Review your assessment. Determine exactly what standards you're assessing and what measurable objectives you can use to gauge your students' understanding of those standards. For instance, if your assignment is creating a map, you might grade them on the countries' labels, the national borders, the key and symbols, the compass rose and the geographical features.
Determine any additional qualities that would distinguish an excellent project from a merely adequate one. For instance, if the project were a travel brochure about South American countries, you would be well within your rights to grade the students based on neatness even though neatness has nothing to do with their understanding of geography.
Rank the criteria in order, from most to least important. This will help you decide how many points you will eventually assign to each criterion. In general, criteria that actually relate to the standards should be worth more than criteria such as neatness, effort or creativity. It is fine if some standards are equally important.
Review your measurable objectives. Picture exactly what a student would have to do in order to earn full points for each objective. Jot down those requirements. For instance, if one of your objectives for a brochure about South America is "Identify important historic landmarks in South America," one of your requirements might be, "The brochure names and accurately describes at least three important historic landmarks of South America."
Type your requirements for a perfect score in a list. Each requirement should only take up about half the page; if a line starts to cross over into the other half of the page, press "Enter" and keep typing on the new line.
Determine how many points you would like each criterion to be worth, based on the ranks you gave them. More important criteria should be worth more points.
Click on the last letter of one of your requirements. Click "Tab" until your cursor is a little past the halfway point of the page. Underscore five times, press the slash key and write the number of points the requirement is worth after the slash. Repeat for each of your requirements.
Add up your total number of points for the assignment. They should add up to 100 unless you are deliberately creating an assessment that is worth more or fewer points. If they do not add up to 100, adjust them until they do.
Write the number of points the students actually earn for each criterion on the underscore when grading the assignments. Add up the total points earned for the student's grade.
Create a spreadsheet with seven columns and one more row than your total number of criteria. Leave the top left-hand cell blank. In each of the other cells on the top row, write "4 -- Excellent," "3 -- Good," "2 -- Acceptable," "1 -- Needs Work," "Weight" and "Points Earned."
Write a brief descriptor for each of your criteria in the left column. This descriptor should be no more than four words. For instance, in the example of historic landmarks of South America, you would simply write "Historic Landmarks."
Write your requirements for an exemplary project in the "4 -- Excellent" column. These are the qualities of a project that would earn an A. If the requirements you brainstormed earlier are simply the requirements for a passing project or a project that would earn a B, adjust them accordingly. For instance, if the student would have to list and describe three landmarks just to pass, you might write, "The brochure lists at least four historic South American landmarks, with detailed descriptions of their physical appearance and historical significance."
Write your requirements for a good project in the "3 -- Good" column. These are the qualities of a project that would earn a B. For instance, you might write, "The brochure lists at least three historic South American landmarks, with accurate descriptions of their physical appearance and historical significance."
Write your requirements for an adequate project in the "2 -- Acceptable" column. These are the qualities of a project that would earn a C. For instance, you might write, "The brochure lists three South American landmarks, but a few details are incorrect. It may only describe physical appearance or historical significance, but not both."
Write the description of an unacceptable or failing project in the "1 -- Needs Work" column. For instance, you might write, "The brochure lists fewer than three South American landmarks, or only gives their names without describing them, or gives completely inaccurate information."
Assign each criterion a weight and write it in the "Weight" column for that criterion. Without weight, each criterion will only be worth four points. When you score the project, you will multiply each criterion by its weight, so more important criteria should have a greater weight. For instance, if you want a criterion to be worth 20 points instead of four, you would write "5" in the "Weight" column. You would then multiply each number for that criterion by five when grading. A project that would earn four points if unweighted would earn 20 instead, while a project that would earn three if unweighted would earn 15.
Add up the total number of points for the assignment by adding up the numbers in your "Weight" column. The assignment will be worth that total number multiplied by four, so the numbers should add up to 25 unless you want the assignment to be worth more or fewer than 100 points. If they don't add up to 25, adjust the weights until they do. You may have to give decimal weights, such as "2.5," to make the math work.
Determine how you will grade a project that falls somewhere in between two numbers for your criteria. If a map's key falls short of your requirements for a "3" but exceeds your requirements for a "2," will you round up to a "3," round down to a "2" or split the difference and award the student a "2.5"?
Grade assignments with a grid rubric by checking off the cell matching the score the student earns for each criterion. For instance, if the student earns a "3" for "Historic Landmarks," you would check off the "3" in that row. Multiply the score by the weight and write the result into the "Points Earned" column. Add up the points earned to determine the final grade.