Two Birds with One Rubric

I've addressed the topic of rubrics before.  I know for some of you these are new and confusing, but for us here in Dirty Jersey, they're old news.

While I find rubrics to be as annoying as the next art teacher, I will say they're pretty convenient to have when all is said and done.  This is especially true at the high school level, where kids are trying to find that magical balance of earning top grades while putting forth the least amount of effort  Rubrics are the best way to defend your choice in giving a student a less-than-stellar grade.  It's all there, in black and white, and there's no room for arguing.

Although I feel I've mastered the act of writing rubrics, I haven't been able to really master having students genuinely critique their own works.  Sure we have one-on-one discussions of their pieces- Do you like it?  What would you change about it?  How can we make it stronger?, and sometimes I have them write critiques of their work using the Feldman Methold of Critique as a guide, but even then I feel that a lot of it is fluff and the student's aren't really thinking about the work they did.

When a co-worker of mine fell ill and had to leave school mid-year, I helped to gather up and organize her information for the teacher who was coming to relieve her.  In gathering and organizing, I stumbled upon my co-workers genius rubric.  It's a two-in-one: a rubric and a self-critique!  See below:

1.4.12.B.1	Excellent 4	Very Good 3	Good/Average 2	Poor/Fail 1/0	Grade Yourself 1.4.12.B.1	Teacher Grade
Pre- Planning/ Sketches/Photo (Attach to Rubric) 1.3.12.D.1	Student drew 1 fully developed design sketch showing all requirements:  Base design, basket size, shape, color choices.  Excellent photo taken and put into online folder for final project.	Student drew a design sketch showing most of the requirements:  Base design, basket size, shape, color choices.  V good photo taken and put into online folder for final project.	Student drew a design sketch showing some/few of the requirements:  Base design, basket size, shape, color choices.  Good photo taken and put into online folder for final project.	Student drew a poorly developed design sketch showing little to no requirements: Base design, basket size, shape, color choices.  Poor photo taken or missing and put into online folder for final project.
Overall Craftsmanship 1.3.12.D.2	Excellent/Outstanding craftsmanship.  Project is near perfect.  Magazine pages are rolled tight and correctly.  Excellent base & gluing and acrylic medium applied with no drips.	Very good craftsmanship.  Minor flaws may be present.  Very good base & gluing and acrylic medium applied with few to no drips.	Good craftsmanship is shown.  Improvement in time and care to overall project would improve results. Good/average base & gluing and acrylic medium applied with minimum of drips.	Poor craftsmanship and pride in finished work. Much improvement needed. Poor base and/or gluing and acrylic medium applied, noticeable drips.
Base Creativity & Originality 1.3.12.D.1	Outstanding creativity in base design and execution is evident.  Excellent thought in color/pattern choices.  Excellent selection of color.	Very good creativity in base design is evident.  Very good color/pattern choices.	Good creativity in base design is shown.  Good/average color/pattern choices.  A little more thought may have improved outcome.	Poor/lack of creativity and little to no evidence of thought in base is shown. Poor/little evidence to color/pattern.
Effort/Time Management 9.1.12.F.2	Outstanding effort on project.  Followed class rules. Followed demo instructions, read directions on handout &  followed them well.  Excellent self direction and  motivation.	Good effort on project.  Mostly followed class rules, demo and directions on handout.  Mostly self directed and motivated.	Some improvement needed in following class rules, following demo directions and directions on handout.  Some improvement needed in self direction and motivation.	Lack of effort and pride in work, Lack of following class rules and demo directions, Lack of reading or follow handout directions.  Much improvement needed in self direction and motivation.
Assessment Questions 1.3.12.D.5	Answer questions on back of rubric.			Overall Grade:
16=100    15=96	14=93     13=89     12=85	11=82     10=78       9=74	8=70     7=66     6=63	5=59     4=55

Then, on the back of the sheet, she has a list of thought-provoking questions, which she sometimes counts as a quiz grade.  Talk about a triple threat!  Below is an example of such questions:

Unit II Fiber Arts/Crafts- Recycled Magazine Basket Assessment. 

Answer all questions completely and write legibly .  Use separate paper if needed.

1.     List the four main techniques we discussed that are used in Native American basket making?  Circle the one we did for this project.

2.      List a few materials the Native American Indians used to create their baskets. 

3.     List any similarities you see in the material we used.

4.     Is your basket a 2 dimensional work of art or a 3 dimensional work of art?  Explain why it is considered 2D or 3D? 

5.     Explain what color scheme or pattern you incorporated into your base and / or basket (be specific)?

6.     Was your project successful?  Why was it successful or what could you have done to make it more successful?  Explain in detail.

7.     Did you like this project?  Why or why not?

My intent for this school year was to adopt this way of assessing student works, but I didn't remember in September.  Also, it creates a lot of lose papers if you do this for each student, for each project, for the whole year.  However, I feel if I could get organized enough to have each student with their own folder, responsible for holding onto all their rubrics, it could work.  I'm debating about starting this out with my second semester Photo classes, which will begin in a few weeks.  I'll use them as a test run, and then decide whether or not to adopt it this coming September for all of my classes.  Already planning for September!  A teacher's job never ends!