeal of dental headgear.  

Figure 1: Socks with Sandals 

But boy are they are useful for organizing learning. Let me explain.

When I first started teaching, I promised that students would learn how to think critically. In my mind, there was a canyon between critical thinking and non-critical thinking. I would be their canyon guide with mule.

Figure 2: The All-or-Nothing Approach to Learning

 

Except I knew of no interrim steps. I asked students to leap from one side of the canyon to the other. If they couldn’t do it all in one go, then I wouldn’t know how to help them. I could never figure out where their mistake occurred. I would eventually give up and say, “Thank you for trying. Here are your participation points.” It was disappointing.

Enter: Rubrics.

Rubrics break a difficult learning goal (such as critical thinking) into basic components. These components are organized in a stepwise fashion, where each component builds on the previous. Everybody lands somewhere on the hierarchy, so there is no void of uncertainty. 

Figure 3: The Rubricized Approach to Learning

A course can be organized around learning goals by using rubrics. One semester might have 2-3 goals, and each goal has 3-4 achievement benchmarks. Once everyone achieves the target benchmark for one goal, you move onto the next. Or maybe you can do all goals simultenously, working on Goal 1 Monday, Goal 2 Wednesday, and Goal 3 on Friday. Etc. It’s up to you, but the rubrics provide the structure.

Give it a try! For some ideas of what to include in your rubric, check out my Rubric Rubric.