Have you ever spent hours working on something and then looked at the final product only to wonder where the time and effort went? That’s how I feel about the rubric I have been working on for the Graduation Transitions Program (for which I am the coordinator at our school).
Last year, under the old program, the ‘Final Presentation’ was about showing evidence and meeting criteria. This year the ‘Exit Interview’ is more about the journey…
So how do you create a rubric to give feedback to students about their journey? I decided on a few things first:
- Reflection is important and needs to be valued.
- This is a big transition… some forward planning also needs to be valued.
- This is NOT a grade! (The program is not graded, you just need to meet the requirements.)
- It needs to be ‘different’ enough that the many different teachers doing the interview won’t fall into ‘grading’ mode.
Here is what I came up with… (Link to a larger view)
At this point I can’t decide if this achieves what I want it to, or if I wasted my time… feedback is really appreciated… I have to present this to students on Monday.
Originally posted: December 6th, 2007Reflection upon re-reading and re-posting:
The final rubric included the symbolic metaphor of birds hatching, (click the image for a larger view). The Phoenix on the left is the school mascot and an ideal symbol for success. I did two things that I think made this process rather unique: 1. The rubric progresses from right-to-left rather than left-to-right. I wanted students to see this in a different light than traditional rubrics. As I said in the presentation I made to the Grade 12’s, “A rubric that is for feedback… not a grade!” 2. Because this was not for a grade, (Grad Transitions is a Pass/Fail), I also decided that students should evaluate themselves on this rubric. The people that students present to for their exit interview could give feedback and suggestions, for example: “I think you are too hard on yourself,” or “perhaps you have more to think about in that area,” but the end choice would ultimately be the student’s. The only way that a student could be overridden is if they were “Developing” as an “Overall Snapshot” in the opinion of the adults being presented to… (Bottom-right square on the rubric). If the student did not show any sign of meaningful reflection and they showed very limited or no thought towards what their future held, then the adults being presented to could determine that another interview was in order. I had made every attempt to change all of the required assignments to make them more meaningful to the student. And so, I also saw it as fitting that they should ultimately reflect and determine where they fit on the exit interview rubric… It is more about metacognition than it is about a measure on some sort of success scale. Is one student better off than another because they think, at 17 or 18 years old that they have all the answers about what their future holds? Or is it more important for them to consider where they are in that process, and where they need to go, or what they need to think about next? – – – – – It was hard to leave this position when I got promoted in February. I felt as thought I was abandoning a commitment and was quite honestly surprised that my district would consider moving me. That said, my replacement Dino has done an amazing job continuing the program on, and actually making it better! He held a full day interview session with every teacher in the school becoming involved… something I don’t think I could have pulled off! I’m very happy to see the program evolve and grow. – – – – – Comment on the original post:If I understand this correctly, Mastering is the level they all want to obtain, but the level they are assigned is how the teacher will be grading them. So, they may think that they are at the mastering level, but in reality, and according to the teacher, they are at the learning level. I like how this goes. It is very interesting, and I think that students should respond well to the rubric. I think it is great how it gives them words to use to describe where they are at. If/when they spend time thinking about it, they will have to start understanding that “In 5 years I will be…” is much different and more advanced than “this is my plan…”. I don’t know how to critique it to make it better. I looked at the site you linked to and looked at the PDF that explains the program. It seems to me that there is a leap the students will need to make from the two sources that I looked at. I think that is a good thing…it makes them think about how they will do things to achieve their requirements. Good luck. Jethro Jones on Friday, 07 December 2007, 03:17 CET |
