Determine which reading skills need to be evaluated. This step will depend on the age of the students being assessed. Beginning readers will need to work on skills such as phonics, sight words and focus, while more proficient readers will work on building fluency and comprehension.
Analyze examples of rubrics to become familiar with their wording, setup and design.
Choose one skill to start with, and write a description of the highest performance expectation for that skill. This should be assigned a point value of 4 and should fully explain what students need to do in order to receive that score.
Write the next description for the next-highest expectation for the same skill, and assign this level a point value of 3. In establishing this benchmark, determine what qualities of performance a student possessing a fair grasp of the skill would be able to demonstrate.
Consider the skill level of a student who has not shown proficiency in that particular skill in the past, but is now demonstrating some improvement or forward movement in that area. Write a performance description accordingly, and label it as 2 points.
Write a description of the qualities a novice student might demonstrate in regards to the skill being assessed. This level will be assigned the lowest point value in the rubric -- 1 point -- and it signifies a beginner's ability level.
Pick a different skill and complete the same process of writing descriptions for each point value. Continue until the expectations for all skills have been explained in details that students can understand.
Format your rubric in a word processing program by inserting a table into a blank document. Five columns are necessary, but the number of rows depends on how may skills are being assessed. Create one more row than there are skills.
Fill in the left column with the designations for each specific skill to be evaluated, one per box in descending order, leaving the top block empty.
Fill in the top row going across with each point value, one per block, skipping the left corner block. Numbers may be written in either ascending or descending order.
Begin with the first skill to be assessed, and write each of its performance expectations in the blocks beside that skill name and under the correct point-value column. Then, complete each additional row of the chart with the four descriptions for those skills. Be sure to place them in the correct numerical order, as listed across the top row. When finished, only the top left corner block should be empty.
Add a header to title the rubric and give a line for the student's name.
Print a rubric for every student being evaluated, and use the rubric to circle the description matching the student's demonstrated performance in each skill.