Summative and Formative Assessments

   As formative assessments grow in popularity, rubrics are becoming a necessity in best practice instruction.  Rubrics are an excellent way to give students information about what your expectations are ahead of time so they can meet the bar.  Grading and checking for understanding is simple and consistent. But making rubrics can be cumbersome especially when your teaching every subject. 

   Thanks to iRubric creating rubrics doesn't have to be such a chore.  This free online tool makes creating rubrics quick and easy.  Plus you can share your rubrics and use others.  www.rcampus.com/indexrubric.cfm

   There are two basic kinds of rubrics.  One is made for the teacher to assess the students and one is used by the students to self assess their performance and understanding.  You can make them as simple or as complex as you need.  One that I made up for my students is simply smiley, straight and frown faces that the students color in according to their performance in class.  I use kid friendly language to help students assess themselves.  It often helps to give examples of three levels of student work to help them compare their work and make improvements.  You can use rubrics for formative assessments throughout instruction and as a summative assessment for tests, projects or presentations.