constructivist
Rubrics and Assessment
18/Feb/2011 10:22 PM
The common thread that runs through all three articles is that the greatest learning takes place within the confines of shared experiences, collaborating with other people, and learning from each other. It is our job as online instructors to design the best course possible which includes higher reaching goals and objectives, complex thinking activities, self-analysis, and social interaction. We then facilitate students to reach higher levels of learning through coaching, community, and collaboration.
After reviewing the objectives and activities of my final project on Differentiated Instruction in context of the readings, I have included the aims of constructivist learning in my course. However, I realized that I was missing the collaborative piece. I went back to my plan and modified some of the activities to be more interactive and collaborative.
I had a revelation while working on the rubrics for the assessments in my final project. I came to the conclusion that analytical rubrics had the potential to keep students from doing their absolute best and performing with the highest achievement. Many students will “settle” for second best because it is “good enough” for them or they might think it’s too difficult to attain the highest proficiency level. Rick Wormeli in his book, “Fair Isn’t Always Equal: Assessing & Grading in the Differentiated Classroom” supports this idea. To overcome this limitation of analytical rubrics, I created a rubric with three proficiency levels, Exceeds Expectations, Meets Expectation, and Needs Revision. With this system, I could set the criteria very high for the Meets Expectations and reward those who would go above and beyond. At the same time, students who didn’t meet the expectation would have to revise their product until it did. I was assured that every student achieve the objective by meeting the expectation.
While this was an improvement, it still had the potential for students to only meet the expectation. Wormeli presents a different analytical rubric by which only the criteria for a “Standard of Excellence” is specifically spelled out. Students only see the “above and beyond” and work towards it. I’ve decided that I will use this style of rubric for my final project.
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