Student Friendly Math Rubric
Score
6
Exceptional
awesome
goes beyond
5
very good
clear
strong
4
pretty good
gets the job done
3
good try
unclear
2
incomplete
confusing
1
may or may not
make an effort
hard to
understand
Understanding
Support for Thinking
 Finds all important parts of
problem
 Has full understanding of math
needed
 Uses unusual, creative thinking
 Finds most of the important parts
of problem
 Has good understanding of math
needed
 Finds more than one way to solve
problem
 Uses many ways to show thinking
like diagrams, designs, analyses,
 Does more than problem asks
 Finds one or more ways to solve
problem
 Uses several ways to show thinking
like diagrams, chars, graphs, etc.
 May experiment, design or analyse
 May compare problem to another,
predict
 Uses one way to solve problem
 Some ways to show thinking may be
missing
 May experiment, design or analsyse
 Writes a clear, convincing,
thoughtful answer
 Writes to an audience
 Diagrams very clear
 May or may not solve the problem
 Mathematical thinking is unclear of
limited
 Chooses wrong ways to solve
problem
 Has trouble writing ideas
 May or may not write to an
audience
 Diagrams or charts not clear
 Doesn’t explain thinking
 Uses ways to solve problem which
don’t fit the problem
 Writes in a confusing way
 May or may not write to an
audience
 Answers difficult to understand
 Makes little or no attempt to explain
results
 Writes in a way that is very hard
to understand
 Finds most of the important parts
of problem-some less important
are missing
 Understands most of the math
needed
 Finds a few of the important parts
of problem
 Understands some of the math
needed
 Thinking gets mixed up
 Might miss the big idea
 Little understanding of the
problem
 Finds less important part of the
problem
 Understands bits and pieces of
math needed
 Doesn’t understand the problem
Communication




Writes clearly
Makes sense
Writes to an audience
Diagrams clear
 Addresses all parts of the
problem
 Writes to an audience
 Writing may be unclear
Source: ACU Assessment informing our teaching: Practical ideas and approaches for busy teachers – Doug Clarke and Ann Downton, August 2006