All About Rubrics Book

2. Funny name, simple idea

Have you ever wondered where the word, rubric, originated? It's actually a medieval term referring to the practice of using red ink to emphasize text (capital letters, section headings and names) in manuscripts. When the printing press came along and it was deemed too expensive to print in coloured ink the practice stopped. The term was then recycled to mean, "A set of instructions" or a "Statement of purpose or function" (Oxford English Dictionary).

But in modern education circles,  the term rubric has it's own meaning. It is generally understood to be an assessment tool - something that comes after the task or performance. The thing is, I kind of like the original idea better - that a rubric is something that highlights or emphasizes what's important - a guide, a statement of purpose - something that comes before the task or performance.

This will be the theme or big idea of this micro-course: How and when you use the rubric is just as important as how you build it.