Review your district's standards, particularly those that relate to poetic concepts such as figurative language, rhyme, rhythm or imagery. Choose one to three related standards you would like to assess with the poetry assignment.
Brainstorm specific, measurable ways the students can meet each standard you intend to use. For instance, if the standard is "Students will understand metaphor and simile," you might write, "Uses at least three appropriate and original metaphors." If the standard is "Students will identify imagery and sensory language," you might write, "Describes something vividly using at least three of the five senses."
Create your poetry assignment based on the standards and the measurable objectives you wrote. For instance, if your standards and objectives focus on rhyme and rhythm, you might have your students write a sonnet, while a sense poem would be more appropriate for sensory language or imagery standards.
List all criteria you intend to use to grade the assignment. These include any objectives you brainstormed in relation to the standard, any criteria which relate to the poetic form and any other criteria which you believe would be appropriate for the assignment. For instance, if you are having the students write a haiku, you would be well within your rights to include "The first line is five syllables, the second is seven and the third is five" even if your district does not have standards related to haiku.
Assign each criterion a point value and type your criteria and their point values onto a list to give your students. More important criteria should be worth more points, and the points should total 100.
Distribute the rubric to your students when you assign the poem and explain that you will use these criteria to grade them.
Grade the finished poems based on how well the students met the criteria. Award the poem a certain number of points per objective based on how well you feel it matches that objective. For instance, if you had "The poem will use at least three appropriate and original metaphors" as a 15-point criterion and a student's poem used three metaphors that were labored or cliched, you might assign eight or 10 points instead of the full 15.
Create a spreadsheet with seven columns and one more row than the number of criteria on your list. Leave the first cell blank. Label the other cells in the top row "4 -- Excellent," "3 -- Good," "2 -- Acceptable," "1 -- Needs Work," "Weight" and "Points Earned."
Enter each criterion into a cell in the first column of the spreadsheet as one- to four-word phrases, still leaving the top cell blank. For instance, if one of your criteria were "Uses at least three appropriate and original metaphors," you might write "Metaphors." If one of your criteria were "Uses iambic pentameter and the appropriate rhyme scheme for a sonnet," you might write "Sonnet Characteristics."
Enter the qualities of an exemplary poem into the "4 -- Excellent" column. For instance, in "Metaphors," you might write, "Uses at least three vivid, appropriate and creative metaphors."
Enter the qualities of a good poem into the "3 -- Good" column. For instance, in "Metaphors," you might write "Uses at least three appropriate and original metaphors."
Enter the qualities of a fair or C-quality poem into the "2 -- Acceptable" column. Enter the qualities of an unacceptable or failing poem into the "1 -- Needs Work" column.
Enter multipliers in the "Weight" columns of the more important criteria to give them more weight. Without multipliers, every item on the rubric is worth four points. If you want an item to be worth 20 points, enter "x5" in its "Weight" column. Every score for that item will be multiplied by five, so an excellent score would be worth 20 points rather than four, and a fair score would be worth 10 points rather than two. The points should add up to 100 unless you want the poem to be worth more or less than 100 points.
Distribute the rubric to your students when you assign the poem and explain that you will use these criteria to grade them. Explain the layout of the rubric to them, as grid rubrics more complicated and less intuitive than checklist rubrics.
Determine how you will grade a poem that falls somewhere between two numbers before you begin grading. If a poem's use of alliteration doesn't quite meet the standards of a "4" but exceeds the standards of a "3," will you round up, round down or split the difference and give it a "3.5"?
Keep a rubric next to you as you grade the poems. As you read each poem, look specifically for the criteria you outline on your rubric. Check off the cell matching the score the student earns for each criterion. Multiply each score by the multiplier and write the total for each criterion into the "Points Earned" column. Add all the points earned for the total grade.