Welcome back y'all! The beginning of the year is so exciting! I feel energized and look forward to meeting my new students. My classroom is neat and tidy, even my lab is organized and clean. And then, it begins. We do a lab, the students get to experience chemistry through some hands-on work, and I need to see what they have learned. Oh, the lab reports! This is my least favorite part of teaching! It was difficult for me to be consistent which of course led to rubrics.
I began using rubrics, but I did not like how they were written. Students who did well according to the rubric did not neccesarily do well according to what I thought. This, of course, led to re-writing the rubrics. Now, I am writing rubrics for the new labs I am writing and I am nervous all over again.
Have you ever used a rubric you liked? Did you ever use a rubric someone else wrote? Did you ever compare how you used it to how another teacher used it? We are trying to be consistent in our course and I am wondering if having a rubric will truly help maintain that consistency. Let us know what you think!
Lowell Thomson recently shared some logistical tips to the grading. You may want to check out his blog also.