Each year as teacher observations come around, everyone starts to panic! One of the panics include:
"How in the WORLD am I going to get my student created rubric done for the lesson they are going to see!"
Yep! Every. Single. Time!! After my first year of getting "dinged" I realized that it can't just be for this observation, this moment. What are we really doing in our classrooms that things like this are only good enough for observation moments? Do we not realize YET that kids aren't going to play into that kind of thing and that administrators (or, at least, let's hope) get that the kids have no idea what they are using that rubric for! The fact is, every classroom should be creating rubrics with students and for students! But, we struggle with allowing them to create, to impact their learning and, in all of this, make our rubric rock for our observations! I think I have found the PERFECT Teacher Observation Rubric Hack!
How to Hack your Teacher Observation Rubric
First, determine what your end results for your observation needs to be. This is what they students will be learning in the lesson that you are going to be teaching. You want this to be fresh and new-nothing they have totally mastered. If they have some ideas, that's ok. My admin looked at my finished rubric and specifically asked if the students gave those outcomes. I was able to say no! That was a good thing. My admin said that if they were able to give the outcomes in 4 levels, there was zero reason to do the lesson! So, keep that little tidbit in mind as you are planning your observation!
Next, create an anchor chart with the titles. I simply headed it STEM and added a column for "Behaviors" and one for "Scientific Knowledge." Your second column will be your curriculum focus. You can even change your behaviors column to something like, "Grammar Elements" or "Center Work"-anything you need for your lesson! Get creative!
Now comes the magic! Gather your students to your carpet or meeting spot! Explain that your administration will be coming into your classroom to record the story of your class. I take this route because our administration talks to the students and writes things down. This totally scared my kids the first time they did this because they have little to no contact with administration. By explaining that they are writing a narrative piece, they are ok when they see their names being written down on the paper or computer they are using. I tell them to be open to the story and to add whatever they can to make our classroom story be the best! Next, I introduced the chart. My students knew that we would be observed and what we would be doing. I shared this again with them and then asked them to think of other times we have worked through an activity like this! We worked first on the behavior side. I had them turn and talk about what behaviors they felt were key to this activity. Then, here's the magic, I had them record information for behaviors with the idea that 4 was the best work and 1 was the lowest performing behaviors. They could write to whatever they felt they know the most about! All it take is one student's ideas to make this work, so don't stress that they are all perfect statements!
Now, do this again with "general" knowledge of your topic. Remember, you are not looking for them to nail it! You want them to be general so you can adapt it, etc. to your needs! You get to nail it!
Whats Next?
Now, pull that chart off just as it is, take it home or someplace quiet, and get to work! Here's what you do! 1. Set up a table in PowerPoint or some other document that will allow you to create the rubric. You could also create it on another sheet of paper for display.
2. Look for great quotes from students that you can adapt to the positive just enough to make your rubric work!
3. Look for levels of learning expectations (See the level 1 in that pic!)
4. Create the teacher observation rubric from the students' statements and ADD THEIR NAME where their statement connects on the rubric! Yep, nothing causes ownership like their names on a rubric!
5. You add the content specifics and add names only where needed. Notice on mine, it is only at Level 1 because they actually targeted their struggles in this statement. That came out during my observation!
Easy-peasy! And, you have a beautifully designed teacher observation rubric with student-led learning wrapped inside! This took me considerably less time than the rubric I made the year before. That one took me DAYS of class time, because we had to do it in small doses! This one was quick and easy! Students loved their names on it and many were impressed that they even had the thoughts they did! The only thing we did in addition to these steps was to share the actual content of the rubric the day before the observation. Students also had a copy in their STEM folders and I was able to refer to it and remind them of their scoring criteria throughout the observation! All in 1/2 the time of the previous rubric development in my classroom!
How about you? Have you developed an easy way to create a student-led observation rubric? If so, I'd love to hear all about it! Drop a comment and let us know!
The product I used for my observation is available in my TpT Store!
Want to read more about my ideas on the Teacher Observation System? Check out this post!
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