Design Your Own Homework Rubric

When Mr. Blockington started stabbing random teachers at the in-service, I headed to my classroom and locked the door. The pro-homework faction had begun an assault on the anti-homework faction at my school. Both sides had attempted to win me over during the preceeding month, but I was non-committal. I declared myself a homework agnostic. I assigned it, but only if it had a purpose. To establish my purpose I contructed homework rubrics. I used different homework rubrics depending on the nature of the assignment, whether it were a summative assignment or meant for practice.

Homework fulfills different purposes depending on the assignment, the teacher, and the course. Grading rubrics will help assess assignments according to its nature, be it summative or practice. Here are potential criteria for homework rubrics:

• Homework is dated.
• Homework has the proper heading.
• Homework is neat and free of blemishes.
• Homework is turned in on time.
• Homework shows all necessary work, steps, and procedures.
• Homework is written clearly and is free of errors.
• Homework is accurate and detailed.
• Homework has correct solutions.
• Homework identifies all aspects of a problem.
• Homework is typed or printed neatly.
• Homework shows in depth understanding of the material.
• Homework answers give a complete response.
• Homework shows (a lack of) understanding.
• Homework does (not) show the correct solution.
• Homework does (not) show designated steps.

I discovered early that students don't always read the assignments for homework. I also discovered that some students who read didn't really know what to look for, so I came up with a homework-reading rubric to help:

• Student can identify important details from the reading.
• Student can retell the story's main events.
• Student can retell the story in chronological order.
• Student can define important terms from the story using context clues, prior knowledge, or from a dictionary.
• Student can complete a story map.