Escape the Rubric Rut: Creative Strategies for Teaching Assessment Literacy

Hello, I’m Dr. Angela Nagel from Western Kentucky University. My poster, Escapethe Rubric Rut: Creative Strategiesfor Teaching Assessment Literacy, highlights innovative, hands-on ways to help teacher candidates become more confident, reflective, and fluent in assessment practices. Assessment literacy is one of the most essential—but also most overlooked—skills for pre-service teachers. Too often, it’s taught through static rubrics, compliance-driven assignments, or overly theoretical models that leave students confused or disengaged. I wanted to change that. In my undergraduate Classroom Assessment course, I redesigned the learning experience to be more interactive, student-centered, and grounded in real-world teaching practice. Instead of just reading about learning targets and rubrics, students practice analyzing them, deconstructing them, and even designing their own. On the poster, you’ll see some of the strategies I use: things like exemplar analysis routines where students explore quality versus poor samples, escape-room-style review games to make assessment concepts more memorable, and AI-supported feedback coaching that helps them practice giving meaningful, low-shame feedback to peers. Each activity is grounded in research—from Sadler’s feedback cycles to Wiggins & McTighe’s work on backward design—and each one helps students move beyond compliance and into genuine assessment fluency. The goal isn’t just to teach the mechanics of assessment—it’s to help future educators see assessment as a living, breathing part of instruction and student growth. My hope is that you’ll walk away with practical, creative ideas that bring assessment literacy to life in your own courses, and maybe even make it a little more fun along the way.