How to Create a Rubric
Here's a quick and powerful way to grade everything from projects to papers.
Difficulty Level: Average      Time Required: 20 minutes

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Here's How:





1. Make a list of what you want the students to accomplish through your assignment.
2. Organize your list from most important to least important.
3. Decide on an overall point value for the assignment.
4. Assign each item on your ranked list a percentage value out of 100 percent.
5. Multiply your total point value from step 3 by each item's assigned percentage to arrive at the point value for that item.
6. On a fresh sheet of paper, write the name for each item on your list in order from most to least important. Make sure to leave room in between each category.
7. Assign specific grading criteria for each main category from step six.
8. Distribute or display the rubric to the students when you are explaining the assignment.
9. Attach a copy of the rubric filled in with the student's scores to his/her graded work once it is completed.


Tips:





1. Definitely know what your categories will be before you make your assignment.
2. The upfront time in creating the rubric more than pays off in the reduced time it takes to grade the assignment.


Make Your Life Easier with Rubrics


Have you ever heard that a little hard work up front saves time in the end? Well this is definitely true in the case of rubrics. Rubrics are basically a simplified way to grade a complicated assignment. For example, when you are grading an essay, how do you decide whether it gets an A or a B? What about if you are assigning number grades to the essay? What's the difference between a 94 and a 96? The times that I have graded without a rubric I have relied on the subjective method of reading and ranking. Who is better than whom? Why did I do this? Newton's First Law of Motion: Bodies at rest tend to stay at rest. It seems much easier not to do the extra work to create a rubric. However, once I'm knee deep in essays I start kicking myself for not taking the time! For one thing, rubrics save time because I simply have to look at my rubric and mark off points. Second, rubrics keep me honest, even when I've had a horrible day and my cat won't leave me alone. I feel much more objective as I sit before my mountain of papers. More important than these two reasons, however, is that when I have created a rubric beforehand and shown it to my students I get better quality work. They know what I want. It saves problems afterwards because they knew what I required, and they can see where they had points taken off.

How to Write a Rubric

Writing a rubric is a fairly easy process even though it takes a little time. However, as I've already explained, the time is worth it. Click here for step-by-step instructions to writing a rubric for any assignment you give.

Examples of Rubrics

Here are some wonderful rubrics that you can adapt and use today!

* Biography Framework
* Body Paragraph of an Essay
* Compare Contrast Essay
* Critical Thinking
* Debate Rubric
* Florida Writes - Expository & Persuasive Essays
* Expository Essay
* Persuasive Essay
* Stand Alone Paragraph
* Supporting Details
* Writing Prompts