Despite the overwhelming number of scoring rubrics you can find on the Internet and in various textbooks and curriculum guides, most rubrics fall into one of two categories: Analytic or holistic scoring rubrics.

Analytic scoring rubrics

Analytic rubrics attempt to break down the final product or goal into measurable components and parts. In other words, your student has a project or assignment and you use an analytic scoring rubric to evaluate all the pieces of the project. Analytic rubrics typically use numbers to measure quality. Let’s take the example below.

Student Assignment: Write a one-page paper on your summer vacation.

The rubric might break down the evaluation process into three parts- content of the paper, grammar and mechanics, and organization of ideas. For each of these components, numbers would be assigned.

(1) Needs improvement, (2) Developing, (3) Goal, (4) Above average, (5) Excellent

The rubric also explains what exactly each of those numbers mean. So a student might have a score like this:

Content (3) – Ideas were developed and thought out. Examples were given.
Grammar (4) – The paper was free of all spelling and grammar errors. There were only a few awkward sentences.
Organization (2) – Each idea was not separated out into paragraphs. Author jumped around and confused the reader.

With an analytic scoring rubric, the student and teacher can see more clearly what areas need work and what areas are mastered. It is far more descriptive than a simple A, B, or C grade.

Holistic scoring rubrics

Whereas analytic rubrics break down the assignment into measurable pieces, a holistic scoring rubric evaluates the work as a whole. In the above example, a holistic rubric would look like this:

Student Assignment: Write a one-page paper on your summer vacation.

(1) Needs improvement: The story is not clearly organized, grammar errors make it difficult to understand, and content is lacking.

(2) Developing: The student has a grasp on the assignment but needs to spend more time organizing thoughts, adding details, and fixing errors.

(3) Goal: The student has completely the paper using good content, correct, grammar, and a logical organization of ideas.

(4) Above average: The story is full of great content, organized well, and free from spelling and grammar errors.

(5) Excellent: The student went above and beyond, adding rich detail to his/her story. The content is interesting and organized well. Thoughts are well described. Grammar and mechanics are flawless.

With this rubric, the piece is evaluated as a whole.

General or task-specific?

Rubrics can be either. General rubrics are used across multiple assignments. Once you have developed a general rubric, you can use it to measure different subjects and lessons. Task-specific rubrics are designed to evaluate one specific assignment. Using these guidelines, you can categorize your rubrics into one of the following categories:

General holistic scoring rubric

General analytic scoring rubric

Task-specific analytic scoring rubric

Task-specific holistic scoring rubric

General holistic rubrics have advantages and disadvantages. If you spend the time to create a solid scoring rubric, you won’t have to do it again. Students will quickly grasp the “meaning” of each number- therefore understanding what needs improving from assignment to assignment. The value of each number is clear. The disadvantage to this type of rubric is that different subjects may need more specific scoring instructions. With the same rubric used over and over again, your or your students might get stuck in a rut – always using the same score.

General analytic scoring rubrics are difficult to create. Since an analytic rubric is designed to break an assignment into pieces, the best bet is to create a general analytic rubric for a particular subject (like one for writing, one for math, one for reading, etc.). Each subject has similar “measurables” – something that would be difficult to create across different disciplines.

Task-specific analytic scoring rubrics are the most comprehensive and detailed. While they provide a great source of feedback to the student and teacher, it does require more work upfront to create. Creating a task-specific analytic rubric for each assignment would be tremendously tedious. Save these types of rubrics for projects that are large and need to be broken down into parts and pieces for your students to manage and understand.

Task-specific holistic rubrics are like the “balanced” middle of the road rubric. They are designed for a particular assignment, but evaluate it as a whole rather than in parts.

Creating a Scoring Rubric

Why is it important to create scoring rubrics for your students? Well for one, it helps to spell out clearly what you expect from them in terms of quality, content, and effort. It gives you an objective criterion on which to base a grade, eliminating a lot of the “It’s not fair!” mentality that can creep in when grades seem arbitrary. It allows your students the opportunity to understand more comprehensively your expectations of performance. A scoring rubric can also be used for peer-to-peer evaluation. This is another way to engage your students in the learning process.

Decide what kind of rubric you are going to make- general or task specific, and then analytic or holistic.
Use a Word processing software or Excel to make a chart.
If you are creating an analytic scoring rubric, divide the project or assignment up into parts (for example, a math project might have the categories – creativity, understanding of mathematical concepts, correct answers, presentation, effort, etc.).
Place these categories in one column down the left side of the table or chart.
Create a scoring method. You can use numbers (i.e. 1-5) and attach words to each number (like 1 is poor, 2 is below average, 3 is average, 4 is above average, and 5 is excellent). If it is a task-specific analytic rubric, you can be even more descriptive.
Put these scores along the top of the chart in one row. Each score should represent a column.
Now you have to write up a short blurb for each category and score. Here is an example of a task-specific analytic scoring rubric for a math project.

Category

1 – Poor

2 – Below Average

3 – Average

4 – Above Average

5 – Excellent

Effort

Student’s work shows little preparation, creativity or effort. Lots of errors and sloppy handwriting.

Student put for minimal effort. Has a few errors and could have added more to the presentation.

Student gave effort to the project. Met all the expectations. Didn’t go above and beyond.

Student spent a lot of time working to make sure the presentation was well done. Got help and asked for feedback.

Student went above and beyond the assignment. Did extra research and work.

Understanding of concepts

Didn’t incorporate concepts into project. Misunderstood the ideas and principles.

Understood a few of the concepts, but still left out pieces and parts of the assignment.

Student understood concepts and completed all the tasks in the assignment.

Student understood the concepts and did more than what was expected of him/her.

Student mastered the concepts and even added more to the principles.

Correct answers to problems

Most or all of the answers to each problem were incorrect.

Half of the problems were incorrect.

Student got most of the problems correct with only a few errors.

Student got every problem correct.

Student got every problem correct, including the bonus work.

Presentation

Presentation was rushed, sloppy, and too short. Lacked effort and/or visual tools.

Presentation was short and lacking creativity. Some visuals were used.

Presentation was correct length. Student used visuals.

Presentation was well done, with visuals, interaction with the class, and comprehensive.

Presentation was creative, excellently done, using visuals and props.

The student should be given the scoring rubric before the project begins. This way, he/she understands exactly what you are grading on and how you will assess performance. Once you’ve graded the presentation with the rubric, you can add up the scores and take the average. When using a 1-5 model, it’s easy to assign 1=F, 2=D, 3=C, 4=B, 5=A.

You can also leave an extra column to write in comments about each category. Whenever possible, write criterion that are measurable. Use specifics. For general rubrics, this is a bit more challenging, but you can get some idea by perusing online rubrics to see what kind of language other educators use.

Using Descriptive Gradations

The example above gives you some generic terms to use (like poor, average, etc.), but depending on the task, other words might work better to describe your expectations and criteria. Here are some options to try:

Beginning, developing, accomplished, exemplary
No, maybe, yes
Missing, unclear, clear, thorough
Below expectations, basic, proficient, outstanding
Never, rarely, sometimes, often, always
Novice, apprentice, proficient, master
Lead, bronze, silver, gold
Byte, kilobyte, megabyte, gigabyte
Adagio, andante, moderato, allegro

How do you create a rubric to grade an oral presentation by a student? There should be at least 3 criteria, with A, B, C, D, and F as possible grades. The overall score/grade is a part of the document. It can be in table format. Help please

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