The power of blogs in the education is unquestionable. Blogs possess limitless potential for enhancing student learning and empowering students. Blogs essentially breakdown the walls of a classroom and allow interaction on a global scale. With the uses of blogs constantly changing, determining the most effective way to assess a blog can be challenging. As with all assessments, trying to quantify qualitative products requires great thought and planning.
Rubrics can be a great way to evaluate student performance through blogging. Rubrics can be used for assessments of learning and assessments for learning. I think one of the most important concepts of a blog rubric is transparency. Students need to know exactly what is expected of them, in terms of blog postings and responses. As an elementary school teacher, using a blog rubric would require modeling usage (evaluating a blog using the rubric in front of students), allowing students to evaluate sample postings using the rubric, and coaching during the first few blog postings (with the rubric in mind.) I would probably only begin to use blog as an assessment of student learning once students became comfortable with the process and of the evaluation instrument. Through researching student blogging rubrics, I came across many components of quality blog postings. These components were used in developing a blogging rubric. I also came across four statements that encompass the most important characteristics of blogging responses (interaction):
1.) The comments contribute further information on the blog topic.
2.) The author of the comment added further resources.
3.) The content was organized and presented in a logical manner.
4.) The author’s voice was clear and their perspective presented.
In conclusion, I created the following rubric to use for assessing the blog postings of my students. While I greatly appreciate the ability to quickly provide quantitative feedback to students, I feel that written commentary and feedback is far more powerful to the learning process. Discussing or otherwise expressing qualitative feedback to students at the elementary school level is far more relevant than simply using a rubric.
Rubrics can be a great way to evaluate student performance through blogging. Rubrics can be used for assessments of learning and assessments for learning. I think one of the most important concepts of a blog rubric is transparency. Students need to know exactly what is expected of them, in terms of blog postings and responses. As an elementary school teacher, using a blog rubric would require modeling usage (evaluating a blog using the rubric in front of students), allowing students to evaluate sample postings using the rubric, and coaching during the first few blog postings (with the rubric in mind.) I would probably only begin to use blog as an assessment of student learning once students became comfortable with the process and of the evaluation instrument. Through researching student blogging rubrics, I came across many components of quality blog postings. These components were used in developing a blogging rubric. I also came across four statements that encompass the most important characteristics of blogging responses (interaction):
1.) The comments contribute further information on the blog topic.
2.) The author of the comment added further resources.
3.) The content was organized and presented in a logical manner.
4.) The author’s voice was clear and their perspective presented.
In conclusion, I created the following rubric to use for assessing the blog postings of my students. While I greatly appreciate the ability to quickly provide quantitative feedback to students, I feel that written commentary and feedback is far more powerful to the learning process. Discussing or otherwise expressing qualitative feedback to students at the elementary school level is far more relevant than simply using a rubric.
blog_rubric.docx |