Infographic Rubric and Project

I busted my butt doing research on a rubric for an infographic. I love infographics, and they really suit the way society gets information today, so I wanted to offer it as an option for a cultural research project. I just offered it for the first time and I was highly impressed with the results! Of course there were a few kids who just didn't get it, and subsequently got not so great grades. But there were two that really stood out to me, and I'll share them at the bottom of this post.

What's so hard for me in developing a rubric is to hit all the aspects of the project that are important without being nit-picky or overly specific that it puts the students in a corner. I really feel that I found that balance in this rubric!

Infographic rubric:

	Exceeds expectations	Meets expectations	Needs improvement	POINTS
Research (weight x2)	Includes a variety of information directly related to the topic. Information is accurate and informative.	Includes information related to the topic. There may be minor irrelevancies or unnecessary information.	Only some information provided, or a lot of information is inaccurate or irrelevant. Leaves the reader in need of clarification.	Out of 6
Design	Infographic is neat, organized, easy to follow, legible, and includes well placed pictures and information.	Infographic has some parts that are hard to follow, or a picture may be placed poorly, but otherwise can be understood.	Design is difficult to follow, a lot of pictures and information are placed poorly, the reader is confused.	Out of 3
Creativity	Infographic includes fun, legible font(s), colors that are easy to read, and images that directly relate to the topic.	Infographic includes some color, poor font choice, may be difficult to read in some parts, but overall shows some thought and effort.	Appears poorly done, either in a rush or with little thought or effort.	Out of 3
Graphics and Pictures	Images are directly related to the topic and enhance the learning experience.	Graphics are related to topic but do not add to the learning experience – only there to add color and dimension.	There are no images, images are not related to topic, or images are of poor quality.	Out of 3
Mechanics/ Grammar/ Spelling	Language is clear and informative. Spelling and grammatical mistakes are minimal and do not cause confusion.	There are several spelling or grammar mistakes that are mostly comprehensible. Mistakes do not detract from learning.	Spelling and grammar mistakes are incomprehensible and cause confusion.	Out of 3
Sources		Listed at bottom, easy to find. Wikipedia not cited.	No sources, or Wikipedia is cited.	Out of 2
On time		On time	Late 1 Day -10 Late 2 Days -20 Late 3 days -30 Late 4 days -40 Late 5 Days -50 6+ days late earns a 0.
				FINAL GRADE

Or view it here: https://goo.gl/70hTo9

The only problem I have found so far is when there is a case of plagiarism. I really didn't know where to take those points off, so I did it in the Research and Mechanics section. Of course, I could just grade it as if it weren't plagiarized and then take points off, or just give it a 0, but the student did design the layout and insert pictures, so some work was necessary. But each teacher has the flexibility to grade as they see fit.

It was really important that I showed a few examples to the students. The kids, upon hearing the word, didn't know what it was, but once they saw one, they then understood what an infographic was. I actually had a few infographics pinned on Pinterest that have to do with the Spanish language and language learning, so I showed them to the class when I assigned the project. 

Now, I will be sheepish and admit that since it was their first effort with this project choice, and it's cultural, I let them do it in English. So the examples are in English. But now that the trial run is over, it's obvious that most can handle writing it in Spanish. So next time, target language!

Anyways, I had two favorite projects from this experiment. I'm sharing them, with their permission and the names blocked out, to show how awesome they came out! The projects are the students' original submissions, with no corrections made on my part.

Okay, so yeah, it's a little short on info, but the look and the style is exactly what I expected! Sure, it's a bit amateur, but the kid is 14! Cut them some slack! I think it's great for the first time EVER doing one!

Here's another one. There are minor grammar errors, and they cited Wikipedia (tsk, tsk), but the format is awesome! (It's a scan so I apologize for the odd line on the right.)

I love how it's color coded, the info and pictures go back and forth, it's so easy to read and follow! And there's tons of information, they really put in a lot of effort!

Overall, I'm very pleased with the results. It's actually fun to grade these projects, unlike the boring research papers I used to assign. I am going to be using this project for years to come.