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Mini Post-it Rubrics

Thursday, September 17, 2015


This week, I collected a short writing assignment from my students that asked them to create a billboard slogan that summed up key ideas in our One and Only Ivan Novel Study so far. I wanted to quickly grade the assignment with a rating that was more specific than a checkmark at the top of the page.

 The One and Only Ivan

I had a vague memory of something I had seen on Pinterest that showed a piece of copy paper with six sticky notes attached and a brief explanation about running Post-it notes through a printer. I started messing around with 3" x 3" box shapes in a Word document and designed a template for mini rubrics that would print on Post-it notes. I love these rubrics.


I opened a new Word document and set the margins to .6" on all sides. I inserted a square shape and set the size to 3" x 3". The shape had "no fill" and a black outline. I right clicked on the shape to choose "add text" and typed the line items I needed for the rubric. Once I completed the first rubric, I copied and pasted the box five times for a total of six boxes on the page. I moved the boxes, so I had three rows of two boxes each and printed one copy.

After I had one printed copy of the rubrics, I went back to my Word document and removed the black outline from the edges of each box. On my hard copy of the rubric, I attached six Post-it notes with the adhesive strip along the top edge of each box. To print, I ran the paper through my printer according to the icons for printing in my feed tray. On my printer, the side with the sticky notes is face down, and the sticky edge of each box inserts first. When the paper exits the printer, the finished page is face up.


After my rubrics were finished, I made more Post-its for my son's close reading homework assignment. He needed to add sticky note thoughts while reading the last few chapters of From the Mixed Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler. He codes each of his ideas while he reads, so we created printed Post-its to make his notes neater. He circled the type of comment he was adding and then wrote his thoughts. CLICK HERE for the close reading Post-it template.

OB = observation
OP = opinion
CT = character trait
P = prediction

One drawback to Post-it note printing is removing six individual sticky notes, reattaching fresh notes, and printing again. I needed 35 copies of my mini rubrics and had to run my template five times through the printer. It is a little time consuming. The other drawback (for me) is the smudging I had with my ink jet printer. Since the sticky notes are loose at the bottom, the words did not print cleanly on all parts of each Post-it. I am anxious to try running the page through my laser printer at school.


Happy Grading!

Caitlin

18 comments:

  1. Such a clever idea! Thanks for sharing! :-)

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    1. Have fun making them. I can think of all sorts of checklists I could print!

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  2. I love this! I have seen the idea before, but I didn't understand how they made the notes. This will be terrific for my small group instruction!

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    1. I am addicted. I just finished grading my first set of papers, and the little rubric is perfect for a small assignment.

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  3. THANK YOU! I know this will work wonders on our benchmark writing prompts! Sharing with my grade-level partner! Thanks again!

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  4. This is a great idea. How did the laser printer work?

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    1. This reply is long overdue, but the laser printer was better than my home ink-jet. It still smudged a little on the bottom row of Post-it notes.

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  5. What about printing the rubric on the large Avery address labels and then adhering? If no space on the front, I'm sure there would be on the back of the student's response. Thanks for the inspiration!

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    1. Avery labels would work too, but they are more expensive (and my school stocks the Post-it notes :-). The Avery labels would print more cleanly but ake up more space on the student paper. And, they are not removeable-- plusses and minuses for that.

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  6. This is an awesome idea! I'm not so sure about using the school printer to make these awesome notes (I'd rather not be responsible for THAT jam).

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    1. I know-- right?? I used my classroom printer. I would never risk the schoolwide copier!

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  7. I think if I put the post-its on sideways and change the layout to landscape, I might be able to make copies in the school copy machine... not looking forward to the potential jam there though.

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  8. This is very cool! Made me think about adding the 3x3 rubric box or checklist directly on an assignment! Thanks for sharing!!!

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  9. Would be a bit more time consuming but if you put a rolled up piece of invisible tape on the bottoms of the post-its to hold them down, that would reduce smudging and likelihood of jams. Invisible tape removes from paper easily so you could just peel the post-it off it and then put a new blank one of each square and re-use the tape.

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  11. I may try this and use my sticker maker. I don't think the Post-Its would work for my printer without jamming them. Awesome idea for low-stakes assignments.

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  12. Is there there a downloadable file for the rubric template?

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