Purpose: Develop and demonstrate competence in creating and applying rubrics.

Products: 1) A one-page (small-type) scoring guide; 2) A one-page (single-spaced, normal type-size) reflection about the experience of creating and applying a rubric-based scoring guide.

NOTE: When you turn in your scoring guide and reflection, include as well the setup for the language learning activity and [if this part is assigned as well] the learner work sample (photocopy or audio recording).

Procedure:
1) Find or create a small-scale language activity that asks the learner to carry out a specific task that will yield a specific sample. Avoid activities that lack function and context and focus solely on accuracy, such as workbook sentences with blanks to fill in with verb forms and such. The activity will probably be easier to handle if it solicits a writing sample, rather than speaking, reading or listening. Use of an activity that challenges the teacher and scorer, whether you create or just find it, will be acknowledged by the part of the assignment scoring guide that looks for superior thinking and high-quality scoring guides for difficult language-assessing situations. Using an activity that is already created may or may not save you work; you get no extra credit for creating the activity. When in doubt about the complexity and length of the activity, think simple and short - but not so short that the activity yields such a small language sample or range of possible qualities that your scoring guide is useless.

2) Write your scoring guide; use the template that is commonly used in the course. Your scoring guide should have a "global" column and at least 2 factors (unless, in your reflection, you can support the use of just one). Other than that, the number of factors affects your grade only in the sense that you get more credit for using the appropriate number of factors, and less credit for having too few or too many. You MUST provide descriptors for the 6, 4, and 2 levels of ALL your factors. Whether you use the "default" descriptors of "almost X" for levels 5, 3, and 1 will depend on what your particular scoring guide needs. If for a particular factor one or more levels does not apply, indicate that - but this is not a likely eventuality. Write a short specification for the "rule of thumb for 4 - satisfactory" line near the top of the scoring guide; it may be enough simply to quote the level-4 descriptor under your "global" column.

NOTE: The following part of the assignment is not included in the 2008 Winter Quarter and 2010 Winter Quarter versions of the assignment:

3) Conduct the language activity and evaluate it with your scoring guide. Obviously this will be easiest if the tasking is for writing, but you are free to focus on other skills. Members of the class with various language backgrounds are acceptable "students" and should be ready to help provide, for example, writing samples. A capable language teaching should also be able to "forge" a language sample that mimics the performance of learners of various levels of competence.

4) Write your reflection about the development of your scoring guide. Your reflection might take several forms; here are some examples:

a) A "journal"-type self-critique. It is unlikely that your first draft was your final version, so describe how your scoring guide evolved. If you found deficiencies in your scoring guide as your tried to apply it to the learning activity, acknowledge that. An insightful self-critique can offset an initially flawed scoring guide; an easily-conceived scoring guide applied to a super-simple activity will not necessarily receive a high grade.

b) A "networking" memo: You may or may not like scoring guides, and other people you work with may have various feelings about the several kinds of assessment, and may not view language-learning the way you do. You could write your reflection as a brief report to such a colleague, for example as an argument for switching to rubric-based scoring guide from some other method of scoring and grading.

Deadline: Two weeks after the assignment is officially activated.

Evaluation: The following link is to the scoring guide for this assignment. If you read the scoring guide before you complete your assignment, you will know exactly what to do to get the score and grade you want.

About the language you write (other than that of the language-learning activity): English is preferred; if that is your native language, use it unless the language-learning activity is for advanced learners. If English is not your native language, you may use any of the following without further consideration: Spanish, French, or German.

EMAIL this assignment. Do NOT write or print it out and hand it in. Use the address that you want your instructor to use to contact you during this course. If you do not have your own internet provider and email service, you should get PSU internet and email access (“Odin”) right away (<www.account.pdx.edu>), or arrange some other email and internet service.

Problems? If you do not understand the terms of this assignment, or for some other reason encounter some obstacle in carrying it out, contact the course instructors. Such contact, at least until the process is abused, will count as "on-time" completion of the activity.