The first step in writing a rubric is to investigate if the process, product or performance that students will be engaged in deserves a rubric. Once you've established that a rubric is a good fit, there are several different starting options. For example, you can:

• revise rubrics you've found online that you really like
• use a protocol to develop a rubric from pre-existing rubrics from colleagues or on-line (Word Doc)
• use a protocol to develop a rubric from student work (Word Doc)
• start from standards, learning outcomes, or essential questions
• develop a rubric with your students (Word Doc)
• develop a rubric from a checklist (Word Doc) 

A few tools to support you as you develop your rubric:

• Rubric Resource Packet (PDF). Contains sample rubrics - not examplars of Quality Rubrics per se, rather a diverse range of rubrics
• My annotated Diigo library on various types of rubrics 
• Troubleshooting your first draft
• Thinking about describing those "lower" levels (Hint: it's not about what they're doing wrong)
• Additional ways to support and work with students around the issue of quality
• Tips for writing Quality Rubrics
• A checklist (PDF) for Quality Rubrics
• A self-assessment or peer review feedback form for Quality Rubrics (Word Doc)
• A process for when you absolutely must use a rubric in a grading schema  
• And of course, two rubrics for rubrics

A note regarding copyright - these resources are licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License. Please contact me if you have any questions about citation or sources. (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/)