Posts made by Susan Saint

Thank you for your feedback!

Last time I taught this course, I asked students whether they felt the rubric was helpful for them. The unanimous answer was yes. Students felt that it helped them understand not only how they were being assessed, but also what skills were included in improving speaking.

The rubric is meant to be an overarching rubric for all speaking tasks. In addition to the rubric, each speaking task has its own individual rubric, with more detailed criteria that assess the skills students need to demonstrate for that task. Let me know if you would like to see an example. I am happy to post one. Specific descriptors such as "no unnatural fillers" are explained and practiced in class lessons.


Thank you for that feedback and suggestion.

I agree that the course outlines and outcomes should inform the rubrics, but I have two problems:

1) The language in the course outlines is at times vague, so it is difficult to extract clear outcomes. This is being looked at by our department's curriculum committee.

2) Outcomes for each level of our speaking/listening courses are similar, in that the skills taught are often the same, except that the content/material becomes progressively more difficult. For example, students at each level are expected to be able to discuss a topic with a main idea and support. The different between the levels is that the topic becomes progressively more abstract with lower frequency vocabulary. When creating a rubric, how do you write descriptors for the skills, when it is often just the level of difficulty that changes? 

Thank you!

I created this rubric for an intermediate speaking class I will be teaching again in November. The rubric lines up with the course presentation for this course. 

I was wondering if the wording of the skills shows progression from one level to the next. Is the language, in particular the verb form and tenses, consistent enough? 

I am also looking for information on how to develop distinct rubrics for each of the 4 speaking classes in our program, based on the course outlines. How do I create a progression in each of the 4 rubrics?   

I look forward to your feedback and advice.