Rubrics for kindergarten and 1st grade: three levels, pictures, no points

1 Why three levels and not four

Most rubrics for older students have four levels: exceeds, meets, approaching and beginning. That works for a ten-year-old who can read the cells and weigh one against another. A kindergartner can't do that yet. Asking them to tell "approaching" from "beginning" is asking them to tell two kinds of almost apart, and they will guess.

Three levels match how young children already talk about their work. Something is great, it's done, or it isn't done yet. The K–2 band of every premade rubric on Rubrics for every assignment uses exactly those three:

• Wow! The work does what was asked and something more a child can see: more details, every word spaced, a picture that matches and has labels.
• Yes: The work does what was asked.
• Not yet: The work doesn't do it yet. The word "yet" matters; it says the skill is on its way.

The labels are short enough to say aloud, point to and remember. Children pick them up after a few uses, and you will hear them using the words on their own work without the rubric in front of them.

2 Why the K–2 band drops the scores

Our K–2 rubrics print with no points by default. That was a deliberate choice, and it's worth explaining to colleagues and families who expect a number.

• A score ends the conversation. A child who hears "you got a 2" stops listening. A child who hears "your spaces are a Yes, let's make your capital a Yes too" knows what to do next.
• Young children can't use the number. Adding three rows to get 8 out of 15 means nothing to a five-year-old. The circled words do.
• The skills are moving fast. A kindergartner may go from Not yet to Wow! on spaces in a month. A total hides which row moved.
• It keeps the focus on the work. With no score to chase, the rubric becomes a picture of what good work looks like, which is what young children need most.

None of this means you can't track progress. Keep the circled rubrics in a folder and compare fall with spring: which rows moved from Not yet to Yes is a clearer record than a column of totals. If your school or report card needs a number, the maker can add the points back in one click, as the last chapter shows.

3 Pictures a child can read

A rubric for children who can't read yet needs a way in that isn't words. The simplest one is a small picture at the start of each row, so you can say "find the eye" and every child's finger lands on the right line.

Our premade rubrics print the words only, so add the pictures by hand. It takes a minute on your master copy before you make the copies:

• One picture a row, drawn in the criteria box: an eye for looking at friends, an open mouth for a loud voice, a pencil for writing, a finger for spaces, a dot for the period.
• Faces over the three columns: a big smile for Wow!, a smile for Yes, a straight mouth for Not yet. Keep Not yet calm, never sad.
• The same pictures all year. Once a child knows the eye means "look at my friends", it works on every rubric that has that row.
• Plain line drawings. They photocopy cleanly in black and white and a child can copy them in their own self-check.

The same idea shows up on the exit ticket maker, which prints a "How sure are you?" line with three drawn faces: Not yet, Getting there and Got it. Using the same three faces on your rubric and your exit tickets gives young students one way to talk about their learning.

4 Reading it aloud: before, during and after

A K–2 rubric is a spoken thing. Plan to read it to the class three times, and keep each reading short.

Before the work

Hold up the rubric and read only the Yes column, one row at a time, pointing to the picture. That is the target. Then show one quick example of a Wow! so they know what more looks like.

What to sayHere is what a Yes looks like. Find the eye. Yes means I look up at my friends some of the time. Wow! means I look at my friends almost all the time. Show me with your eyes what that looks like.

During the work

Walk around with the rubric and point to one row for a child who is stuck: "Find the finger. Are your words spaced?" One row at a time is enough.

After the work

Sit with each child for a minute, or with a small group. Read a row, let them point to their face, then show yours. Finish with one row to work on next and say it as a plan, not a correction.

5 A kindergarten writing rubric, row by row

Here is the K–2 band of our kindergarten writing rubric, word for word. It has five rows and three levels, every cell in the first person.

• My picture. Wow! My picture matches my words and has lots of details and color. Yes: My picture matches my words. Not yet: My picture does not match my words yet.
• Letters and sounds. Wow! I write a letter for every sound I hear, and spell some words the right way. Yes: I write the first and last sounds in my words. Not yet: I write some letters, but they do not match the sounds yet.
• Spaces. Wow! I put a finger space between every word. Yes: I put spaces between most of my words. Not yet: My words run together.
• Capital and period. Wow! My sentence starts with a capital and ends with a period. Yes: I remember the capital or the period. Not yet: I forget the capital and the period.
• Telling my idea. Wow! I write a whole sentence, or more, that tells my idea. Yes: I write a few words that tell my idea. Not yet: I tell my idea out loud, but not in words yet.

Two things to copy into your own rubrics. Each row changes one thing across the levels, so a child can count or check it. And the bottom cell of the last row still credits the child: telling the idea out loud is real work at five, and the rubric says so.

Picture ideas for these rows: a crayon, an ear, a finger, a capital A with a dot, a speech bubble.

6 Setting one up in the free maker

You can print a premade K–2 rubric as it is, or change it in the rubric maker. Either way the K–2 version prints with no points.

1. Pick a premade rubric from the rubric list and jump to its Grades K–2 band. Press Print for the table, or Print the "I can" checklist for a list of boxes to tick, one "I can" line a row.
2. Or open it in the maker with the band's Open in the maker button. The three levels come with it, and the score column is off.
3. Starting from blank instead? Pick any starting template, then press the K–2 levels: Wow! / Yes / Not yet link under the settings. It sets three levels and turns the score column off in one step.
4. Cut to four or five rows. Fewer is better at this age. One row you read well beats six rows nobody remembers.
5. Print a master, draw the row pictures and faces on it, and copy that.

The maker keeps what you type in your browser, and a rubric never needs a child's name to be made. The printed sheet has a name and date line for children to fill in on paper, and you can switch it off.

7 When your school needs a number

Some schools ask for a score even in kindergarten, or a report card needs a 1, 2 or 3 for each skill. You can give one without changing the rubric children see.

• Turn the points on in the maker. Tick Score column and total. The three levels already carry points, 3 for Wow!, 2 for Yes and 1 for Not yet, so each row prints "/ 3" and the total line appears.
• Keep two copies. Score on your copy, and give children the copy with faces and no numbers.
• Report rows, not totals, where your report card allows it. "Spaces: 3, Capital and period: 1" says more than 9 out of 15.
• Line up the words with the report card. If the report card says "meets" and "not yet meeting", tell families which rubric word matches which.

If you do switch to scores in 2nd grade, keep the same rows and the same "I can" lines. Students then move to a new way of reading the rubric, not a new rubric, and the step to four levels in 3rd grade is a small one.