Running head: USE OF RUBRICS TO MAKE ASSESSMENT A TRANSPARENT PROCESS How can the use of Rubrics contribute to make assessment a transparent process in a ninth grade course at Institución Educativa Concejo de Medellín? Alejandra Martínez Marín Universidad de Antioquia Thesis, Research and Practicum Advisor: Marlon Venegas Medellin USE OF RUBRICS TO MAKE ASSESSMENT A TRANSPARENT PROCESS Abstract This action research study reports how the use of rubrics can contribute with a transparent assessment process in a 9th grade course at a public institution in Medellin, Colombia. The actions developed during the process were: choosing a general topic to work with, dividing the topic in three stages, designing three different types of rubrics, and applying them one by one at the end of each stage. Data collection techniques combine one survey to the students at the beginning, the teacher’s journal, and one interview to the students at the end of the whole process. Findings revealed that using rubrics as a teaching tool to assess students, allowed them to obtained better results in their language acquisition processes, due to the students’ knowledge of clear criteria that allow them to achieve the proposed objectives. Keywords: Rubrics, summative assessment, formative assessment. USE OF RUBRICS TO MAKE ASSESSMENT A TRANSPARENT PROCESS Degree Requirement This action research project is submitted as a requirement of the Bachelor of Education in Foreign Languages Teaching (English and French) at the Escuela de Idiomas, Universidad de Antioquia, in Medellin, Colombia. USE OF RUBRICS TO MAKE ASSESSMENT A TRANSPARENT PROCESS Acknowledgements I would like to thank my practicum, research and thesis advisors Marlon Vanegas Rojas, and Sandra Echeverri Delgado, both were unconditional guides during my practicum process, and they were incredibly committed to the development of my project. I really appreciate how they taught me that my professional evolution will be always linked to my personal training, responsibility, and passion. Finally, I would like to thank my family and friends; they were an amazing support throughout the different stages of my practicum. My special acknowledgement goes to my mother, who gave me the strength and courage to keep going and finish this process. USE OF RUBRICS TO MAKE ASSESSMENT A TRANSPARENT PROCESS Table of Contents Preface ....................................................................................................... 6 Context.............................................................................................. . 7 Statement of the problem .............................. ... 10 Theoretical framework ....................................................... 11 Research question ................................... . 17 General and specific objectives ........................... 17 Action plan ........................................................ . 17 Development of actions ................................. 19 Findings and interpretation ........................................ 21 Conclusions and suggestions 24 References 27 USE OF RUBRICS TO MAKE ASSESSMENT A TRANSPARENT PROCESS Preface I am a student teacher finishing my practicum stage of the Foreign Languages Teaching Program at Universidad de Antioquia. All over this document I focused on the use of rubrics as teaching tools that contribute to the transparent assessment processes carried out with 9th grade students at Institucion Educativa Concejo de Medellin, a high school located in Floresta neighborhood in Medellín, Colombia. It was relevant to mention that this was an enriching experience because I managed to identify many aspects of my teaching practice that were modified due to the results obtained during the research process carried out to develop this project. It was remarkable how the use of rubrics allowed students to obtain transparent assessment processes with the help of coherent criteria and objectives. The students’ learning acquisition processes were benefited too thanks to the objective planning of the classes and all the activities done with clear purposes established at the beginning of each meeting. Taking into account that the educational context in public institutions requires a very high degree of commitment, I faced the need to develop new teaching strategies that allowed me to achieve the proposed goals and thus contribute something positive to the life of the students who accompanied me during this process. USE OF RUBRICS TO MAKE ASSESSMENT A TRANSPARENT PROCESS Description of the context The School Institución Educativa Concejo de Medellín is a public school located in Calasanz neighborhood. Student population come in three different journeys, that is, mornings for primary levels, afternoons for secondary levels, and evenings for students with special learning needs and whoa are part of the inclusive program develops by the institution. This school follows a critical pedagogical model based on a holistic vision of the education shaped by the following guiding principles which serve as pillars of its philosophy: Human dignity refers to natural in inherent value attached to people as human beings. Inclusion refers to the respect given to the personal dimension of students. Knowledge refers basically to the human and cultural process that facilitate learning at all times. In regard to the physical aspect of the school and its facilities, classrooms are equipped with large windows providing students with an illuminating atmosphere to facilitate learning in general. There is an access ramp for students with reduced physical abilities. There are also available some rooms such as a computer rooms, a teacher meeting room, a resource center, a chemistry laboratory, a library, a music room, and a Chapel used at least once a week for religious purposes. The school schedules a lot of special events that are part of students´ educational processes such as the English week, the talent show week, where they show all their abilities and skills in front of all the students, and the USE OF RUBRICS TO MAKE ASSESSMENT A TRANSPARENT PROCESS choreographies day at the end of the year, in which all the student population participate in a competition. The Classroom and the Students The class I was assigned was a group of thirty-one teenagers whose ages ranged from 14 and 15 years old. The class was scheduled on Mondays from 9:15 am to 10:20 am, and on Fridays from 6:30 am to 8:20 am. Despite some students expressed their discomfort with the English class, the majority of the group participated actively showing respect and a positive attitude towards the classroom. In regard to the environmental print of the classroom, it is worthy to mention that it was decorated with attractive information that promoted English language learning such as posters, bulletin boards and banners. Information related to special dates, birthdates and school activities. The classroom was equipped with as tv set, a teacher´s desk and lockers for students to use. There were also some key elements like a big white board, a TV, also teacher and students’ desks and lockers. A characteristic that immediately called the attention is the classroom infrastructure, because there is a part of the classroom that is bigger than the other one, for that reason some of the students did not have visual contact with the rest of the classmates, and that could represent a weak point for the students’ interaction during the classes. Course Syllabus and class methodology The school developed an institutional document with basic foundations used as a guide for the academic school project. The document provided some guidelines for the specific subjects in the school curriculum. As for the English program, there was a manual for all the grades. Objectives included promotion for reading, use of simple present and USE OF RUBRICS TO MAKE ASSESSMENT A TRANSPARENT PROCESS simple past with the acquisition of specific vocabulary. Concepts and class activities were expressed in terms of knowledge construction and the roles students and teachers play. Materials and resources were also included to facilitate learning such as dictionaries, reading books and class workshops. In regard to the class methodology, it was mainly characterized by grammar- based instruction where students were given rules and instructions on how language structure works. The Cooperating Teacher (CT) She was graduated from Universidad de Antioquia where she got her degree as a "Licenciada en Inglés y Español". Additionally, she studied at UPB University where she got another title as a “Specialist in English teaching”. By that time, she had 15 years of experience as an English teacher, but only two months teaching in all ninth grades at Concejo de Medellin High school. Regarding her teaching practices and beliefs, she thought that teaching English in public schools was a challenge she faced every day as she found that most of the students did not care about learning English. However, she found difficult to make her students got interested in learning English, she made her students enjoy her classes by allowing them to be themselves, that is, that they could express what they think and how they felt. I was able also to observe that she planned her lessons mostly focused developing their skills. Besides that, she was mostly interested in developing her students´ oral production. She always tried to encourage them to speak in class, motivating them to communicate in English as much as possible. USE OF RUBRICS TO MAKE ASSESSMENT A TRANSPARENT PROCESS Statement of the problem One of the main concerns that emerged once I started with my observations was the absence of a clear assessment, that is, evaluative events were given in an arbitrary way. Students were not given clear instructions on how they were evaluated. Besides that, students did not know where the teacher got their grades from. My interest for this topic aroused due to the need to carry out an impartial and meritorious evaluation, recognizing that the evaluative tasks should be connected to the topics practiced in class. I noticed that there was not criteria stated when assessing students. For that reason, the assessment of activities carried out in class also depended on the teacher’s personal criteria and expectations. “The teacher assigns some notes to the students' work without having a clear evaluation criterion” (Journal 5, April 6th, 2018) turning the evaluation process into a non- significant mechanism for the students, therefore they did not have a transparent assessment process. In order to understand why this situation was occurring, it was relevant to explore how English courses were planned at school. Besides, it was crucial to analyze how the project based methodology stated in the Educative Institutional Project was actually applied in the classes and to validate how this methodology reflects the assessment procedures and principles. The major flaw related to the courses planning in the institution was related to the lack of a previously proposed curriculum, so the institution didn’t have a syllabus intended for each level and subject. This represents a problem because at the beginning of each term all teachers had a meeting in which they decided the plans and the topics to cover all along the coming classes. After a few conversations with some of them, they commented that they haed classes that were even planned the day before the lesson. “cada maestro tiene la USE OF RUBRICS TO MAKE ASSESSMENT A TRANSPARENT PROCESS libertad de planear sus cursos, hay quienes lo hacen mensualmente, semanal e incluso el día previo a la clase” (Jorge Alejandro Ortiz, Chemistry teacher, informal conversation, April 6th, 2018) In addition, the assessment of the activities carried out in class also depend on the teacher’s criteria and expectations. In other words, in meant that improvisation was a main characteristic of the school culture in this institution. Considering that Project based was a methodology suggested in the academic school project and bearing in mind that there was a strong need to implement a clear assessment process that reflected real students’ academic performance. The implementation of alternative evaluation strategies may promote an enriching assessment processes by using rubrics as the main source of information to make decisions. Rubrics can become the ideal assessment mechanism to help both students and teachers to have clear objectives and goals to accomplish in an organized way. As Malini Reddy (2007) states “Rubrics are assessment tools, which facilitate the process of evaluation and reporting of student achievement by educators.” The use of rubrics could represent a way to fill the gap that existed in the institutional assessment processes. So, considering all stated above, I decided to come up with the following question: How can the use of Rubrics contribute to make assessment a transparent process in a ninth grade course at Institución Educativa Concejo de Medellín? Theoretical framework After the analysis and triangulation process of the data collected, some fundamental categories emerged to clarify the concepts and content of this document: Assessment USE OF RUBRICS TO MAKE ASSESSMENT A TRANSPARENT PROCESS Assessment is an academic process used to conduct and follow the students’ learning processes. According to Bachman, Lynch and McNamara (As cited in Shohamy and Ofra, 2006), “Assessment refers to the processes through which judgments about a learner’s skills and knowledge are made” (p.1). This means that students are constantly being assessed, and their interventions and behaviors in the classroom will always guide the different teachers’ perceptions about them. That is why Brown and Abeywickrama (2004) mention that “Whenever a student responds to a question, offers a comment, or tries out a new word or structure, the teacher subconsciously makes an assessment of the student’s performance” (p. 4). The judgments that the teacher adopts about students in the classroom may vary depending on diverse situations. For this reason, it is crucial to have clear and defined criteria when evaluating students leaving out the subjective perceptions; in that way, those particular opinions do not have the influence enough to interfere with the students’ academic performance and results. On the other hand, Shepard (as cited in Shohamy and Ofra, 2006), divides assessment purposes into three major categories: administrative, instructional, and research. (p.1). the administrative category is the one in charge of general assessment, placement, certification and promotion. The instructional category is related with the diagnosis processes and evidence of progress. And the third category, research, consists of research experimentation, knowledge about language learning and knowledge about language use. This research study will be approached from the instructional perspective, considering that the teacher will be in charge of providing the necessary means that promote the transparent assessment of the students’ progress. Popham (2003) supports this view “It’s almost always up to teachers to devise the instructional activities (the means) they believe will achieve USE OF RUBRICS TO MAKE ASSESSMENT A TRANSPARENT PROCESS those particular ends” (p.17). Owing to the fact that there are different categories, the suggestion is to bear in mind the assessment purpose as clear as possible, in order to have an effective process. But, what are the principles that rule the assessment process? According to Brown, and Abeywickrama, (2004) there are five main principles that are “Practicality, reliability, validity, authenticity, and washback.” (p.19). It is important to highlight that these principles need to be considered when designing and using any kind of assessing tools like rubrics, quizzes, tests, final exams, and standardized proficiency tests. Consequently, it is necessary to define the five principles in order to understand the different assessment processes and purposes. Practicality means that the tool is easy to construct, administrate, score and interpret. This indicates the ability to take advantage of the money, time and effort that should be invested in each test or activity applied to students. Validity is responsible to point out if the measured topics are the appropriate ones for each group; this implies to analyze, for example, if the topics that were covered, were the ones addressed during the practice activities developed all along the previous classes. Additionally, reliability refers to how representative is that measurement. Nevertheless, Lambert and Lines state that “there are two elements that may cause an error in this process, one is the candidate and the other is the assessor or maker” (p.11). This indicates that these elements may affect reliability. Thus, it is necessary to pay attention to the specific context in which the test is carried out. Dealing with authenticity Brown, and Abeywickrama, (2004) defend that “Essentially, when you make a claim for authenticity in a test task, you are saying that this task is likely to be enacted in the “real world.” (p.28) this means that, the tools should be designed for the students taking into account a familiar background for them. Then, wash back refers to the expected effects after applying the USE OF RUBRICS TO MAKE ASSESSMENT A TRANSPARENT PROCESS assessment tool. These effects can be positive or negative but they help students and teacher to validate if the applied tool was useful to accomplish the purposes or not. Summative and formative assessment Taking into consideration all the principles and characteristics mentioned above, it is also important to explain the main functions of assessment known as: formative assessment (FA) and summative assessment (SA). Brown, and Abeywickrama, (2004) state that “Summative assessment aims to measure, or summarize, what a student has grasped, and typically occurs at the end of a course or unit of instruction.” (p. 6). For that reason, SA is used to measure the different activities proposed in the classroom with the specific purpose to give students a quantitative grade. On the other hand formative assessment is usually represented by the quality of the feedback that is given to the students after each evaluative activity and how these results are taken into account when modifying future classes. However, it does not mean that in this action research the students’ feedback will be necessary taken into consideration when designing future lessons and activities because those are special features of FA. For example, one of the principles in FA is to use the feedback as a tool to shape the practices inside the classroom, but the summative assessment promote a significant feedback too for students to become aware of their progress “A summation of what a student has learned implies looking back and taking stock of how well that student has accomplished objectives, but does not necessarily point the way to future progress.” (Brown, H., & Abeywickrama, P. p. 6). Rubrics Why are rubrics essential in summative assessment? USE OF RUBRICS TO MAKE ASSESSMENT A TRANSPARENT PROCESS There are different mechanisms to use in summative assessment; one of the most useful ones is the design and implementation of rubrics because that allows both teacher and students to have clear purposes and a transparent assessment. As mentioned in the Centre for Teaching and Learning Assessment Journal: Using Rubrics in Student Assessment “A rubric is a guide to assist the marker to make consistent and reliable judgments about the quality of student work.” (p.2) Thus, rubrics are excellent options to have transparency to assessment while marking clear criteria and standards for the entire class participants. For example, in the action research carried out by Andrade (2005) students mention that “They liked the fact that rubrics let them know “what’s expected,” (p.3) while students’ face validity (FV) increases, this means that students recognize the relevance and importance of the tool. “Rubrics may vary in complexity from simple tables to very detailed matrices that provide description of each dimension of quality and characterize each level of accomplishment.” (Using Rubrics in Student Assessment, p.2) even if the application and creation of rubrics varies, if the task has clear goals, the assessment will be successful for teachers and students. When to use rubrics? Rubrics are appropriate means that can be used at any moment to assess all the evaluative activities and tasks proposed during a class. keeping in view that problems and difficulties can appear when designing the rubric, it is crucial the existence of some frameworks that help during the creation of the general scheme and the standards that must be taken into account for each individual assessment purpose, for example “Bloom’s Taxonomy is one tool that proposes a hierarchy of assessment tasks; SOLO taxonomy is another which focuses on criteria and standards. Perry (1999) presents a third option based USE OF RUBRICS TO MAKE ASSESSMENT A TRANSPARENT PROCESS on levels of moral and ethical reasoning” (Using Rubrics in Student Assessment, p.3). All of these sources can offer appropriate vocabulary according to the objectives that should be achieved in each test or task. Types of rubrics Furthermore, there are different types of rubrics that should be used for specific purposes; the most common are analytic rubrics and holistic rubrics. “All assessment types can be marked using rubrics. However, caution should be taken when deciding the form the rubric should take.” (Using Rubrics in Student Assessment, (p.3) but, how to decide which is the most appropriate? To answer this, it is necessary to know their characteristics. Analytic rubrics are designed with achievement levels as columns and assessment criteria as rows where the criterion is assessed individually from a high grade to a low grade. While holistic rubrics are tools in which performance descriptions are written in paragraphs and usually in full sentences focus on the general standards, and the descriptions are articulated in detailed texts. In sum, the only thing that must be done to obtain an effective rubric, is to think about what are the purposes and dynamics of the activity, to know if the criteria can be assessed individually or if it is preferable to give a general assessment of the standards. Concluding this part, the main aspiration of the assessment processes is to achieve objective results, through the use of mechanisms that allow the students’ learning process improvement. At the same time, it is crucial to recognize that in order to achieve these purposes, both the summative and formative assessment can be applied through the design of rubrics that provide accuracy in the results, and administer the students and teachers trustworthy data in relation to their performance. USE OF RUBRICS TO MAKE ASSESSMENT A TRANSPARENT PROCESS Research question How can the use of rubrics contribute to make assessment a transparent process in a ninth grade course at Institución Educativa Concejo de Medellín? General objective o To use rubrics as the main support tool to achieve a fair and transparent assessment process. Specific objectives o To identify which aspects of the rubrics contribute to the transparent assessment process. o To describe how the use of rubrics in the classroom contribute to the transparent assessment process. o To analyze the functions of the Rubric that contributed to the transparent assessment process. Action plan The action plan was designed with the purpose of implementing some rubrics as evaluation techniques that could help me make wise and informed decision in regard to students learning processes. As mentioned by Gibbons (2002) “The Academic Learning Plan consists of an academic overview and lesson plans designed to improve an identified area of learning or gap that needs support, reinforcement or re-teaching.” (p.3). Having this objective clear, the contents of the classes were connected one each other to allow an USE OF RUBRICS TO MAKE ASSESSMENT A TRANSPARENT PROCESS adequate development of the language acquisition processes, while the students become aware of their own processes too. The action plan was based on an initial theme called: Protect the Earth, from which three different sub-themes were deployed: 1) what is happening to the earth? 2) What changes has had the planet during the last centuries? Problems and solutions, and 3) what can I do to change the planet? It was important to highlight that every sub-theme had a different rubric to be assessed, and every rubric had a different purpose. Each of them lasted approximately two and a half weeks, in turn, these were be divided into four stages: A) Introduction: to present students the new topic, B) Demonstration: to indicate students there are specific ways to develop different procedures, C) Practice: to rehearse the students’ abilities, and D) Assessment: to check the students’ previously developed skills. All of them combined with grammar components and new vocabulary for the students. The first subtheme called what is happening to the earth was focused on the students’ contextualization about different places, and the description and comparison of these locations. The data collection technique used in this activity was an analytic rubric designed by the teacher. This rubric assessed a written report composed by three paragraphs in which students described and compared their favorite natural places. The second subtheme what changes has had the planet during the last centuries? Addressed topics such as natural resources, habits, expressions to show disagreement or agreement, and instructions to do something. The main idea to assess this section of the action plan was that students could grade their classmates using a rubric designed by the teacher; the activity consisted of establishing some groups and act out different role plays about daily situations that students face regarding environmental issues. The last subtheme called USE OF RUBRICS TO MAKE ASSESSMENT A TRANSPARENT PROCESS what can I do to change the planet? was a mini project/final outcome that had dealt with topics like natural disasters, positive and negative predictions, and students proposals. The final activity was a group performance in which they presented their new and innovative environmental solutions in a TV show, the tool used in this last part was a rubric designed by both the teacher and the students, in order to let the students express their opinions and be included in their own assessment processes. Development of Actions During the implementation of the action plan applied in a period of 11 weeks, we were able to address almost all the topics proposed from the curricular design and the different lessons suggested on it. However, due to some extracurricular activities and holidays, the lack of classes generated the need to make some momentary modifications to the original proposed action plan. It is important to highlight the interest and good attitude adopted by all the students during the classes, the commitment by their side was fundamental to achieve progress in the assessment processes, despite the difficulties that arose due to lack of time. The empathy between the teacher and the students was a relationship based on the both needs recognition, respecting always the roles and class’ times. For instance, the first stage of the action plan was developed under the specific parameters established since the very beginning, thus achieving the objectives, the suggested topics and the agreed time. Remarking this initial moment, the students were very perceptive and receptive to the new evaluation method and the changes they would USE OF RUBRICS TO MAKE ASSESSMENT A TRANSPARENT PROCESS face in their classes and assessment processes. The first data collection method applied to the students allowed them to be approached to the new assessment methodology; as a consequence, the results in the first activity were quite satisfactory. During the second stage of the project it was necessary to make some relevant adjustments in the lesson plans because the number of classes was reduced to almost half of those that were scheduled. Despite this, the students cooperated and we managed to address the most relevant issues of the stage, allowing the assessment activity to remain the same and not be modified by these external factors. In this instance, the students experiment a peer assessment where each team had to evaluate their peers through a holistic rubric designed by the teacher. Due to this, the students expressed that they considered very difficult to put a negative annotation to their classmates, but they affirmed that if they followed the criteria the evaluation process was much simpler. The third and last stage of the project was the most reduced due to situations related to the lack of time concerning partial reports meetings with parents, teachers' meetings, holidays, academic festivals, and school break week. Regardless of the few classes that had been carried out, taking into account the previous knowledge of the students and the topics seen throughout the whole process, the last assessment activity was accomplished successfully and each group handled the situation and represents their ideals and proposals to improve some environmental issues. In addition to this, one of the pluses was that students were involved in creating the rubric for this activity, condition that gave them more confidence when carrying out their performances. The data collection techniques used for those stages were the three different rubrics applied at the end of each phase, in addition USE OF RUBRICS TO MAKE ASSESSMENT A TRANSPARENT PROCESS to that, at the beginning of the classes one survey was conducted and at the end of the course the research process was closed with a students’ interview. Findings and interpretations After the data analysis process was done and the triangulation process was carried out, that is, once the information obtained from the different sources was related, some final categories emerged representing the most relevant aspects of the research process. These categories emerged from the recurrent information collected as it is described below. The first category called Lack of objectivity was one of the most relevant when the analysis began because since the first classes students expressed their discomfort in front of the lack of clear criteria in their evaluations, some students said “Teacher we don’t know why we have the grades that the other teacher gave us during the activities”… “She doesn't like to give us a five, never!” (Journal 1, August 6th 2018) when students were questioned about why they had not expressed their concerns, some refused to give an answer while others said they felt disadvantage in front of the teachers’ perception about them. This indicates that even if students had feel bothered about their grades, they did not feel that they had the right to ask for an explanation related with this problem. Moreover, this is significant because students must actively participate and be aware of their evaluation processes in order to achieve meaningful learning. The second category that emerged was Face validity; this was undoubtedly a fundamental category where many interesting situations related to the purposes of this investigation arose. As cited by Brown (2004) an important facet of consequential validity USE OF RUBRICS TO MAKE ASSESSMENT A TRANSPARENT PROCESS is the extent to which “students view the assessment as fair, relevant, and useful for improving learning” (Gronlund 1998, p. 210) This means that the assessment methods and activities conducted during the classes must be pertinent and significant for the students. During the process carried out with the 9°4 grade students it was notorious that it was gratifying for them to use the rubrics as evaluation tools. In addition to that, they expressed that “The rubrics allowed us to reach fair grades because what you wanted to assess was clear from the beginning […] when we were preparing the activities we knew what we had to focus on.” (Interview, student 2). For example, the rubric that assessed the written work was one of the most successful because the students demonstrated that it was easier for them to write a text following parameters. The second rubric had as principal function a peer assessment activity that allowed the students to develop their sense of responsibility, while they recognized the importance of having a transparent assessment with their peers, identifying themselves as part of the assessment process. The third rubric was very interesting, because they had the opportunity to participate in its creation, the activity was funny and the students’ participation was greater than during other activities. “In the rubrics there was nothing that we would not have worked on during the last classes and that is why it is easier for us to recognize our achievements.” (Interview, student 3) This means that the teachers should take into consideration the validity of the topics in order to allow the students to have successful learning acquisition process. The next emerging category was Group work, this represented a very special change for the students, because they had limited access to different group work activities. Due to this, one of the most relevant findings during the implementation of the action plan was to notice how the participation of the students increased remarkably. “When the USE OF RUBRICS TO MAKE ASSESSMENT A TRANSPARENT PROCESS students work in groups, they participate a lot and they demonstrate more self-confidence when they express their ideas” (Journal 10, 21st September 2018) The students expressed during the classes that they felt more self-confidence when they were accompanied by their classmates or when they had already shared their ideas with the other group participants. As mentioned by Toseland and Rivas (2005) “One of the worker’s most important tasks is to help groups develop dynamics that promote the satisfaction of members’ socioemotional needs while facilitating the accomplishment of group tasks” (Toseland & Rivas, 2005. p.64) as a consequence, the most outstanding characteristic of the students was their ability to delegate a special role to all the group members when they had to present a task or an evaluative activity. The last category was Peer assessment, as mentioned by Topping “Peer assessment is an arrangement for learners to consider and specify the level, value, or quality of a product or performance of other equal-status learners.” (Topping, 2009. P.22). during the second evaluative activity the students discovered that they should assess their classmates’ performances, and they were nervous because they had never done it before. When they faced the challenge there were many contradictory opinions, some students really enjoyed following the parameters established by the rubric “I really liked the one we used when we assess the other group, because we had the group that did not consider all the things you said you would take into account and I just put the grade they deserved” (Interview, student 1). While others felt disadvantaged because they had to assess their best friends, leaving out any subjective judgment “When assessing the others I felt that pressure to assess them well, paying special attention to the minimum details to put in the rubric the correct grade”. (interview, student 4). USE OF RUBRICS TO MAKE ASSESSMENT A TRANSPARENT PROCESS As a result of the previously mentioned the subcategory called Sense of fairness appears during this part of the application. As described by Brown (1994) "Peer and self- assessment help students develop the ability to make judgements, a necessary skill for study and professional life" (Brown, Rust and Gibbs, 1994) It was very valuable to perceive how the students experienced that sense of justice that impelled them to put the correct grades and to take responsibility for a clear assessment. For example, one of the students affirmed “I had to grade my friends and it was very hard to put something negative, even if I knew they deserved a lower grade.” (Interview, student 2) but at the end, it was a crucial activity because the students recognized the value of fair evaluations and the importance to have clear evaluative criteria in mind when giving a grade. Conclusions and suggestions Bearing in mind that the objective of this project was to use rubrics as the main support tool to achieve a fair and transparent assessment process, it is essential to mention which were the most influential aspects during the whole observation, planning and application processes. First of all, aspects of the rubric that contributed to a transparent assessment were identified with the students’ help; throughout the classes the students expressed their frustration related to the lack of objective criteria when submitting their papers and also the lack of clarity when they were getting their grades. Thereby, the main aspect to take into account when rubrics are used like an assessment tool is to have well-defined criteria and objectives. To achieve this, the validity of the subjects evaluated and the relevance of the suggested activities were taken into consideration, depending on the students’ context and prior knowledge. USE OF RUBRICS TO MAKE ASSESSMENT A TRANSPARENT PROCESS Based on the data collected throughout the observation process, it can be affirmed that the rubrics contributed to a transparent evaluation. Considering that they offered students elements such as clarity and order and these were key tools of a structured work method directly related with the evaluative activities and lesson plans in general. Students obtained better grades when using the rubrics as guides, because they had prior knowledge about the criteria and at the end they knew what were their strengths and weaknesses related to the topics assessed. Taking into account the students’ opinions, they mentioned that the benefits of rubrics not only helped the teaching practice, because the students also take advantages from the use of these tools. The functions of the rubric varied depending on the purpose of the activity and the creation and application of the rubric at a specific time. This means, that no matter if the rubric was created by the teacher and applied by herself, or if the rubric was created with the purpose of implementing a peer assessment activity, or even if it was designed with the students’ participation to be applied during some group activities, their processes were different but the results always yielded transparent and fair results. At the end, the most important thing was to be clear about the purpose of the activity, and that the students awareness. As a reflection, it is important to emphasize that the evaluative processes have been a subject studied by many authors at different moments of the academic history, but something that is really worth highlighting is the importance of paying special attention to each context and the situations that are constantly developed there. In the case of this action research, the most remarkable thing was that recognize that the lack of objective evaluations was hindering the students’ language acquisition process, but with just a few USE OF RUBRICS TO MAKE ASSESSMENT A TRANSPARENT PROCESS changes to the evaluative tools the students perceptions and prospects became more promising, encouraging and transparent. USE OF RUBRICS TO MAKE ASSESSMENT A TRANSPARENT PROCESS References Ablex. Harris, J. H., & Katz, L. G. (2001). Young investigators: The project approach in the early years. New York. Andrade, H. L., & Du, Y. (2005). Student perspectives on rubric-referenced assessment. Brown, H. D., & Abeywickrama, P. (2004). Language assessment. Principles and Classroom Practices. White Plains, NY: Pearson Education. Houston, D., & Thompson, J. N. (2017). Blending Formative and Summative Assessment in a Capstone Subject:‘It’s not your tools, it’s how you use them’. Journal of University Teaching & Learning Practice, 14(3), 2. 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Relative frequency of consultee lack of knowledge, skills, confidence, and objectivity in school settings. Journal of School Psychology, 19(1), 57-61. http://www.lgu.ac.uk/deliberations/ocsd-pubs/div-ass5.html