School foolishness again

[unixronin]

Once again, I find myself having to bitchslap gently remonstrate with the school system.  The Silly Goose has managed to get behind on her schoolwork already, barely over a month into the quarter, and the assignment which was sent home with her to complete over this coming weekend for partial credit is described on the accompanying instruction sheet as "making a rubric".

Needless to say, the assignment does not, in any way, shape or form, constitute anything consistent (without taking great liberties and stretching the definition almost beyond recognition) with any dictionary definition of the word 'rubric' with which I am familiar.  What appears, according to the assignment instruction sheet, to be meant by a 'rubric' in the assignment is a drawing which is successively refined in a series of numbered frames from the most basic, bare-bones sketch to a complete, detailed drawing.

In my note back to the teacher, I stopped short of saying "You picked a word you liked and invented a meaning for it out of whole cloth."  But I didn't stop far short.

Comments

[bfudlmint.livejournal.com]

Rubric seems to be the keyword for a new teaching method.

What is a Rubric?
Heidi Goodrich, a rubrics expert, defines a rubric as "a scoring tool that lists the criteria for a piece of work or 'what counts.'" So a rubric for a multimedia project will list the things the student must have included to receive a certain score or rating. Rubrics help the student figure out how their project will be evaluated. Goodrich quotes a student who said he didn't much care for rubrics because "if you get something wrong, your teacher can prove you knew what you were supposed to do."

Generally rubrics specify the level of performance expected for several levels of quality. These levels of quality may be written as different ratings (e.g., Excellent, Good, Needs Improvement) or as numerical scores (e.g., 4, 3, 2, 1) which are then added up to form a total score which then is associated with a grade (e.g., A, B, C, etc).

Many rubrics also specify the level of assistance (e.g., Independently, With Minimal Adult Help; With Extensive Adult Help) for each quality rating.

Rubrics can help students and teachers define "quality". Rubrics can also help students judge and revise their own work before handing in their assignments.

from http://rubistar.4teachers.org

[unixronin.livejournal.com]

Right. Now that's consistent with, and within the scope of, the dictionary definitions.

The usage from Goose's schoolteacher, to put it politely, isn't.

[bfudlmint.livejournal.com]

You are failing to understand how this Holistic method changes school work. It is a complete paradigm shift from the approaches that were used when you and I were in school. where did I put that dilbert management phrase generator?

[unixronin.livejournal.com]

Oh, I understand that all too well....