Rubrics: Training Wheels?

This morning I read a good post from my PLN on twitter (http://goo.gl/UfEgh9) which discussed the way that we use rubrics.  I agree with the author that rubrics can make it "easier" for teachers to assess students' performance on specific standards, but that assessing in itself is not something that necessarily SHOULD be easy.  Evaluating how students are learning, what they are learning, to what degree they are learning, and how they are able to express that understanding---is complicated.

Over the past couple of years, I have also gone to a model of reducing my use of rubrics, and when I do use them, I usually have grades for Mastery, Competent, Novice, and Missing.  I use previous work samples to represent good examples of the levels of understanding, and include descriptions in each cell of the rubric that are specific to what performance objectives, or essential questions that I want discussed or addressed by the students in their work.  I am also much more broad in the descriptors though or each cell, similar to the sample in the attached Post.

I find that rubrics which spell out every detail needed to obtain a score, acts very much like training wheels for students.  Thinking back to the Dimensions of Learning, it often eliminates Dimension 5: Habits of the Mind.  Students become robots trying to make sure they are meeting every single detail on the rubric, often regurgitating information, rather than critically evaluating and then expressing in their own comprehensive and creative way.  There are also times that I have created rubrics that simple have one column: Mastery.  In that column, I  identify that the performance objectives that I would like to see the students address for various aspects of the assignment.  Rather than giving them details of what is considered an "A", a "B", a "C" etc, I simply layout what I would like them to demonstrate.  They are then able to choose how, and in what format they would like to present the information.

I have always found that showing too many models of a project from a previous year, leads students to duplicate it, removing their own creative process from the assignment.  I find that detailed rubrics are usually created by teachers, similarly based on previous students completing the assignment.  The more that complete it, the more detailed that a rubric may get, to address voids. I feel like removing the "training wheels", and cutting the students loose to create and collaborate to demonstrate their understanding, provides a much fresher set of submissions, representative of each student.