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RubiStar: The rubric maker
by Erica Schaapveld
 

Look at all of the ISTE technology standards you meet by using RubiStar!

I. Technology operations and concepts.
II. Planning and designing learning environments and experiences.
III. Teaching, learning, and the curriculum.
IV. Assessment and evaluation.
V. Productivity and professional practice.

Click here for a detailed description.

ubiStar does away with the tedium of creating rubrics from scratch by allowing you to customize one of our many template rubrics. You can use the rubrics as is, or modify the templates to better serve your particular students' needs. You can choose from six skill categories: Multimedia, Products, Experiments, Oral Projects, Research and Writing, and Work Skills. You can see these topics and the available rubrics below.

Choosing a customizable rubric

To begin making your rubric, select one of the projects under the six main headings. In the image below, the topic Research and Writing, Research Report is selected.

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Once you choose a project, select the kind of rating scale best for your students.

Selecting a rating scale

ubiStar offers two types of rating scales: numerical and descriptive. In numerical ratings, "four" signifies the highest level of achievement, whereas "one" signifies the lowest. Descriptive ratings, like the one chosen below, place the categories of excellent, good, satisfactory, and needs improvement in your rubric.

Choosing categories

Continue making your rubric by selecting categories from the drop down menus at the left of the page. Categories differ depending on the topic. The rubric for Research Report lists five different categories: Amount of Information, Organization, Quality of Information, Sources, and Mechanics. You may choose to use all categories or only a few. Once you select the category, the text boxes to the right fill in automatically, as shown below. Keep selecting the categories you wish to be included on your rubric.

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Customizing the rubric

f you want to edit any of the phrases that are automatically placed in the text box, simply highlight the words you wish to remove and press delete. Add your substitute words by typing in the box. Below, the words "very well" in the Excellent rating have been changed to "neatly".

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If you do make a change to one rating like Excellent, you should check the other boxes to make sure that there is still an apparent difference between the ratings.

Finishing the Rubric

n the image below, only four of the five categories are used. Notice that any blank spaces caused by the omission of a category should come at the bottom of the page.

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Once all the categories are chosen, click Make a Printable Rubric.

This converts the rubric's entered data into a printable version like the one shown below.

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Notice that the page your rubric is located on has its own URL or address. Once you have successfully completed your rubric, you should do the following: bookmark the page, write down the URL, and print the page. This insures that you will have your id number for future reference. Instead of creating the rubric again, use your URL to retrieve your original one. The URL for the above rubric is http://rubistar.4teachers.org/view_rubric.php3?id=7024, your rubric will have a different id number listed at the end of the URL.

ubiStar is perfect for both preservice teachers who don't have much experience in creating rubrics from scratch and in-service teachers who simply don't have much time. Using RubiStar not only helps teachers, but it also shows individual students the levels at which they are performing.