Sunday Funday Grading and Rubric Linky Party (with a sweet giveaway)!

I love rubrics. L-u-u-u-u-r-r-r-v-v-v-v-e them.

Love. Them.

There is something about their parameters, their expectations all laid out, secrecy-denied savviness that makes me happy. I love the way I always knew exactly what my late-in-life-college-student-self needed to get that 4.0. Always. There was no mystery, no guessing.

I love it the same way for assessing. I know exactly what each student needs to have to get a +, -, 1, 2, 3, 4,  check, S, whatever. I don't have to second guess myself and go back through writing or math to make sure I was fair to all.

I know that not everyone loves them. Not everyone needs the parameters. Not everyone wants to follow a table of laid out expectations. There is less room for gut feelings, justified or no.

Yeah. My opinion = rubrics rock.

This afternoon I started pouring through the Fab 4's Ice Age/Glacial Wisconsin portfolios and decided that I couldn't do it without a rubric. I went to my favorite rubric making site, Rubistar. I will admit that I find rubistar to be a little hard to work in, a little clumsy, but I put up because of how easy it makes creating rubrics. Do you have a favorite site? Will you share?

I started with the items I was assessing. Then I brainstormed the criteria that made or broke the assignments, and defined what it would like if it met, exceeded or did not meet expectations.

Once I had some parameters it was much easier to assign a grade. 

I also wanted the parents to know why their child may have gotten a +, or what was it about their work that dropped a minus. Now they can see what I was looking for. 

Do you use rubrics? How do you use them? How do you make them? 

Link up and share! Then come back and vote on your favorite! Cutest Rubric gets a $25 Amazon gift card! Sign up for the rafflecopter and you could win the other $25 Amazon gift card! That's right, two $25 Amazon gift cards. 

"Save as" and use this on your blog to show you're a part of the linky! 

Make you sure you link back here so folks can vote!

a Rafflecopter giveaway