Education and Early Childhood Learning

Co-creating Collaboration Rubrics

How can learners create their own rubric that the teacher can use for assessment?

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In this interdisciplinary classroom, teachers needed to prepare learners to co-create their own rubric, which would be used to assess their abilities to collaborate in groups.

First, this teaching team identified three learning outcomes that targeted aspects of collaboration that met the highest needs of the learners. (Initially, these learning outcomes were pulled from English language arts curriculum documents. Similar learning outcomes were also found in social studies and science curriculum documents.)

Next, the teachers needed to solve the “structure” of the rubric itself: how it would be set up. This needed to be established first, since the responsibility ultimately resides with the teachers, as they are responsible for recording and reporting on learner progress. As this was the first project of the year for all learners, the structure of the rubric itself would establish a baseline going forward and would serve as an ongoing teaching tool.

The teaching team in this story adopted a 5-scale rubric (fitting the norms of ELA-based assessments), wherein a level 5 collaborator was “insightful,” “thorough,” or “perceptive” in the handling of the learning outcome itself, and a level 1 collaborator was at a stage of early or beginning demonstration of the learning outcome, and adverbs such as “rarely” or “very seldom” were used. The rest of the scale was scaffolded to meet those two ends.

When the learners began the work in classrooms, they were split into their project groupings and given the curriculum documents. Learners worked together to read and understand the three specific learning outcomes in play. Then learners were shown the skeleton of the rubric without descriptors.

Each teacher explained the purpose of this rubric, which had no numbers. Teachers determined that because the purpose of this rubric was to teach collaboration both in theory and practice through this co-creative session, numbers (points or marks) would be unnecessary. The descriptors, in this case, were the most important focus for the learners.

Learners then chose a level at which to work. Now, to understand the adverbial descriptors over each of the categories, and the learning outcomes themselves, learners worked in groups to co-create at least three descriptors for each learning outcome at their chosen level.

Teachers divided a whiteboard into a grid representing the rubric, and, once the learners had completed their first drafts, they went up to the board and added their descriptors to the others. (In later iterations, this activity moved into a paperless form through the OneNote Collaboration Space.)

Finally, the teachers reviewed each of the descriptors, engaging learners in further inquiry and whole-group discussions to polish and, most importantly, agree, on the wording of the descriptors. Some descriptors were refined for language (“Asks lots of questions” was refined to “Asks questions of each member to clarify their opinions and thoughts”), while others that were duplicated at multiple levels received collaborative feedback to meet the adverbs of that particular level (“Doesn’t help out” became both “Can help to solve problems, but rarely does” at Level 2, and “Often unwilling/unable to solve problems with group members” at Level 1.)

Once the work was polished to present to the other classrooms, the teaching team compared the work learners had done to establish patterns and commonalities across the three classrooms: the work was nearly identical. The rubric was published for learners as follows:

Collaboration in Groups

	5 “Continually” “Always”	4 “Consistently” “Mostly”	3 “Sometimes” “Somewhat”	2 “Occasionally” “Seldom”	1 “Rarely” “Very seldom”
Cooperates with Others (ELA 5.1.1) Active Listening Clarifies with Questions Uses Tactful Language	Asks questions of team members to clarify their opinions and thoughts.  Always listens attentively and encourages different viewpoints within the group.  Uses tactful language to disagree and solve problems.	Often asks questions to make opinions clearer. Listens attentively majority of the time. Uses polite language most of the time.	Will sometimes ask questions in order to clarify own understanding. Listens and is polite in conversation but is not always attentive. Uses polite language often when disagreeing.	Occasionally listens to group members. Will occasionally ask questions to help own understanding. Is polite when speaking to other group members but doesn’t say much in discussions.	Rarely listens attentively to others’ opinions when in group discussion. Is often silent and doesn’t contribute to discussions. Rarely sensitive towards others; inappropriate language (cursing, slurs, etc.) is often used to convey opinions.
Works in Groups (ELA 5.1.2) Focus Preparedness Flexibility Supportiveness	Stays focused on the task. Is self-directed. Is prepared for tasks-at-hand. Supports others’ participation. Adjusts roles and responsibilities according to task requirements.	Mostly self-directed and focused on the task. Usually prepared for class. Often supports others. Is able to adjust to the needs of the task with little direction by teacher.	Stays on task with some reminders. Is sometimes unprepared for the task. Is self-directed some of the time. Needs some guidance to adjust responsibilities.	Works alone but shares info when asked to. Not supportive of group ideas. Often needs redirection and reminders to stay focused. Often distracted.	Rarely focused. Distracting to other groups. Not interacting with group. Not caught up with group. Inflexible. Consistently unprepared.
Evaluates Group Process (ELA 5.1.4) Problem Solving Time Management Sees the Big Picture	Able to solve problems with the group. Able to manage time effectively and efficiently. Able to evaluate the team process and make suggestions for improvement.	Is involved with problem solving most of the time. Rarely gets sidetracked; rarely needs reminders from teacher. Takes part in evaluating team process; helps to suggest improvements.	Will help to solve problems when reminded to. Gets sidetracked, but can refocus when reminded. Is only somewhat involved in suggesting improvements or evaluating processes.	Can help to solve problems but seldom does. Often focused independently; rarely cooperates with teammates. Sometimes argues as opposed to compromises.	Often unable/ unwilling to solve problems with group members. Consistently needs reminders in order to stay on task. Unwilling to comprehend goals in order to see the larger picture.

This rubric is based on ELA outcomes from previous years’ work. In future, these rubrics will be developed using the dimension language of the competencies.

Beginning the project by co-creating this rubric allowed learners to acquire collaboration-based vocabulary and expectations. By knowing and understanding the ideals in collaborative relationships, learners could then change their actions and strive to meet those expectations.

At end of the project, learners supported the assessment process by submitting their own rubric, for themselves (which teachers considered in their final assessment), as well as for their partners (which were used to aid the learners’ own reflections on the collaboration process).

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Dimensions of Global Competencies in Action

Collaboration

• Learners practise active listening and asking questions of themselves and others.
• Learners understand that building on others’ ideas deepens thinking.
• Learners work with others to co-construct knowledge, meaning, plans, and goals.
• Learners co-construct meaning with others.
• Learners contribute equitably to the collective purpose or common goal.