The activities come from conference sessions and workshops we have led with educators to introduce them to the toolkit. Each activity will take 1-2 hours to complete, and can be done with a small group of 3-5 educators in your program or department, or may be facilitated with a larger group of colleagues.
It may be helpful to have a particular project or unit into which you can incorporate the Beyond Rubrics tools. For instance, maybe you’re a 9th grade physics teacher and do a successful balloon launch project each year. This year, consider exploring this learning pathway with colleagues and use it as an opportunity to enhance your documentation and assessment practices. This guide can be completed in any order, but we can recommend two paths:
This path will get you up and running with the Beyond Rubrics toolkit. You’ll have the opportunity to try out tools from each of the sections of the tool kit with colleagues in preparation for implementing the tools with students. The activities could be done once per week for a month to allow for time to reflect and implement with students, or you can spend a half day working through all four for a deep dive into the tools. For the Physics teacher implementing the balloon launch project, this might mean you already have clear maker mindsets and you want to document and assess, but want to collect better evidence of these mindsets and skills along the way. To complete this guide using the Implementing the Beyond Rubrics Toolkit pathway, complete the sections in this order:
This path is for educators who are interested in taking a deeper dive into designing documentation and assessment systems in their makerspace or classroom. The additional “Design Your Own” activities give you the opportunity to put the Beyond Rubrics Design Principles into practice. You’ll spend time defining your own constructs and participate in a rapid design session to support remixing or redesigning evidence collection tools. The activities should be completed over the course of several weeks (or a full semester) so that you have the opportunity to engage in design and implementation between sessions. For the Physics teacher implementing the balloon launch project, you may already have clear assessment practices for the content goals but you are interested in expanding your learning goals to include mindsets and skills such as collaboration or troubleshooting. To complete this guide using the Implementing the Beyond Rubrics Toolkit pathway, complete the sections in this order:
Now, lets get started with the Beyond Rubrics Design Principles!