Over 70 teachers from throughout Illinois met in Normal to test speaking rubrics for grades K-12 on Friday, June 7.

Project director Doug Jennings, from ISU's Departmentof Communication, welcomed the teachers and stressed the importance of their input into the ongoing development of speaking rubrics.

Members of the project committee outlined the activities for the day in the main opening session. Teachers then participated in breakout sessions according to grade level. In those sessions teachers watched videotapes of student speeches and graded them according to the rubrics.

Session leaders and teachers then compared results to better adapt the rubrics to common classroom situations.

Illinois teachers fill out a survey on current assessment practices.

Project Director Doug Jennings welcomes conference participants.

Dr. Larry Long, chair of ISU's Dept. of Communication, explains the assessment survey to attendees.

Lauren Morgan of the College of DuPage provides an overview of the assessment project.

Carol Harms of Belleville East High School shares her experience with speaking rubrics.

Heyworth High School speech teacher Connie Link discusses the difference between rubrics and grading sheets.

Dr. Cheri Simonds, co-director of the basic communication course at ISU, explains how she uses rubrics at the college level.

Waterloo High School speech teacher Jane Bailey explains a little of the history and background of the assessment project.

High school teachers prepare to evaluate videotaped speeches using the new rubrics.

Elementary school teachers watch a selection of speeches from various grade levels.

Junior high school teachers work to improve the public speaking rubrics.