A rubric defines what are the standards or requirements that need to be accomplished in order to achieve the overall target or goal. Here is a way to think about it that one of our former KIS teachers used in his classroom. Let’s say you are planning to go out and purchase a pair of jeans, but before you do, you site down to come up with some criteria for the pair of jeans you hope to purchase. Some of the criteria may include cost, style, color, and brand. With this exercise, KIS students understand that we are using criteria every day to make judgments—in essence, this is a rubric.