Quinlan, Audrey M. A Complete Guide to Rubrics: Assessment Made Easy for Teachers, K-College. Lanham, Maryland: Rowman & Littlefield Education, 2006. Print.

Chapters 10-12: These chapters deal with many of the concepts I learned from Introduction to Rubrics, so I’ll just summarize the information and give interesting ideas. The last two chapters deal with report cards and websites/resources, so I’ll skip those.

Chapter 10: How to Create your Own Rubrics.

Quinlan uses methods very similar to the Intro to Rubrics book in this chapter. She asks rubric creators to follow ten steps:

1. 1.       Focus on clear outcomes
2. 2.       List three or four critical attributes of the performance/project.
3. 3.       Describe the expected qualities or attributes—the standard.
4. 4.       Develop statements that describe or define those qualities of performance short of expectation and beyond expectations.
5. 5.       Decide if the rubric will be analytic or holistic.
6. 6.       Research other rubrics.
7. 7.       Evaluate—Present the rubric to colleagues and students for  input.
8. 8.       Do a practice test or a dry run if possible.
9. 9.       Revise as needed.
10. 10.   Share information. (Quinlan 168, Box 10.1)

Most of these steps have already been covered. I do like the idea of doing a practice run, but most likely the practice run would be the first time one uses the rubric in an assignment. As most instructors know, that’s the real test of any assignment or assessment.

Chapter 11: Student-Generated Rubrics

In this chapter Quinlan spends a good amount of time talking about student centered or learning centered teaching. Involving students in rubric creation really puts the students in the center of their own learning. She, too, suggests the four by four method for having students create rubrics. She also gives some useful suggestions about how to teach students about rubrics—from a basic elementary level to college classes. I definitely plan to try a student generated rubric in my comp 1 class this fall.

Chapter 12: Teaching Others to Use Rubrics

In this chapter, Quinlan gives some very clever ideas of how to teach teachers to use rubrics. Her main suggestions for those new to rubrics are:

• Begin with a familiar activity or project.
• Research sample rubrics.
• Don’t expect perfection.
• Begin with the standard or benchmark and then describe work beyond and below that standard.
• Don’t try to assess everything in one assignment.
• Work with peers.
• Get student input. (Quinlan, 193, Box 12.1).

Then Quinlan describes several models to illustrate rubric creation from the restaurant model to the potato chip model to the clean room rubric.