Write Grading Rubrics with Claude
Generate clear, consistent rubrics for any assignment: essays, projects, presentations, or lab reports.
The situation
You have assigned an essay and now need to explain exactly how you will grade it. You want something fair and useful.
After this guide you will have a rubric that is clear enough to share with students before they submit.
What you walk away with
A professional rubric for any assignment in minutes
Consistent, defensible criteria that students understand
A template you can adapt for similar assignments all year
The difference one prompt makes
Don't
write a rubric for an essay
Do this
Create a rubric for a Year 11 English essay on the theme of power in a novel of their choice. Assessment criteria: Argument & thesis (30%), Evidence & analysis (30%), Structure & organization (20%), Language & expression (20%). Four performance levels: Excellent, Proficient, Developing, Beginning. For each criterion and level, write 2-3 specific, observable descriptors. Format as a table I can share with students.
Criteria, weightings, grade levels, and specific descriptors turn the output into something you can actually hand to a student.
List your assessment criteria and weightings before prompting
Claude needs your criteria upfront. If you have not decided them yet, here is a starting framework for common assignment types.
- Essays: argument/thesis, evidence and analysis, structure, language and expression
- Projects: research quality, presentation, collaboration (if group), creativity or originality
- Presentations: content accuracy, delivery and clarity, visual aids, response to questions
- Lab reports: hypothesis, method, results and analysis, conclusion and evaluation
- Creative writing: idea and originality, structure and plot, character or setting, language and style
Decide how many performance levels you need
Three levels works well for simpler assignments. Four or five levels gives more granularity for complex work. Name them in your prompt.
Create a rubric for a Year 8 Science lab report. Assessment criteria:
- Hypothesis (20%): clear prediction with reasoning
- Method (25%): logical sequence, controlled variables identified
- Results and analysis (35%): accurate data recording, graph interpretation
- Conclusion (20%): links back to hypothesis, acknowledges limitations
Four performance levels: Excellent (A), Proficient (B), Developing (C), Beginning (D).
For each criterion and level: 2 specific, observable descriptors.
Format as a table. Write descriptors so a student can self-assess.Specify whether descriptors are for students or for your grading record
Descriptors written for students use second-person and action language ("Your thesis clearly states..."). Descriptors for your grading record are more clinical. Tell Claude which you need.
- For students: "write each descriptor in second person, as if talking directly to the student"
- For grading: "write each descriptor in third person as an observable statement"
- Both: "write two versions: one for the student-facing version of the rubric, one for my marking notes"
Ask Claude to generate sample work descriptions at each level
Students often struggle to understand what "Excellent" means in practice. Concrete examples close that gap before submission, not after.
For the "Argument and thesis" criterion in the rubric above, describe what a real student response looks like at each of the four performance levels. 2-3 sentences per level. Be concrete enough that a Year 11 student can tell which level their draft belongs to.What's next?
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