“Habits of Scholarship” Rubric: Assessing Physical Education Behaviors

By now, you may be saying to yourself, “but I want my kids to try hard, change, practice good sportsmanship and do PE homework!”… My district most certainly believes that behaviors are just as important as measuring student progress towards mastering the standards. We have a school wide “Habits of Scholarship” (HOS) rubric that assesses work completion, class participation, class conduct and maximizing time on task. The students have the same rubric in every grade and in every class, so they know exactly what to expect in every learning setting. My co-worker and I took the rubric and transformed it into PE words, still using the original document to keep it aligned with the same document. This just allows it to apply to the gymnasium a little easier (as we all know, the gym can be a little different than a classroom setting).

Behaviors should not be a part of a child’s grade. Behaviors do not measure a student’s knowledge of contents and skills as related to the standards. Behaviors are what drive a student to success, which is why it should be a separate report. Standards-Based grading  solely reports a student’s progress towards content knowledge (mastery towards the standards) and the HOS report solely reports out the student’s behaviors that are occurring in the academic setting.

Every 5 weeks, our students receive their school-wide HOS report to let them know how they are doing, however each teacher has a way of giving daily/weekly feedback as well. Goal setting and teacher mentorships are formed with students who are struggling with the behaviors because there is a correlation between good HOS scores and good progress towards mastery. When students can demonstrate good work habits, then tend to do better with their academic habits as well.

In the gym, we use this rubric after each class. The students give themselves a quick rating on each category with evidence as to why. It is very easy for my co-worker and I to check their work as they leave class to go change and it becomes instant feedback for each student on their HOS. You may be thinking that we can’t possibly have time for the students to do this work and give feedback, but it all stems back to classroom management and implementing routines. We take the time in the beginning of the year (in 6th grade) to make sure they can implement our system, since it is different than elementary school. It soon becomes part of the PE routine and the whole process of the end of the class reflection on their learning target and HOS with teacher feedback takes 5 minutes.

This rubric is also a great piece of student evidence for the child to talk about during their student-led conference with their parents/guardians. It allows them to easily explain their HOS behaviors that are occurring in the gym (and the rest of their classes as well).

This rubric is stapled to the inside of their folders, posted on our walls and emailed home to the parents. We want to make sure everyone is onboard and everyone knows the expectations of the gymnasium. Please comment with your email address if you would like an emailed copy.

Google Document Copy:

https://docs.google.com/document/d/12zpPY6JTdAzwmzUA0Z6Hjk7QHHqbdYkRuGBsM7wIc_8/edit