Intercultural Teaching Circle: Workshop your Rubrics and Assignments

As TAs, providing grading rubrics for our assignments is often an effective way to demonstrate our expectations to students. At the same time, rubrics might also carry some cultural “baggage” (i.e. connotations, assumptions, and norms) that can create challenges in an intercultural environment and/or those who study in English as an additional language. For example, some terms or acronyms we regularly use in rubrics or feedback may not be entirely clear to all students.  
How can we as educators work to reduce cultural bias and develop clearer guidelines that will support students as they work through their academic assignments? This rubric clinic offers an informal and collaborative space for you and fellow peers to openly discuss ambiguities in assessment and jointly brainstorm strategies in breakout rooms for developing inclusive assessment guidelines. You are encouraged to bring your own rubrics and grading materials to debrief with others, but we will also provide a few examples for open-ended discussion.