Journal #6- The Trouble with Rubrics

Kohn, Alfie. (2006). The Trouble with rubrics. 95(4),

In this article we are given the argument about if a rubric is a good or bad system to use. The argument is that when a student is given a grade on a project, they only know that their paper or project was “B” material. Does anyone besides that teacher really know what “B” work is? This is a standard that the teacher has, that is different for every teacher. If you are given a rubric, you know the specific guidelines to follow. You know why you did either good or bad based on the information present on the handout. Alfie Kohn states this; “I’d been looking for an alternative to grades because research shows three reliable effects when students are graded: They tend to think less deeply, avoid taking risks, and lose interest in the learning itself.”
This also allows for teachers to give students a certain amount of points for the topic they feel deserves those particular points. That teacher may not think spelling and grammar matters as much as the content of the paper, so they make the grammar and spelling worth a maximum of 5 points and the content worth 10. This gives the students the chance to see that the content of the paper is the most important. Linda Mabry published an article citing “compliance with the rubric tended to yield higher scores but produced ‘vacuous’ writing.”[3]
I never really thought about what Kohn had researched on rubrics. I never really thought how much better a student might actually do if they were given specific guidelines to follow. When I look at how we were given a rubric to follow for our PowerPoint presentation, we were able to know exactly what we needed in order to receive the grade we desired. When you are given a letter grade, a lot of the time the teacher will not write why you received the grade you were given. I agree with rubrics, and that they should really be considered when grading your students.

Why do you think a majority of teachers do not use rubrics?
Sometimes I think it is the easy way out for teachers. It takes a lot more time and energy for a teacher to make a rubric then it does to slap down a letter grade.

Why do you think students react to letter grades the way that Kohn described?
I think much like teachers students want to get the assignment done so they will do as little as possible to do so. When you are given a rubric you have guidelines to follow in order to receive the grade you want. Letter grades are based off of what the teacher thinks is the best paper, project, ect. and goes from there where a rubric has a criteria you have to meet.