1. Tips For Effective Rubric Design
How to:
 Design a rubric that does its job
 Write precise criteria and descriptors
 Make your rubric student-friendly

2. Expert Input
Experts agree:
– Rubrics are hard to design.
– Rubrics are time-consuming to design.
– “A rubric is only as useful as it is good. Using a bad
rubric is a waste of time…”
--Michael Simkins in “Designing Great Rubrics”
Experts disagree:
– How to design a “good” rubric
– Bottom line: Is it working for you and for your
students?

3. The Cookie
Task: Make a chocolate chip cookie that I would want
to eat.
Criteria: Texture, Taste, Number of Chocolate Chips,
Richness
Range of performance:
– Delicious(14-16 pts)
– Tasty(11-13 pts)
– Edible(8-10 pts)
– Not yet edible(0-7 pts)

4. Analytic Homemade Cookie Rubric
Delicious Tasty Edible Not yet
4 3 2 edible
1
# chips Chips in 75% chips 50% chips Less than
every bite 50% chips
texture Consistently Chewy Crunchy Like a dog
chewy middle, biscuit
crispy
edges
color Even golden Brown with All brown Burned
brown pale center Or all pale
richness Buttery, high Medium fat Low-fat Nonfat
fat flavor flavor

5. Assess The Cookie
 Overall score
– Delicious
– Tasty
– Edible
– Not yet edible
 By criteria
– Number of chips
– Texture
– Taste
– Richness

6. Holistic Rubric
 Views product or performance as a whole; describes
characteristics of the product or performance
according criteria expressing “what counts””:
 Each holistic criterion is expressed in a summary
statement for each score level.
 Levels of performance range from highest (Level 4)
to lowest (Level 0)
 See example in your text, p. 133

7. Sample: Holistic Cookie Rubric
Cookie Scored at the “Delicious” level (4)
 Chips in every bite
 Consistently chewy
 Even golden brown
 Buttery, high fat
You must then make a summary statement for
levels 3, 2, & 1.

8. Pros & Cons: Holistic Rubric
+ Takes less time to create.
+ Effectively determines a “not fully developed”
performance as a whole.
+ Efficient for large group scoring; less time to
assess.
- Not diagnostic.
- Student may exhibit traits at two or more levels
at the same time.

9. Analytic Rubric
Separate facets of performance are defined, independently
valued, and scored. See example in text, p. 135.
Example: In music performance, skill might be string
improvisation.
Each facet of “string improvisation” would be scored separately:
 melody
 harmonics
 rhythm
 bowing & backup
 confidence

10. Pros & Cons: Analytic Rubric
+ Sharper focus on target
+ Specific feedback (matrix)
+ Instructional emphasis
- Time consuming to articulate
components and to find language clear
enough to define performance levels
effectively

11. Tip #1
Don’t make task-specific rubrics.
 Less efficient
 Make one that can be used for two or more
products or performances.
 “Generalizable” or template rubric

12. Tip #2
Don’t use published generic or “canned” rubrics
without careful consideration of their quality
and appropriateness for your project.
These are your students, not someone
else’s.
Your students have received your
instruction.

13. Tip #3
 Avoid dysfunctional detail.
– “…in most instances, lengthy rubrics probably
can be reduced to succinct…more useful versions
for classroom instruction. Such abbreviated
rubrics can still capture the key evaluative criteria
needed to judge students’ responses. Lengthy
rubrics, in contrast, will gather dust”
– Dysfunctional detail also includes jargon,
negativity

14. Tip #4
Limit the number of criteria
But, don’t combine independent criteria.
E.g. One criterion that includes “Very clear” and
“very organized” will often be problematic.
The product may be clear but not organized or vice
versa.

15. Tips #5 and #6
Don’t define levels of quality in vague terms,
e.g.
 ABSTRACT:“poorly organized”
 CONCRETE:
– Organization:
 sharply focused thesis,
 topic sentences clearly connected to thesis,
 logical ordering of paragraphs,
 conclusion ends with clincher
 ABSTRACT: “inventive” “creative” “imaginative”
 CONCRETE: ?? Key Question to ask yourself: What
does that look like?

16. Tips #5 and #6
Use measurable criteria.
– Specify what quality or absence looks like vs.
comparatives (“not as thorough as”) or value
language (“excellent content”)
– Highlight the impact of the performance: Was the
paper persuasive or problem solved? (Note
importance of a statement of purpose for the
assignment here!)
– List the traits of effective persuasion.
– Be sure that the descriptor is not the criterion and
vice versa

17. Tip #7
Aim for an even number of
performance/product levels
– Create continuum between least and most
– Define poles and work inward
– List skills and traits consistently across levels

18. Tip #8
 May include students in creating or adapting
rubrics by listing criteria for “What Counts.”
 Consider using “I” in the descriptors in the
criterion statement:
I followed APA documentation format:
– precisely—consistently—inconsistently—
I did not follow MLA documentation format.

19. Tip #9
 Motivate students to use your rubric as they prepare
their product or performance:
“At their very best, rubrics are also
teaching tools that support student learning
. . . ” (13 y.o. student).
 Do students understand the criteria and descriptors?
How do you know?
 When do you give the rubric to your students?

20. Tip #10
Provide models of products/performances that
represent different performance levels.

21. The Assignment Sheet
 Connect the rubric you prepared to the assignment
guidelines: Use same language in each!
 Project/paper/presentation must meet all requirements of
assignment
– Due date and late penalty
– Format requirements
– Non-negotiables

22. Use the Rubric for Draft Reviews or the
“Check-in” Stage of Preparation
Use your rubric as a formative assessment to
give students feedback about how they are
doing.
– Isolate a particularly challenging aspect
– Have student isolate an area of difficulty
– Center revision instruction around rubric

23. Steps in Developing & Using Rubrics
 Design backwards—rubric first; then product/performance.
 Decide on the criteria for the product or performance to be
assessed.
 Write a definition or make a list of concrete descriptors for each
criterion.
 Develop a continuum for describing the range of performance
for each criterion.
 Keep track of strengths and weaknesses of rubric as you use it
to assess student work.
 Step back; ask yourself, “What didn’t I make clear
instructionally?” The weakness may not be the rubric.

24. Steps in Modifying a “Canned”
Rubric
 Find a rubric that most closely matches your
performance task.
 Evaluate and adjust to reflect your
instruction, language, expectations, content,
students
– Criteria
– Descriptors
– Performance levels

25. When to Use Rubrics
Usually with a relatively complex assignment,
such as a long-term project, and essay, or
research-based product.
– Informative feedback about work in progress
– Detailed evaluations of final projects

26. The Mini-Rubric
 These are the quick ones.
 Fewer criteria and shorter descriptions of quality
– Yes/no checklists
– Describe proficient level of quality and leave other boxes for
commentary during grading.
– Use for small products or processes:
 Poster
 Outline
 Journal entry
 Class activity

27. Sample Mini-rubric for an Assignment
called a “Vocabulary Poster”
Content criterion (50%) 4 3 2 1
____ written explanation of denotation is accurate & thorough
____ examples in action are accurate & of sufficient variety
____ visual symbol or cartoon conveys accurate and clear word
meaning
____ wordplay is accurate and thorough: weighs synonyms for
subtleties of meaning;
Presentation criterion (50%)
4,3,2,1--neat
4,3,2,1--clear organizational pattern
4,3,2,1--no error in Conventions
4,3,2,1--uses visual space to catch and hold attention
Score = Content__+Presentation___divided by 2=______GRADE

28. Caution
Don’t let the rubric stand alone!
ALWAYS, ALWAYS provide specific
“Comments” on your rubric and/or on the
student product itself.

29. Useful Criteria Across The
Curriculum: Content
Descriptors or indicators R/T content:
– Relevant
– Specific
– Thorough
– Synthesized
– Balanced
– Convincing
– Accurate

30. Useful Criteria Across the
Curriculum: Research
Descriptors or indicators R/T research:
– Uses variety of sources (primary, secondary,
electronic, traditional, human)
 Note:
Watch minimums—Is minimum “minimal” or is
minimum “proficient”?
– Uses appropriate sources (credible, timely,
scholarly)
– Documents sources accurately

31. Useful Criteria Across the
Curriculum: Format
Descriptors or indicators R/T format:
Logical
Sequential
According to assignment guidelines
According to standards (e.g. APA Style)

32. The Best Rubrics
 Analytic and holistic
 Developmental
 “Generalizable” and specific
 Instructional
The best rubrics WORK
for students and teachers!

33. Acknowledgments
This Slidecast was adapted from “Tips for
Effective Rubric Design”
daretodifferentiate.wikispaces.com/file/view/rub
rics.ppt
I am grateful to the unnamed author who also
acknowledged the assistance of Joyce, Myra,
Veronica, & Jeff.