Learning & Teaching News
Developmental Rubrics - Lockdown Edition
Over the past two years, myself and a few others members of staff undertook and completed study in a Master of Education, Evidence-Based Practice. Like doctors, the teaching profession is more and more looking to data and evidence to enhance what we do in the classroom and accelerate the growth in learning of our students.
One of the ways to achieve this is through the use of developmental rubrics and formative feedback. A developmental rubric is one that takes the aims of a curriculum and breaks down these aims into recognisable steps of increasing difficulty. Thus, teachers can quickly pinpoint what step a student is up to, offer them support and help them master those skills and move on to the next stage. This ensures each student is working at an appropriate level of difficulty and the teacher is providing feedback specific to each student’s learning needs. Another benefit is that these rubrics will be available for parents/guardians to see on our learning system SPACE and you’ll know exactly what skills your son/daughter are working on at an individual level and what is the next step in their learning journey.
The school is soon to embark on this journey of creating and implementing these developmental rubrics throughout our learning and teaching program. To give you a glimpse into what’s to come, and not to ignore this current moment in time, let’s look at a developmental rubric in surviving yet another COVID lockdown.
| Outstanding | Isolate until receiving the test result. | Walks around the block for maximum permitted exercise time | Bakes sourdough bread from scratch | Wears face mask covering from nose to chin | Avoids panic buying |
| High | Gets tested if attended an exposure site | Play in the backyard | Bakes sourdough bread using pre-mix | Wears face mask covering mouth | Panic buys flour |
| Medium | QR code checks in at exposure sites | Walk around the house | Wears face mask on chin | Panic buys pasta | |
| Low | Identifies COVID exposure site | Get out of bed | Buys sourdough bread and toasts it | Wears face mask hanging off ear | Panic buys toilet paper |
| Insufficient evidence | Insufficient evidence | Insufficient evidence | Insufficient evidence | Insufficient evidence | |
| Levels | COVID Exposure Sites | Permitted Exercise | Bread Making | Face Mask Wearing | Panic Buying |
The above is a set of developmental rubrics (each column is a rubric) and all together is called a Criterion Referenced Framework (CRF). To use this CRF, read the rubrics from bottom to top in ascending level of difficulty of behaviours. In bold text at the bottom is the overall skill, followed by insufficient evidence if you haven’t shown even the first skill and then so on. Highlight the box in each rubric that you do at least 50% of the time and that’s your skill to work on. Here’s where you can receive feedback and an evidence-based intervention to help you proceed to the next level. Given this is our 4th lockdown, chances are you’re at the top level for many of these skills. Perhaps that is a small silver lining for another challenging time.
We look forward to involving you as parents in our journey into developmental rubrics. In the meantime, stay safe.
Bradley Scammell Mr David Hansen
Middle Years Curriculum Leader Deputy Principal – Learning & Teaching
Clyde North Campus