Rubrics are grading matrices that allow teachers to give students more specific feedback than a simple letter grade without doing much more work than assigning a letter grade. Rubrics typically evaluate student performance on a scale of 1-4 in a series of categories, and the rubrics often spell out performance benchmarks for each rating in each category. If you have 4 benchmarks in each of 5 categories, that’s 20 benchmarks. Creating rubrics can be time-consuming. Fortunately, finding them on the Internet and borrowing or adapting them can be quite easy. There are also some great free pieces of software to help you create rubrics as well. Once you settle on a format you like, adapting and updating your favorite rubrics can also be fairly simple. gravida.
Here are a few of our generic rubrics, which you can open and adapt:
Rubistar is a program designed by 4teachers.org, which got of the ground with a Department of Education grant. Rubistar lets you find and create rubrics using very clever templates. You can easily create rubrics for grading class debates, oral presentations, persuasive essays, timelines, Web sites, and many more projects.