math project presentation rubric

Feedback and assessment for presentations

Range of instructor feedback, specificity of instructor feedback, advantages of various forms of feedback, rubrics and grading/commenting forms.

Encourage students to improve their presentations: otherwise presenting repeatedly may merely ingrain bad habits. Feedback can come from peers and from instructors.

Consider commenting on the following:

• Timing notes: an outline of the talk including the amount of time spent on each portion.
• Feedback on the presentation style: style of speech, use of visual aids (blackboard/ slides/ images), pacing, audience engagement.
• Feedback on mathematical content: correctness, connections of material to other parts of course or other parts of mathematics (this is a good way to pique students’ interest in the subject matter).
• Feedback on teaching strategy: providing motivation, examples, conceptual explanations, repetition, etc.
• See also the general principles of communicating math .

Issues specific to various forms of presentations can be found on the page Assignments on Presentations .

The level of detail of the comments depends on whether the presentation will be given again. For example, noting every math mistake might be appropriate for a rehearsal so the student can be sure to fix those mistakes, but if the presentation will not be given again, a list of every mistake could be demoralizing with little positive benefit. At this point, comments should be more general and should focus instead on the sorts of things to consider for future presentations.

For other issues to consider when choosing and wording comments, see the handout Dimensions of Commenting .

• Most efficient is to take notes during the presentation and give them to the student immediately after the presentation.
• Most helpful for the student (but time intensive) may be to record the presentation and then sit with the student to review the recording.
• Another option is to discuss the presentation as a class immediately after the presentation. For this option to be successful, a respectful, collegial atmosphere is necessary.
• If you prefer time to think before giving feedback, you could e-mail your response after class or arrange to meet with the student at a later date. Meeting may be more efficient than e-mail because the student can ask clarifying questions so you don’t have to take the time to make your notes self-explanatory.

Identifying and prioritizing grading criteria before grading is important to prevent unintentional, subconscious bias,  even in graders who consider themselves objective,  as found by this study of hiring decisions based on criteria prioritized before/after learning about an applicant: Uhlmann and Cohen, “ Constructed Criteria: Redefining Merit to Justify Discrimination ,” Psychological Science, Vol 16, No 6, pp. 474-480, 2005.

Guidance for how to create a rubric is provided on the MAA Mathematical Communication page “ How can I objectively grade something as subjective as communication ?”

For classes in which each student gives multiple presentations, see the grading suggestions on the page for undergraduate seminars .

Sample grading criteria & rubrics for presentations are provided below.

Using a commenting form or grading form can remind you to consider all aspects of presentations that you’ve decided are important, rather than focusing only on the most obvious issues with any given presentation. A commenting form or grading form can also help you to find positive aspects of a presentation that on first consideration seems to be thoroughly troublesome. Some examples of forms and rubrics are below, but it’s best to make your own so the form reflects your priorities.

• Pedro Reis’ presentation evaluation form for M.I.T.’s Undergraduate Seminar in Physical Applied Mathematics , a topics seminar
• Characteristics of an effective undergraduate research talk : outlines basic expectations, characteristics of a good talk, and characteristics of an excellent talk
• Jardine, D. and Ferlini, V. “Assessing Student Oral Presentation of Mathematics,”   Supporting Assessment in Undergraduate Mathematics , The Mathematical Association of America, 2006, pp. 157-162 . This report of a department’s assessment of the teaching of math presentations contains a rubric for individual presentations. See Appendix B.
• Dennis, K. “Assessing Written and Oral Communication of Senior Projects,”  Supporting Assessment in Undergraduate Mathematics , The Mathematical Association of America, 2006, pp. 177-181 . Contains rubrics for presenting and writing, with recommendations.
• Rubric for Mathematical Presentations from Ball State University
• A description of criteria for math oral presentation for a math majors’ seminar, with categories Logic & Organization, Content, and Delivery.
• Form for commenting on and grading a presentation of a proof
• Scoring Rubric for Math Fair Projects with an audience of children
• Rubric for grades 6-8 for a math talk about solving two-step equations with one variable

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Accessibility

Rubric Best Practices, Examples, and Templates

A rubric is a scoring tool that identifies the different criteria relevant to an assignment, assessment, or learning outcome and states the possible levels of achievement in a specific, clear, and objective way. Use rubrics to assess project-based student work including essays, group projects, creative endeavors, and oral presentations.

Rubrics can help instructors communicate expectations to students and assess student work fairly, consistently and efficiently. Rubrics can provide students with informative feedback on their strengths and weaknesses so that they can reflect on their performance and work on areas that need improvement.

How to Get Started

Best practices, moodle how-to guides.

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Step 1: Analyze the assignment

The first step in the rubric creation process is to analyze the assignment or assessment for which you are creating a rubric. To do this, consider the following questions:

• What is the purpose of the assignment and your feedback? What do you want students to demonstrate through the completion of this assignment (i.e. what are the learning objectives measured by it)? Is it a summative assessment, or will students use the feedback to create an improved product?
• Does the assignment break down into different or smaller tasks? Are these tasks equally important as the main assignment?
• What would an “excellent” assignment look like? An “acceptable” assignment? One that still needs major work?
• How detailed do you want the feedback you give students to be? Do you want/need to give them a grade?

Step 2: Decide what kind of rubric you will use

Types of rubrics: holistic, analytic/descriptive, single-point

Holistic Rubric. A holistic rubric includes all the criteria (such as clarity, organization, mechanics, etc.) to be considered together and included in a single evaluation. With a holistic rubric, the rater or grader assigns a single score based on an overall judgment of the student’s work, using descriptions of each performance level to assign the score.

Advantages of holistic rubrics:

• Can p lace an emphasis on what learners can demonstrate rather than what they cannot
• Save grader time by minimizing the number of evaluations to be made for each student
• Can be used consistently across raters, provided they have all been trained

Disadvantages of holistic rubrics:

• Provide less specific feedback than analytic/descriptive rubrics
• Can be difficult to choose a score when a student’s work is at varying levels across the criteria
• Any weighting of c riteria cannot be indicated in the rubric

Analytic/Descriptive Rubric . An analytic or descriptive rubric often takes the form of a table with the criteria listed in the left column and with levels of performance listed across the top row. Each cell contains a description of what the specified criterion looks like at a given level of performance. Each of the criteria is scored individually.

Advantages of analytic rubrics:

• Provide detailed feedback on areas of strength or weakness
• Each criterion can be weighted to reflect its relative importance

Disadvantages of analytic rubrics:

• More time-consuming to create and use than a holistic rubric
• May not be used consistently across raters unless the cells are well defined
• May result in giving less personalized feedback

Single-Point Rubric . A single-point rubric is breaks down the components of an assignment into different criteria, but instead of describing different levels of performance, only the “proficient” level is described. Feedback space is provided for instructors to give individualized comments to help students improve and/or show where they excelled beyond the proficiency descriptors.

Advantages of single-point rubrics:

• Easier to create than an analytic/descriptive rubric
• Perhaps more likely that students will read the descriptors
• Areas of concern and excellence are open-ended
• May removes a focus on the grade/points
• May increase student creativity in project-based assignments

Disadvantage of analytic rubrics: Requires more work for instructors writing feedback

Step 3 (Optional): Look for templates and examples.

You might Google, “Rubric for persuasive essay at the college level” and see if there are any publicly available examples to start from. Ask your colleagues if they have used a rubric for a similar assignment. Some examples are also available at the end of this article. These rubrics can be a great starting point for you, but consider steps 3, 4, and 5 below to ensure that the rubric matches your assignment description, learning objectives and expectations.

Step 4: Define the assignment criteria

Make a list of the knowledge and skills are you measuring with the assignment/assessment Refer to your stated learning objectives, the assignment instructions, past examples of student work, etc. for help.

  Helpful strategies for defining grading criteria:

• Collaborate with co-instructors, teaching assistants, and other colleagues
• Brainstorm and discuss with students
• Can they be observed and measured?
• Are they important and essential?
• Are they distinct from other criteria?
• Are they phrased in precise, unambiguous language?
• Revise the criteria as needed
• Consider whether some are more important than others, and how you will weight them.

Step 5: Design the rating scale

Most ratings scales include between 3 and 5 levels. Consider the following questions when designing your rating scale:

• Given what students are able to demonstrate in this assignment/assessment, what are the possible levels of achievement?
• How many levels would you like to include (more levels means more detailed descriptions)
• Will you use numbers and/or descriptive labels for each level of performance? (for example 5, 4, 3, 2, 1 and/or Exceeds expectations, Accomplished, Proficient, Developing, Beginning, etc.)
• Don’t use too many columns, and recognize that some criteria can have more columns that others . The rubric needs to be comprehensible and organized. Pick the right amount of columns so that the criteria flow logically and naturally across levels.

Step 6: Write descriptions for each level of the rating scale

Artificial Intelligence tools like Chat GPT have proven to be useful tools for creating a rubric. You will want to engineer your prompt that you provide the AI assistant to ensure you get what you want. For example, you might provide the assignment description, the criteria you feel are important, and the number of levels of performance you want in your prompt. Use the results as a starting point, and adjust the descriptions as needed.

Building a rubric from scratch

For a single-point rubric , describe what would be considered “proficient,” i.e. B-level work, and provide that description. You might also include suggestions for students outside of the actual rubric about how they might surpass proficient-level work.

For analytic and holistic rubrics , c reate statements of expected performance at each level of the rubric.

• Consider what descriptor is appropriate for each criteria, e.g., presence vs absence, complete vs incomplete, many vs none, major vs minor, consistent vs inconsistent, always vs never. If you have an indicator described in one level, it will need to be described in each level.
• You might start with the top/exemplary level. What does it look like when a student has achieved excellence for each/every criterion? Then, look at the “bottom” level. What does it look like when a student has not achieved the learning goals in any way? Then, complete the in-between levels.
• For an analytic rubric , do this for each particular criterion of the rubric so that every cell in the table is filled. These descriptions help students understand your expectations and their performance in regard to those expectations.

Well-written descriptions:

• Describe observable and measurable behavior
• Use parallel language across the scale
• Indicate the degree to which the standards are met

Step 7: Create your rubric

Create your rubric in a table or spreadsheet in Word, Google Docs, Sheets, etc., and then transfer it by typing it into Moodle. You can also use online tools to create the rubric, but you will still have to type the criteria, indicators, levels, etc., into Moodle. Rubric creators: Rubistar , iRubric

Step 8: Pilot-test your rubric

Prior to implementing your rubric on a live course, obtain feedback from:

• Teacher assistants

Try out your new rubric on a sample of student work. After you pilot-test your rubric, analyze the results to consider its effectiveness and revise accordingly.

• Limit the rubric to a single page for reading and grading ease
• Use parallel language . Use similar language and syntax/wording from column to column. Make sure that the rubric can be easily read from left to right or vice versa.
• Use student-friendly language . Make sure the language is learning-level appropriate. If you use academic language or concepts, you will need to teach those concepts.
• Share and discuss the rubric with your students . Students should understand that the rubric is there to help them learn, reflect, and self-assess. If students use a rubric, they will understand the expectations and their relevance to learning.
• Consider scalability and reusability of rubrics. Create rubric templates that you can alter as needed for multiple assignments.
• Maximize the descriptiveness of your language. Avoid words like “good” and “excellent.” For example, instead of saying, “uses excellent sources,” you might describe what makes a resource excellent so that students will know. You might also consider reducing the reliance on quantity, such as a number of allowable misspelled words. Focus instead, for example, on how distracting any spelling errors are.

Example of an analytic rubric for a final paper

Example of a holistic rubric for a final paper, single-point rubric, more examples:.

• Single Point Rubric Template ( variation )
• Analytic Rubric Template make a copy to edit
• A Rubric for Rubrics
• Bank of Online Discussion Rubrics in different formats
• Mathematical Presentations Descriptive Rubric
• Math Proof Assessment Rubric
• Kansas State Sample Rubrics
• Design Single Point Rubric

Technology Tools: Rubrics in Moodle

• Moodle Docs: Rubrics
• Moodle Docs: Grading Guide (use for single-point rubrics)

Tools with rubrics (other than Moodle)

• Google Assignments
• Turnitin Assignments: Rubric or Grading Form

Other resources

• DePaul University (n.d.). Rubrics .
• Gonzalez, J. (2014). Know your terms: Holistic, Analytic, and Single-Point Rubrics . Cult of Pedagogy.
• Goodrich, H. (1996). Understanding rubrics . Teaching for Authentic Student Performance, 54 (4), 14-17. Retrieved from   
• Miller, A. (2012). Tame the beast: tips for designing and using rubrics.
• Ragupathi, K., Lee, A. (2020). Beyond Fairness and Consistency in Grading: The Role of Rubrics in Higher Education. In: Sanger, C., Gleason, N. (eds) Diversity and Inclusion in Global Higher Education. Palgrave Macmillan, Singapore.

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iRubric: Final Mathematical Creativity Presentation Rubric

How to Use Rubrics

A rubric is a document that describes the criteria by which students’ assignments are graded. Rubrics can be helpful for:

• Making grading faster and more consistent (reducing potential bias). 
• Communicating your expectations for an assignment to students before they begin. 

Moreover, for assignments whose criteria are more subjective, the process of creating a rubric and articulating what it looks like to succeed at an assignment provides an opportunity to check for alignment with the intended learning outcomes and modify the assignment prompt, as needed.

Why rubrics?

Rubrics are best for assignments or projects that require evaluation on multiple dimensions. Creating a rubric makes the instructor’s standards explicit to both students and other teaching staff for the class, showing students how to meet expectations.

Additionally, the more comprehensive a rubric is, the more it allows for grading to be streamlined—students will get informative feedback about their performance from the rubric, even if they don’t have as many individualized comments. Grading can be more standardized and efficient across graders.

Finally, rubrics allow for reflection, as the instructor has to think about their standards and outcomes for the students. Using rubrics can help with self-directed learning in students as well, especially if rubrics are used to review students’ own work or their peers’, or if students are involved in creating the rubric.

How to design a rubric

1. consider the desired learning outcomes.

What learning outcomes is this assignment reinforcing and assessing? If the learning outcome seems “fuzzy,” iterate on the outcome by thinking about the expected student work product. This may help you more clearly articulate the learning outcome in a way that is measurable.  

2. Define criteria

What does a successful assignment submission look like? As described by Allen and Tanner (2006), it can help develop an initial list of categories that the student should demonstrate proficiency in by completing the assignment. These categories should correlate with the intended learning outcomes you identified in Step 1, although they may be more granular in some cases. For example, if the task assesses students’ ability to formulate an effective communication strategy, what components of their communication strategy will you be looking for? Talking with colleagues or looking at existing rubrics for similar tasks may give you ideas for categories to consider for evaluation.

If you have assigned this task to students before and have samples of student work, it can help create a qualitative observation guide. This is described in Linda Suskie’s book Assessing Student Learning , where she suggests thinking about what made you decide to give one assignment an A and another a C, as well as taking notes when grading assignments and looking for common patterns. The often repeated themes that you comment on may show what your goals and expectations for students are. An example of an observation guide used to take notes on predetermined areas of an assignment is shown here .

In summary, consider the following list of questions when defining criteria for a rubric (O’Reilly and Cyr, 2006):

• What do you want students to learn from the task?
• How will students demonstrate that they have learned?
• What knowledge, skills, and behaviors are required for the task?
• What steps are required for the task?
• What are the characteristics of the final product?

After developing an initial list of criteria, prioritize the most important skills you want to target and eliminate unessential criteria or combine similar skills into one group. Most rubrics have between 3 and 8 criteria. Rubrics that are too lengthy make it difficult to grade and challenging for students to understand the key skills they need to achieve for the given assignment. 

3. Create the rating scale

According to Suskie, you will want at least 3 performance levels: for adequate and inadequate performance, at the minimum, and an exemplary level to motivate students to strive for even better work. Rubrics often contain 5 levels, with an additional level between adequate and exemplary and a level between adequate and inadequate. Usually, no more than 5 levels are needed, as having too many rating levels can make it hard to consistently distinguish which rating to give an assignment (such as between a 6 or 7 out of 10). Suskie also suggests labeling each level with names to clarify which level represents the minimum acceptable performance. Labels will vary by assignment and subject, but some examples are: 

• Exceeds standard, meets standard, approaching standard, below standard
• Complete evidence, partial evidence, minimal evidence, no evidence

4. Fill in descriptors

Fill in descriptors for each criterion at each performance level. Expand on the list of criteria you developed in Step 2. Begin to write full descriptions, thinking about what an exemplary example would look like for students to strive towards. Avoid vague terms like “good” and make sure to use explicit, concrete terms to describe what would make a criterion good. For instance, a criterion called “organization and structure” would be more descriptive than “writing quality.” Describe measurable behavior and use parallel language for clarity; the wording for each criterion should be very similar, except for the degree to which standards are met. For example, in a sample rubric from Chapter 9 of Suskie’s book, the criterion of “persuasiveness” has the following descriptors:

• Well Done (5): Motivating questions and advance organizers convey the main idea. Information is accurate.
• Satisfactory (3-4): Includes persuasive information.
• Needs Improvement (1-2): Include persuasive information with few facts.
• Incomplete (0): Information is incomplete, out of date, or incorrect.

These sample descriptors generally have the same sentence structure that provides consistent language across performance levels and shows the degree to which each standard is met.

5. Test your rubric

Test your rubric using a range of student work to see if the rubric is realistic. You may also consider leaving room for aspects of the assignment, such as effort, originality, and creativity, to encourage students to go beyond the rubric. If there will be multiple instructors grading, it is important to calibrate the scoring by having all graders use the rubric to grade a selected set of student work and then discuss any differences in the scores. This process helps develop consistency in grading and making the grading more valid and reliable.

Types of Rubrics

If you would like to dive deeper into rubric terminology, this section is dedicated to discussing some of the different types of rubrics. However, regardless of the type of rubric you use, it’s still most important to focus first on your learning goals and think about how the rubric will help clarify students’ expectations and measure student progress towards those learning goals.

Depending on the nature of the assignment, rubrics can come in several varieties (Suskie, 2009):

Checklist Rubric

This is the simplest kind of rubric, which lists specific features or aspects of the assignment which may be present or absent. A checklist rubric does not involve the creation of a rating scale with descriptors. See example from 18.821 project-based math class .

Rating Scale Rubric

This is like a checklist rubric, but instead of merely noting the presence or absence of a feature or aspect of the assignment, the grader also rates quality (often on a graded or Likert-style scale). See example from 6.811 assistive technology class .

Descriptive Rubric

A descriptive rubric is like a rating scale, but including descriptions of what performing to a certain level on each scale looks like. Descriptive rubrics are particularly useful in communicating instructors’ expectations of performance to students and in creating consistency with multiple graders on an assignment. This kind of rubric is probably what most people think of when they imagine a rubric. See example from 15.279 communications class .

Holistic Scoring Guide

Unlike the first 3 types of rubrics, a holistic scoring guide describes performance at different levels (e.g., A-level performance, B-level performance) holistically without analyzing the assignment into several different scales. This kind of rubric is particularly useful when there are many assignments to grade and a moderate to a high degree of subjectivity in the assessment of quality. It can be difficult to have consistency across scores, and holistic scoring guides are most helpful when making decisions quickly rather than providing detailed feedback to students. See example from 11.229 advanced writing seminar .

The kind of rubric that is most appropriate will depend on the assignment in question.

Implementation tips

Rubrics are also available to use for Canvas assignments. See this resource from Boston College for more details and guides from Canvas Instructure.

Allen, D., & Tanner, K. (2006). Rubrics: Tools for Making Learning Goals and Evaluation Criteria Explicit for Both Teachers and Learners. CBE—Life Sciences Education, 5 (3), 197-203. doi:10.1187/cbe.06-06-0168

Cherie Miot Abbanat. 11.229 Advanced Writing Seminar. Spring 2004. Massachusetts Institute of Technology: MIT OpenCourseWare, https://ocw.mit.edu . License: Creative Commons BY-NC-SA .

Haynes Miller, Nat Stapleton, Saul Glasman, and Susan Ruff. 18.821 Project Laboratory in Mathematics. Spring 2013. Massachusetts Institute of Technology: MIT OpenCourseWare, https://ocw.mit.edu . License: Creative Commons BY-NC-SA .

Lori Breslow, and Terence Heagney. 15.279 Management Communication for Undergraduates. Fall 2012. Massachusetts Institute of Technology: MIT OpenCourseWare, https://ocw.mit.edu . License: Creative Commons BY-NC-SA .

O’Reilly, L., & Cyr, T. (2006). Creating a Rubric: An Online Tutorial for Faculty. Retrieved from https://www.ucdenver.edu/faculty_staff/faculty/center-for-faculty-development/Documents/Tutorials/Rubrics/index.htm

Suskie, L. (2009). Using a scoring guide or rubric to plan and evaluate an assessment. In Assessing student learning: A common sense guide (2nd edition, pp. 137-154 ) . Jossey-Bass.

William Li, Grace Teo, and Robert Miller. 6.811 Principles and Practice of Assistive Technology. Fall 2014. Massachusetts Institute of Technology: MIT OpenCourseWare, https://ocw.mit.edu . License: Creative Commons BY-NC-SA .

Browse Course Material

Course info, instructors.

• Prof. Haynes Miller
• Dr. Nat Stapleton
• Saul Glasman

Departments

• Mathematics

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Learning resource types, project laboratory in mathematics, fall 2013 presentation rubric.

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Download Project Based Learning Rubrics

We've created a wide range of rubrics - for designing and teaching PBL to guiding students through key stages of the PBL process. 

All of our resources – rubrics, project ideas, student handouts, videos, and more – are available at My.PBLWorks.org . You can download over 25 different rubrics there!

Go to MyPBLWorks.org for all rubrics

Below are some of the most popular rubric downloads. 

Project Based Teaching Rubric

This rubric describes beginning, developing, and Gold Standard levels for Project Based Teaching Practices for K-12 teachers and features detailed, concrete indicators that illustrate what it means to teach in a PBL environment.

Teachers and school leaders can use this rubric to reflect on their practice and plan for professional growth.

Download here

Rubric for Rubrics

This rubric describes a well-written rubric, distinguishing between rubrics that meet, approach, or are below standards for selection of criteria, distinction between levels, and quality of writing. It also describes how a rubric is created and used with students.

Project Design Rubric

The Project Design Rubric uses the Essential Project Design Elements as criteria to evaluate projects. The rubric aligns with BIE's Gold Standard PBL model. Definitions and practical examples are used to clarify the meaning of each dimension.

You and your colleagues can use the rubric to guide the design of projects, give formative feedback, and reflect and revise.

Grades 9-12 Presentation Rubric

This rubric helps teachers guide students in grades 9-12 in making effective presentations in a project, and it can be used to assess their performance. 

Use this rubric to guide students and assess their work, or to inform your thinking as you create your own assessment tools. Schools and districts can adopt or adapt this rubric for use across all classrooms.

Grades 6-12 Creativity & Innovation Rubric

The first part of this rubric helps teachers guide students in grades 6-12 in using an effective process for innovation in various phases of a project, and it can be used to assess their performance. 

The second part of the rubric can be used to assess the degree of creativity shown in the products students create in a project.

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Math Rubrics

Exemplars math material includes standards-based rubrics that define what work meets a standard and allows teachers (and students) to distinguish between different levels of performance.

Our math rubrics have four levels of performance: Novice , Apprentice , Practitioner (meets the standard), and Expert .

Exemplars uses two types of rubrics: 

• Standards-Based Assessment Rubrics  are used by teachers to assess student work in Math
• Student Rubrics  are used by learners in self- and peer-assessment.

Assessment Rubrics

Student rubrics, standards-based math rubric.

This rubric was updated in 2014 to reflect more current standards. It supports NCTM Process Standards and the Common Core State Standards for Mathematical Practice .

Classic 5-Criteria Math Rubric

This rubric was developed to reflect the revised NCTM standards.

Classic 3-Criteria Math Rubric

This rubric was used from 1993 to 2001 to assess student performance. It is based on the original NCTM standards. Many schools and districts using Exemplars earlier material continue to use this rubric to assess student performance.

Pre K–K Rubric

This rubric was developed to assess younger students' performance. It is based on recommendations from NCTM and the preschool standards developed at the Conference on Standards for Prekindergarten and Kindergarten Mathematics Education.

Jigsaw Rubric

This rubric uses pieces of a jigsaw puzzle as symbols. It is appropriate to use with younger students who may not be able to follow the words in another rubric.

Thermometer Rubric

This rubric is appropriate to use with older children. They can self-assess by drawing a line on the thermometer. The teacher can also assess by making a mark on the same rubric.

• Our Mission

Resources for Using Rubrics in the Middle Grades

Looking for help with rubrics? With a focus on the middle grades, we’ve compiled tips, sample rubrics, and resources to help you design and implement rubrics for assessment.

Designing and Using Rubrics

This article from Edutopia’s Assessment Professional Development Guide explains the benefits of using rubrics, describes different types of rubrics, and offers tips on getting started.

Blogger Andrew Miller shares his experiences and suggestions for creating and using rubrics that will make students' -- and teachers' -- lives much easier.

Math teacher Lauren Hobbs describes factors to take into account in designing rubrics and the benefits of having students work together to do a mid-project rubric review, a strategy that can be useful for students in all grades.

In this book chapter, Susan M. Brookhart breaks down what rubrics can be used to assess, the advantages and disadvantages of different types of rubrics, and why rubrics are important. Tracey Muise’s review of Brookhart’s book on MiddleWeb includes specific takeaways for teachers of the middle grades.

Grant Wiggins discusses the ins and outs of creating quality rubrics and suggests that while bad rubrics shut down creativity, good rubrics have the potential to free up student creativity and initiative.

Jennifer Gonzalez has put together an illustrated guide to several different rubric types. For each type, she explains the basic structure, looks at the pros and cons, and offers a blank template that can be downloaded and customized.

Sample Rubrics from Schools that Work

Though originally used as part of an arts-integrated lesson for 8th-grade mathematics , this rubric could also be adapted for other grades and subjects. For more about arts integration at Bates Middle School , check out Edutopia's Schools that Work package on “ Transformation Through Art Integration .”

The School of the Future in New York develops and uses its own assessment techniques, including unannounced assessments in order to measure student learning at regular intervals. For more insight into how this school uses authentic assessment to provide a window into student learning, check out the video on authentic assessment for humanities , featuring teacher Sarah Kaufmann’s 6th-grade class, and the video on authentic assessment for algebra , featuring teacher Ben Mook’s 7th-grade class.

This Socratic Seminar Rubric from KIPP King High School includes standards of performance for inner circle and outer circle participants. For more about how KIPP King encourages the development of critical-thinking skills, see Edutopia's coverage in " The KIPP King Collegiate High School Story ." Also, check out this resource from MiddleWeb, “ Socratic Seminars in the Middle ” for advice about how to implement Socratic Seminars at the middle school level.

These rubrics, from an 8th-grade English class at YES Prep North Central , include criteria for evaluating different aspects of a student self-guided project on To Kill a Mockingbird . For more about this school and their mission to send every student to college, check out Edutopia's Schools that Work coverage in “ College Bound Culture in Houston .”

Rubric Tips, Tricks, and Strategies

Though many of these tips, tricks, and strategies come from sources that mention high school contexts, the methods discussed are also relevant to middle school classrooms and teachers.

Guest blogger Michelle Lampinen describes how she reverse-engineered a rubric for student assessment that includes links and QR codes.

Are you struggling to get through all of your grading? In the featured video, Jennifer Gonzalez explains how to use rubric codes to speed up the process of providing students with written feedback.

Teacher Dave Orphal describes his experiences involving his students in the creation of their grading rubric -- the process, the results, and his reflections on the experience.

Jay Atwood has created a helpful walkthrough of Goobric , a Chrome extension that can be used in conjunction with Doctopus to facilitate the process of scoring student work with rubrics and sharing feedback via Google Drive .

Teacher Self-Evaluation With Rubrics

Blogger and middle school teacher Heather Wolpert-Gawron describes how she uses rubrics to help her determine whether or not her assessments are meaningful for students.

Teacher Mary Tarashuk explains how she conducts self-evaluation using rubrics; to take a look at the rubrics she discusses, download " Teacher Evaluation Rubrics ," from The Marshall Memo .

This list, developed by Expeditionary Learning and used at King Middle School , defines six areas of focus teachers can use to self-rate when planning project-based learning. For more about project-based learning at King Middle School and other schools, check out “ Project-Based Learning in Maine ” from Edutopia’s Schools that Work.

Additional Resources

The Buck Institute for Education has a library of rubrics that can be used to assess project-based learning; they even have a rubric for rubrics that can help you avoid common pitfalls when creating rubrics.

This post describes a series of rubrics inspired by Carol Dweck's research on growth mindsets , created by Jon Bender, a former middle school teacher. Take a look at his two status and progress rubrics , intended to help students measure personal learning progress and growth. The New Tech Network , a nonprofit that works with schools and districts to help reform learning through project-based learning, has also developed a middle school rubric for measuring student growth .

Kathy Schrock has compiled a large number of links to rubrics that work for various types of assignments and projects; she also includes links to information about rubrics and rubric creation tools.

How do you use rubrics in your classroom? Are there other types of resources you'd like to see, or do you know of other useful resources? Please share your feedback in the comments.

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• Resource Library
• 6th Grade Mathematics
• Problem-Solving

Adding to the Rubric

Review the rubric, project rubric & relevant criteria.

Students design and work on their projects in class. They review the project rubric and, as a class, add criteria relevant to their specific projects.

Key Concepts

Throughout this unit, students are encouraged to apply the mathematical concepts they have learned over the course of this year to new settings. Help students develop and refine these problem-solving skills:

• Creating a problem-solving plan and implementing their plan systematically
• Persevering through challenging problems to find solutions
• Recalling prior knowledge and applying that knowledge to new situations
• Making connections between previous learning and real-world problems
• Communicating their approaches with precision and articulating why their strategies and solutions are reasonable
• Creating efficacy and confidence in solving challenging problems in a real world

Goals and Learning Objectives

• Create and implement a problem-solving plan.
• Organize and interpret data presented in a problem situation.
• Analyze the relationship between two variables.
• Use ratios.
• Write and solve proportions.
• Create rate tables to organize data and make predictions.
• Use multiple representations—including tables, graphs, and equations—to organize and communicate data.
• Articulate strategies, thought processes, and approaches to solving a problem and defend why the solution is reasonable.

Project Rubric

Lesson guide.

Have students view the project rubric. Give students 2 minutes to study the rubric. Then have students work with a partner to review the rubric. The first partner should take 1 minute to describe the rubric as completely as possible, and then the other partner should take 30 seconds to add to the description without repeating anything that was already said. When students are finished, tell them that today they will add any specifics to the rubric that they think are needed for evaluating their projects.

Work with a partner to review the project rubric.

• Take 2 minutes to study the project rubric.
• Then have one partner (without looking at the rubric) take 1 minute to describe the rubric as completely as possible to the other partner (who can see it). This partner should listen carefully to the description.
• Briefly look at the rubric again together. The partner who was previously the listener should now take 30 seconds to add to the description—without repeating any of it.

Math Mission

Discuss the Math Mission. Students will design and work on their projects.

Design and work on your project.

Project Work

Make sure students understand that the best use of this in-class project work day is to accomplish what they can't easily do later outside of class. Big, beautiful displays are a last step; now is the time for groups to decide how they will go about completing their project. Today's work is messy and preliminary; some of it may be devoted to finding resources (Internet-based and elsewhere).

Provide useful feedback by circulating among the working pairs and groups—listening to what they say and watching what they do. Ask clarifying questions:

• What mathematical concepts can you use to investigate your question?
• What materials are necessary?
• How will you investigate your question?
• How can you use units to clarify your results?
• How will you communicate your results to your audience?

Remind students to look at the list of what their presentation should include.

SWD: Students with disabilities may demonstrate difficulty initiating tasks. Some students may benefit from cues at the outset of independent/group work (proximal, visual and/or verbal).

ELL: Allow students to use a dictionary throughout the lesson. Dictionaries of either online or print format that have accompanying images will be best.

Allow students to choose a bilingual or monolingual dictionary (Level 1 or Level 2) based on their preference.

Work on your project with your project group.

Part of your work today may involve planning, making calculations, and/or finding needed information.

When your presentation is finished, it must contain:

• A written explanation of the mathematics in your project
• Accurate representations (such as graphs, tables, and/or diagrams) of the mathematics in your project
• Use the project rubric to evaluate your project in its current state to make sure you are on the right track.

Make Connections

Have students return to the project rubric. Tell them that, as a class, they can agree to add to—but not subtract from—the general rubric to improve the fit with their problem-solving projects. There are two main ways to add to the rubric:

• Add detail to one or more of the descriptions of score 4. (See the column “Specific to This Project.”)
• Add a new criterion for scoring, and then describe the score 4 for that criterion. (See the blank, last row.)

Give students a couple of minutes to talk with their partner or group. Then let individuals propose any specific additions. You or a student may record these; after the class discussion, adopt whichever criteria have the support of the class.

(Note: This is a brief, focused opportunity for students to take ownership of the rubric. They may make several additions or none. The objective is their buy-in.)

ELL: Call on ELLs and encourage them to participate, even if their pace is slower or they are shy or reluctant to volunteer.

Performance Task

Look at the rubric again.

• Notice the blank column with the heading Specific to This Project. Is there anything that you think should be added to this column?
• Next look at the bottom row that is blank. Is there any scoring criterion for the project that you think should be added here?
• Take a few minutes to discuss these questions with your partner. Write down any ideas you have.
• Discuss your ideas as a class.
• As you propose an idea, make sure to explain why you think it is important. After all ideas are discussed, the class will decide as a group whether or not to adopt any of the suggestions.

Reflect On Your Work

Give students a few minutes to respond individually to two simple prompts, focused on what they accomplished today and what their next steps are. These reflections can be quite skeletal—very short lists are fine. Then, give partners and groups a few more minutes to share their individual reflections. Make sure students realize that their reflections now serve as their “starter” for the work they will do outside of class to complete their problem-solving project.

SWD: Some students may struggle to initiate writing for this reflection. Prompt them to refer to the sentence starters for support. Provide students with scaffolding questions about their problem-solving plans or a bulleted list of common project steps about which the students can write.

Write a reflection about the ideas discussed in class today. Use the sentence starters below if you find them to be helpful. When you are finished writing, share your reflections with your group.

Today my group accomplished …

Our next steps are …

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15 Helpful Scoring Rubric Examples for All Grades and Subjects

In the end, they actually make grading easier.

When it comes to student assessment and evaluation, there are a lot of methods to consider. In some cases, testing is the best way to assess a student’s knowledge, and the answers are either right or wrong. But often, assessing a student’s performance is much less clear-cut. In these situations, a scoring rubric is often the way to go, especially if you’re using standards-based grading . Here’s what you need to know about this useful tool, along with lots of rubric examples to get you started.

What is a scoring rubric?

In the United States, a rubric is a guide that lays out the performance expectations for an assignment. It helps students understand what’s required of them, and guides teachers through the evaluation process. (Note that in other countries, the term “rubric” may instead refer to the set of instructions at the beginning of an exam. To avoid confusion, some people use the term “scoring rubric” instead.)

A rubric generally has three parts:

• Performance criteria: These are the various aspects on which the assignment will be evaluated. They should align with the desired learning outcomes for the assignment.
• Rating scale: This could be a number system (often 1 to 4) or words like “exceeds expectations, meets expectations, below expectations,” etc.
• Indicators: These describe the qualities needed to earn a specific rating for each of the performance criteria. The level of detail may vary depending on the assignment and the purpose of the rubric itself.

Rubrics take more time to develop up front, but they help ensure more consistent assessment, especially when the skills being assessed are more subjective. A well-developed rubric can actually save teachers a lot of time when it comes to grading. What’s more, sharing your scoring rubric with students in advance often helps improve performance . This way, students have a clear picture of what’s expected of them and what they need to do to achieve a specific grade or performance rating.

Learn more about why and how to use a rubric here.

Types of Rubric

There are three basic rubric categories, each with its own purpose.

Holistic Rubric

Source: Cambrian College

This type of rubric combines all the scoring criteria in a single scale. They’re quick to create and use, but they have drawbacks. If a student’s work spans different levels, it can be difficult to decide which score to assign. They also make it harder to provide feedback on specific aspects.

Traditional letter grades are a type of holistic rubric. So are the popular “hamburger rubric” and “ cupcake rubric ” examples. Learn more about holistic rubrics here.

Analytic Rubric

Source: University of Nebraska

Analytic rubrics are much more complex and generally take a great deal more time up front to design. They include specific details of the expected learning outcomes, and descriptions of what criteria are required to meet various performance ratings in each. Each rating is assigned a point value, and the total number of points earned determines the overall grade for the assignment.

Though they’re more time-intensive to create, analytic rubrics actually save time while grading. Teachers can simply circle or highlight any relevant phrases in each rating, and add a comment or two if needed. They also help ensure consistency in grading, and make it much easier for students to understand what’s expected of them.

Learn more about analytic rubrics here.

Developmental Rubric

Source: Deb’s Data Digest

A developmental rubric is a type of analytic rubric, but it’s used to assess progress along the way rather than determining a final score on an assignment. The details in these rubrics help students understand their achievements, as well as highlight the specific skills they still need to improve.

Developmental rubrics are essentially a subset of analytic rubrics. They leave off the point values, though, and focus instead on giving feedback using the criteria and indicators of performance.

Learn how to use developmental rubrics here.

Ready to create your own rubrics? Find general tips on designing rubrics here. Then, check out these examples across all grades and subjects to inspire you.

Elementary School Rubric Examples

These elementary school rubric examples come from real teachers who use them with their students. Adapt them to fit your needs and grade level.

Reading Fluency Rubric

You can use this one as an analytic rubric by counting up points to earn a final score, or just to provide developmental feedback. There’s a second rubric page available specifically to assess prosody (reading with expression).

Learn more: Teacher Thrive

Reading Comprehension Rubric

The nice thing about this rubric is that you can use it at any grade level, for any text. If you like this style, you can get a reading fluency rubric here too.

Learn more: Pawprints Resource Center

Written Response Rubric

Rubrics aren’t just for huge projects. They can also help kids work on very specific skills, like this one for improving written responses on assessments.

Learn more: Dianna Radcliffe: Teaching Upper Elementary and More

Interactive Notebook Rubric

If you use interactive notebooks as a learning tool , this rubric can help kids stay on track and meet your expectations.

Learn more: Classroom Nook

Project Rubric

Use this simple rubric as it is, or tweak it to include more specific indicators for the project you have in mind.

Learn more: Tales of a Title One Teacher

Behavior Rubric

Developmental rubrics are perfect for assessing behavior and helping students identify opportunities for improvement. Send these home regularly to keep parents in the loop.

Learn more: Teachers.net Gazette

Middle School Rubric Examples

In middle school, use rubrics to offer detailed feedback on projects, presentations, and more. Be sure to share them with students in advance, and encourage them to use them as they work so they’ll know if they’re meeting expectations.

Argumentative Writing Rubric

Argumentative writing is a part of language arts, social studies, science, and more. That makes this rubric especially useful.

Learn more: Dr. Caitlyn Tucker

Role-Play Rubric

Role-plays can be really useful when teaching social and critical thinking skills, but it’s hard to assess them. Try a rubric like this one to evaluate and provide useful feedback.

Learn more: A Question of Influence

Art Project Rubric

Art is one of those subjects where grading can feel very subjective. Bring some objectivity to the process with a rubric like this.

Source: Art Ed Guru

Diorama Project Rubric

You can use diorama projects in almost any subject, and they’re a great chance to encourage creativity. Simplify the grading process and help kids know how to make their projects shine with this scoring rubric.

Learn more: Historyourstory.com

Oral Presentation Rubric

Rubrics are terrific for grading presentations, since you can include a variety of skills and other criteria. Consider letting students use a rubric like this to offer peer feedback too.

Learn more: Bright Hub Education

High School Rubric Examples

In high school, it’s important to include your grading rubrics when you give assignments like presentations, research projects, or essays. Kids who go on to college will definitely encounter rubrics, so helping them become familiar with them now will help in the future.

Presentation Rubric

Analyze a student’s presentation both for content and communication skills with a rubric like this one. If needed, create a separate one for content knowledge with even more criteria and indicators.

Learn more: Michael A. Pena Jr.

Debate Rubric

Debate is a valuable learning tool that encourages critical thinking and oral communication skills. This rubric can help you assess those skills objectively.

Learn more: Education World

Project-Based Learning Rubric

Implementing project-based learning can be time-intensive, but the payoffs are worth it. Try this rubric to make student expectations clear and end-of-project assessment easier.

Learn more: Free Technology for Teachers

100-Point Essay Rubric

Need an easy way to convert a scoring rubric to a letter grade? This example for essay writing earns students a final score out of 100 points.

Learn more: Learn for Your Life

Drama Performance Rubric

If you’re unsure how to grade a student’s participation and performance in drama class, consider this example. It offers lots of objective criteria and indicators to evaluate.

Learn more: Chase March

How do you use rubrics in your classroom? Come share your thoughts and exchange ideas in the WeAreTeachers HELPLINE group on Facebook .

Plus, 25 of the best alternative assessment ideas ..

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