Wednesday, November 25, 2009
Constructionism in the classroom
This week, we learned about constructionism and what that means for the classroom. From what I understand, constructionism involves learning through creating a project of some type. I think that one way to support this is by making rubrics. I like the idea of rubrics because it clearly outlines what is expected. This way, if there is ever a question of the grades, the teacher can simply refer to the rubric and that's that. I think that if you expect your students to learn by creating something, it might be best to give them a clear list of what you expect. Has anyone used rubrics in your classroom? Has it had a positive or negative impact on your teaching?
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Katie,
ReplyDeleteI love using rubrics in my classroom. They make it so much easier to grade projects because the expectations are so clearly spelled out for your students. I just completed a government project where they had a rubric, the day students were turning them in, I lost count of the number of times they asked me "what if I didn't use color", I was able to point out exactly where that would fall on the presentation part of the rubric. It eliminated a lot of parent questions as well. Good luck with them in your class!
Absolutely, about the rubrics, in my short five years of teaching there have been several incidents where I have had to pull out the rubric to prove to the parent why they were given a grade that they were. There have been times where the parent understood and there have been times where the parent was right, and I needed to adjust the student's grade and therefore my rubric. Just this year I have been adjusting areas like "creativity," since that is so hard to grade. There are also some great websites that help with rubric creation. For example, http://rubistar.4teachers.org/
ReplyDeleteAlthough the website probably won't give you exactly what you want- it will at least, give you a place to start.
Ruberics are great in the classroom! As you said, they can be used as a way to clearly define what information you are trying to impart on the students. Ruberics also help students to self-evaluate the worth of their work, which is an integral part in the learning process. One pitfall that can occur if ruberics are over-utilized is that students become too dependent upon someone/something telling them exactly what is expected forcing some students tolose intrinsic motivation, and stifiling the creativity of others. When used in thoughtful, well-planned lessons, though, ruberics can prove to be a wonderful constructive ally in educating today's youth.
ReplyDeleteMaking rubrics is very important in the education field. Grades can be a major headache for many teachers. If there is a rubrics that CLEARLY states the expectations, there should be less misunderstand and more student success. I have a question about teachers that refer back to the rubric and say that's that. I thought about the rubrics that we receive in our masters program. Can you say confusing? There has been times were I was marked down and had no clue why. I still am trying to fix it. I am in total support of rubrics but to say that's that? I think there should always be some negotiation for a lack of a better term.
ReplyDeleteHope you had a great Turkey Day!