Make Your Own Learning Rubric - Classroom Freebies

Rubric generators are perfect for classroom differentiation of assessing student project work. Using a rubric maker online, you can create quick rubrics for math, writing, or any other common core standard you wish to assess.

Differentiation in the classroom is a given, and one way to differentiate is by changing up the product for different level/interest of the learner.

Of course, if you are allowing open-ended assignments, you want to make sure that expectations are very clear – or who knows what you might end up with – but when done correctly, assigning hands-on projects that match student interest or learning styles can produce some amazing representations of the learning goals!

I learned this very early on when I decided to assign a group of third graders a project in which they were expected to construct a choice of a poem, diorama, or bumper sticker.

I received a wide range of projects, from the one that exceeded any type of expectation I had to the one that was obviously done that morning (or maybe even during lunch).

Of course, I quickly stopped to reflect on how I had best conveyed the general expectations of the assignment – and quickly I realized that self-reflection of my own teaching was a good thing – lol!

The next time, I made sure to have an easy rubric ready for each of the projects, as well as a sample I had created myself so that students were able to have a clear goal in mind as a base point from which to start their own.

The second time around, the assignments were much better and I was able to grade accordingly knowing I had set forth very clear and reasonable expectations to the students.

How do you develop and customize a rubric with a rubric creator?

You can create rubrics for learning objectives, behavior, cooperative activities, or anything else you can come up with that needs clearly set parameters.

If you are at a loss for where to begin with your rubric, here are a few sites that have fast, pre-made rubrics ready for your use and/or blank template generators for you to create your own:

Recipes4Success – there are default text options on this rubric maker which is a nice starting off point
Teachnology – this site has a bunch of links to various generators as well
Rubistar – always my personal favorite and go-to rubric generator
iRubric – love that this site also has an option to share rubrics so you never have to recreate the wheel

When creating your rubric, begin by deciding 4-5 main categories in which you will be assessing students.

If it is writing you are grading, look for items such as grammar and mechanics.

If instead you are looking at an open-ended project, you will want to assess creativity, completeness, and neatness amongst other things.

After you have your 4-5 main categories, choose a point breakdown.

You may want to keep it simple and do a 0, 3, and 5 point option. Or maybe 60, 85, and 100.

In the end, it’s up to you to decide what the various weights are worth for your formal assessment piece.

After adding your categories and point values for each of the columns, create 2-3 criteria which you will use to verify whether the student hit that mark or not. Build on the criteria for higher point values.

Make sure to save your work so you can “tweak” the copy later and use again from year to year. #winning

What is a rubric sample template?

As part of my Jungle Theme Classroom Essentials Set, there is a blank rubric which allows for you to customize – and I have decided to share it with you today. 🙂

After downloading the free file to your email, use Adobe Reader to open. Do not just double click on the file as that tends to open it in Preview. The file will not be customizable should it open in Preview.

After making sure to open in Adobe Reader (it’s free to download if you don’t already have it installed on your computer), you will see blue text boxes right on the rubric.

Feel free to edit the file to whatever you like, save, and print!