How to design a rubric

I have just read an interesting chapter in a book of Jonassen et al. " Learning to Solve Problems with Technology"(2003). The chapter is about how to design authentic rubrics to evaluate student's performance and product. I myself have struggles with rubric design. In my previous teaching, I often used scoring system because judging students'progress is required to be based on the "raw score". Consequently, there are some situations when high-scored students of English are unable to speak English, top ten pupils are unable to read a simple Vietnamese readings. These situations do not only root from inappropriate assessment tools but also from ineffective teaching methodology. This is a current thorny problem in Vietnam. I think rubrics are one of the most effective ways to solve such issue.

Back to rubric design, I agree with Jonassen about unidimensional characteristics in rubric design. A "molecule" (p. 231) should be seperated into "elements" (p. 231) in which every crucial factor must be considered in detail. However, in reality, if we include all of the important factors in a rubric, we would be frustrated with its complexity. In my opinion, we should focus on the most important aspects that demonstrate students' performance and products. For instance, we can include two elements : facial expression and body language into a molecule: gesture- a more general but specific enough to evaluate.

Actually, designing a rubric is not easy at all. Designers should keep in mind the purpose of rubrics, and of learning tasks. Also, teachers should collaborate with students to design rubrics. After designing it, teachers should experiment it to check reliability and validity.

Here are some rubrics websites that I found very helpful:

Student friendly writing rubrics
http://www.middleweb.com/ReadWrkshp/RWdownld/MvaleRubric.pdf

Discovery schools : All of aspects from assessment to lesson plans
http://school.discovery.com/schrockguide/assess.html

Presentation rubrics
http://www.ncsu.edu/midlink/rub.pres.html

Classroom assessment techniques examples
http://www.ncsu.edu/midlink/rub.pres.html

Choosing assessment methods
http://www.apa.org/ed/critique_study.html#goal_7

Create a new rubric
http://rubistar.4teachers.org/index.php?screen=NewRubric&module=Rubistar

Assessment Criteria
http://intranet.cps.k12.il.us/Assessments/Ideas_and_Rubrics/Rubric_Bank/SpeakingRubrics.pdf

Portfolio Collection
http://intranet.cps.k12.il.us/Assessments/Ideas_and_Rubrics/Rubric_Bank/WritingRubrics.pdf

Alternative/Performance- based assessment
http://intranet.cps.k12.il.us/Assessments/Ideas_and_Rubrics/Rubric_Bank/WritingRubrics.pdf

Implementing performance- based assessment in classroom
http://pareonline.net/getvn.asp?v=6&n=2

Form of alternative assessment
http://www.miamisci.org/ph/lpdefine.html

Portfolio assessment
http://www.eduplace.com/rdg/res/literacy/assess6.html

Portfolio and self- assessment
http://www.eduplace.com/rdg/res/literacy/assess6.html

Portfolio assessment
http://www.pgcps.org/~elc/portfolio.html

Use of portfolio in assessment evaluation
http://ag.arizona.edu/fcs/cyfernet/cyfar/Portfo~3.htm

Portfolio assessment
http://www.funderstanding.com/portfolio_assessment.cfm

Portfolio assessment
http://www.teachervision.fen.com/teacher-training/curriculum-planning/20153.html

Defining portfolio assessment
http://www.unm.edu/~devalenz/handouts/portfolio.html

Guidelines for using portfolio assessment in teaching English
http://www.anglit.net/main/portfolio/default.html

Portfolio assessment in foreign language classroom
http://www.nclrc.org/portfolio/modules.html

Scoring rubric: Writing
http://www.bcpl.net/~sullivan/modules/tips/rubrics_sec/writ_express.html

Curriculum design
http://www.bcps.org/offices/lis/curric/vsc/engp.html#reading