How to Use Rubrics for Assessment

Updated 18 February 2012

Rubrics help make grading faster and easier as well as more objective and fair. They are particularly useful when dealing with subjective issues such as speaking and writing. In addition, if students have questions about their grades you can show them exactly how they were graded.

For example, if you had to grade a writing project, you could tell your students that they will be graded on task completion, punctuation, grammar, vocabulary, and organisation. For speaking you could grade your students on grammar, vocabulary, organisation, pronunciation, and interaction (if students are working in partners).

Sample Rubric Scales

• expectations not met, improvement needed, satisfactory, good, and excellent.
• beginning, developing, accomplished, good and excellent.
• novice, apprentice, junior, proficient, master.
• unsatisfactory, needs improvement, satisfactory, good, exemplary.

How to Use Rubrics
Make a grid with the sections to be graded on one side and the scale on the other. You can use a checklist, numbers according to how well they fulfilled that requirement, or write a description.

Then you simply tick the parts that correspond to the student's work. Teachers aren't the only one who can make rubrics. Involving students in the rubric making process gives them input and knowledge of the grading process. Try looking at the following for more info about rubrics:

• All you need to know about rubrics
• EdTech Kennesaw 
• Education World
• Florida Tech
• rCampus: they have thousands of examples
• RubiStar
• Teacher Vision 
• Webquest SDSU

Disclaimer:

• Please join my Patreon page
• I use affiliate links. I may earn a commission if you make a purchase after clicking on links. Read more at my FTC Disclosure and Privacy Policy Statement