Rubric application in grading sheets design for reports writing

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Abstract：Current traditional assessment methods for report writing are highly unreliable.This paper discusses rubric--popular method for authentic assessment in reports writing，and try to provide suggestions on rubric application.

Key words：rubricgradingreports writingA typical rubric is based upon what we have learned，rather than what we have been taught.As such it is an authentic assessment tool designed to simulate real life activities and experiences;more precisely，it is a scoring guide that differentiates between levels of development in a specific area of performance or behavior;they differ from traditional methods of assessment in that they examine activity in the actual process of learning，clearly showing us how our work is being evaluated.ⅠStudy objectivesIn this work a grading sheet for theses is designed to be used to overcome the difficulties.The grading sheet is designed:(1)To Guide students in writing.Minimum requirements are formulated and criteria to excel have to be provided.A list of frequent failures in the proposal is given;(2)To Start a knowledge creation process among teachers.It is a way to transfer tutors tacit knowledge into common accepted knowledge to coach students in writing;(3)To Provide a grading sheet usable for all module assignments.It has to be the base for a teaching sequence for writing over the 4 years of the curriculum.It has to be modified down to every report students have to write.Ⅱ Sequences in curriculum designCoaching and demand oriented approaches have become popular in applied sciences curricula.These approaches are fruitless when students have at the start of their study not a grasp of what they should achieve.There is no goal in students'mind!Following a constructivist approach，there should be one single grading form for the writing process for all the years，so students are always aware of what the demands are.Of course all the skills have to be developed and the threshold for passing or failing can be low at the beginning and high at the end (like in the progress test)，but for every following module involving in four years program，the threshold has to be made explicit and be published to the students.All possible reports students have to write should be a subset of a more general format and be taught as such，instead of teaching various forms of reports having apparently have no mutual relationship.Using one grading list prevents system locks in the writing process teaching.Ⅲ Rubric applicationconsiderationThe grading method of Rubrick4 teachers can be summarized as follows:1.A subject is summarized in a number of items，and the subjects covering the subject to be graded.The items have to be independent from each other(otherwise the same characteristic contributes more times)2.For all items are described using a fixed number of levels.The lower graded levels are supposed to be a subset to the higher levels(or the higher levels replace the lower ones，involving them but adding more).3.Aconsequence characteristics have to formulated in a positive way.4.For convenience(but not essential)，the levels are valued in the same way.Ⅳ LevelsconsiderationConstructing the grading sheet for a subject is not straightforward，some experimenting is needed to find a satisfying one.The brilliant move has made not to reason downward from the top level，but to formulate a base level and to add to the base level degrees of excellence.The sheet has to reflect the levels formulated in the four yearscompetence guide，being the left Rubric column the excellence/master level(4)followed by the judgment level(3).The two levels application，and knowing/comprehension have been merged in one column，simply because it is the minimum requirement.The4 year programcompetence guide levels reflect the Dublin descriptors.For each item，characteristics are formulated preventing thereport orthesis to be accepted if they occur.(Comparable to language errors).This is the 0 column.For a number of items there is even no credit to be gained(so these items are conditional for acceptance).In the sheet the technique of making sets of research questions using action verbs is incorporated.Ⅴ Reasoning(Toulmin)Toenhancnance the quality of writing，criteria should be provided to mark the argumentation.The argumentation model of Toulmin is used.To be discussed is the question whether additional criteria for the type of reasoning can be added.(using vocabulary like:generalization，analogy，sign，causality authority principle).Ⅵ ConclusionRubrics is a popular method for authentic assessment of writing skills.The advantages of rubrics rely on the basis of effective and good rubrics if learners are involved to develop rubrics.Report grading can be relatively efficient if rubric is used properly.

References：

[1]Ikuru Nonaka.HiroTaka Tekeuchi The knowledge creating company Oxford University press，1995.

[2]J.M.Swales.CB Feak Academic writing for Graduate Students 3th edition University of Michigan，2012.