How to Build a Rubric
There isn’t one-size-fits-all guidance on how to create a rubric, but there are fundamental questions you’ll want to start with to ensure your rubric is effective. The below approach from Syracuse University breaks rubric construction into four primary steps and pairs well with this downloadable rubric template.
Step One: Determine the assignment’s purpose
- Consider why you’ve created this particular assignment and what exactly you expect students to learn from it.
Step Two: Identify the assignment’s components or dimensions
- Focus on the assignment components or dimensions as well as the details of the assignment. These components vary according to the course learning objectives, students’ year of study, the assignment itself. For example, the components of a writing assignment might include grammar, quality of sources, and strength of argument, among others.
- Once you have identified the assignment dimensions, create a description for the highest performance level you expect from students for each dimension. It’s easiest to articulate what is very strong work and what is decidedly not.
Step Three: Establish Criteria
- Reflect on steps one and two to group similar expectations and results together in what will become the rubric dimensions (e.g., organization, context, analysis, presentation, etc…).
- This is an iterative process. Some performance expectations do not fit neatly into one group. Test it out with colleagues or even students.
Step Four: Describe Performance Details
- Apply the dimensions and descriptions from steps two and three to the final form of the rubric, using a grid format. Consider using this rubric template.
- Determine the appropriate scale, e.g., poor, satisfactory, excellent, and label each accordingly.
- Complete the descriptions for the each performance level in the rubric grid. Considering describing the highest and lowest levels first and then filling in the middle. Or articulate what is definitely satisfactory/minimally required and then describe what exceeds or does not meet that performance level.
Best Practices
- Rubrics should be written in clear language with explicit criteria that describe more/less successful versions of each criterion.
- Students benefit from seeing the assignment rubric before beginning the assignment. Consider reviewing it with them to make sure they understand it.
- Rubrics should align with course learning outcomes. What do you think students will learn from the assignment that will contribute toward their achieving the larger goals of the course?
Additional Resources and Guidance
- Parts of a Rubric, a helpful visual
- How to Adapt a Rubric
- Rubric Examples
- Common Rubric Mistakes (and how to fix them)
Adapted from a wide variety of sources including: Carnegie Mellon, Hunter College, Vanderbilt University, Syracuse University, and Harvard University