ForAllRubrics

ForAllRubrics is a wonderful site/app (iOS/Android) for educators looking to create rubrics and even badges for their class.  This site interacts seamless w/ their free mobile app as well as lets educators create/manage student accounts while creating rubrics that are aligned to Common Core Standards.  Also, educators can browse through existing rubrics created by other users assess students and generate detailed reports.

I highly recommend checking out ForAllRubrics by clicking here!!!

For my Pinterest board on Educational Resources click here.
For more information check out Edshelf.

Below is a brief demo video...

6 Ways to Strengthen Rigor in Your STEM Classroom

In recapping this series on Strengthening Rigor in STEM, we've talked about how to define rigor in the classroom.   We've discussed that rigor is not making the work harder or assigning more problems.

We've also outlined the basics on tools such as the Rigor/Relevance Framework that we can use to guide our planning and instruction to establish and maintain rigor in the classroom.

This list generated by this series is by no means exhaustive, but is a tangible list of strategies you can use to begin to building rigor into your classroom:

• Interactive Notebooks
• The Art of Questioning
• Student Portfolios
• Rubrics
• PBL Elements
• Student Menus

By using or reintroducing these strategies into your classroom,  students can begin to stretch their thinking and begin to perform in ways that will help them to grow them academically as well as help them achieve mastery and beyond.

Strengthening Rigor in STEM- Rubrics

Using rubrics is an excellent way to establish rigor and hold students to high standards in the classroom.

Using rubrics to maintain rigor can be used in two ways:

• Students- to demonstrate the expectations and levels of mastery for the lesson/project
• Teachers- to assist in planning rigorous lessons for students

Providing rubrics for younger students and/or developing rubrics with older students is a clear-cut way to define expectations and establish rigor in the classroom.  By providing a set of "guidelines" for student achievement, rubrics help students to understand the expectations. A thorough rubric also helps students progress from understanding the basic components to thinking deeply and not only demonstrating mastery, but applied skills like problem solving.

When constructing a rubric for students, be mindful of the categories chosen and the levels of mastery within each one.  As you write each mastery level, take special care to choose your words carefully, making sure that each level is one step above the prior.  Rubrics should not be too cumbersome, but should be tightly written to ensure high standards and work towards applied knowledge.

As teachers, we can benefit from rubrics as well.  Many rubrics have been developed to help teachers establish rigor when planning lessons, projects, or units.  By keeping a rigor rubric handy, we can keep rigor at the forefront of our planning and thus construct better and more rigorous lessons for students.