Some teachers prefer to purchase a pre-made rubric that is appropriate for the grade level, while others may like to make their own. In either case, it is important for the instructor to consult the current curriculum requirements to make sure that they are being satisfied. One idea is to come up with some requirements for the rubric and allow the class to add one or two criteria of their own. This gets them involved in the process and held more accountable for their grade, since they are the ones who suggested some of the criteria.
This section of the rubric will have the criteria for a top grade on the project. The student's ability to clearly communicate her ideas, thinking critically about the characters and usint her previous knowledge to interpret the story are a few items to be added in this section. Other criteria could be identifying the main conflict of the story, associating words with a character, forming an opinion of the overall story and pointing out a few specific examples in the reading. Students performing in this category should be able to cite where the information came from.
A section of "Meets Standards" should reflect an average amount of work for the project. To make the rubric consistent, use the same information from the "Exceeds Standards" section with a few alterations. The student should still be able to communicate the information clearly, tell some attributes about the character and identify a conflict or theme. What sets this section apart from "Exceeds Standards" is that previous knowledge may be missing from the analysis. While a student may do an adequate job with the report, a comprehensive analysis will usually be missing.
This section of the rubric should reflect a poor effort applied to the paper. Students performing in this section will not have an understanding of the story, characters and conflict and inconsistent information. The information in the paper will be lacking a clear communication of an idea, be off topic or omit main themes altogether. Share this and all other parts of the rubric with the students so that they are aware of the consequences of below-standard work.