Augmind StudioBelow are the two rubrics we use to grade every student, every week, in our own middle-school speech & debate program: a five-dimension speech rubric and a five-dimension debate rubric, both on a 1–5 band scale. They are the same rubrics that ship inside Augmind Studio’s grading engine, so the band language below has been refined against real student recordings — not written for a binder. Copy them, print them, adapt them. (Coaching varsity? The high school pack is here.)
Why a 1–5 band scale (and not points out of 100)
A 100-point scale asks a judge to defend the difference between an 82 and an 84, and nobody can. Three things improve the moment you switch to five anchored bands:
- Scores become defensible. Each band is a sentence describing what the take sounded like. Scoring stops being “what number feels right” and becomes “which sentence is true” — a question two different judges usually answer the same way.
- Grading gets faster. Five decisions per dimension instead of a hundred. With five dimensions, a whole speech is 25 comparisons a practiced coach makes almost in real time.
- Beginners survive the number. A 3 on a 5-band scale reads as “developing,” which is accurate. The same performance scored 60/100 reads as failing, which isn’t.
How to use these rubrics
- Score the take, not the student. The rubric describes one recording on one day. Growth shows up as a trend across weeks, not as generosity inside one score.
- When torn between two bands, pick the one you could defend with a timestamp. If you can point to 2:14 and say “this is where the second point got lost,” the score holds.
- Two sentences of comment per dimension is plenty. One concrete next step beats five observations.
- Norm once per season. Have every judge score the same recording, compare, argue, and re-read the descriptors. Thirty minutes of norming buys a semester of consistency.
- For true first-timers, collapse to two dimensions for a session or two — Clarity, and Courage (they got it out and kept going) — then graduate to the full rubric.
The speech rubric — five dimensions, equal weight
Use this for any solo speaking task: prepared speeches, impromptu, class presentations, retells. Score each dimension 1–5 and average for the overall.
1. Clarity
Can every sentence be heard and followed?
| Score | What it looks like |
|---|---|
| 5 | Voice is easy to hear; words are clear; pacing is controlled; few distracting filler words. |
| 4 | Mostly clear and audible; minor mumbling, rushing, or filler words. |
| 3 | Understandable overall, but volume, speed, pronunciation, or filler words sometimes interfere. |
| 2 | Often hard to hear or follow; frequent filler words or unclear delivery. |
| 1 | Very difficult to understand; volume, pacing, or articulation prevents communication. |
2. Structure
Could a listener outline the speech from audio alone?
| Score | What it looks like |
|---|---|
| 5 | Clear beginning, middle, and ending; ideas flow logically; uses signposting or transitions. |
| 4 | Mostly organized; main idea is clear; some transitions. |
| 3 | Has a basic direction, but order may feel loose or incomplete. |
| 2 | Ideas feel scattered; hard to tell where the speech is going. |
| 1 | No clear structure; speech feels random or unfinished. |
3. Confidence
Posture, eye contact, projection, composure under nerves.
| Score | What it looks like |
|---|---|
| 5 | Strong posture, eye contact, projection, and controlled gestures; handles pauses calmly. |
| 4 | Generally confident; some nervous movement or hesitation, but still composed. |
| 3 | Some confidence, but visible nervous habits affect delivery. |
| 2 | Speaker seems uncomfortable; frequent fidgeting, low energy, or avoidance of audience. |
| 1 | Very hesitant or disengaged; confidence issues prevent effective delivery. |
4. Content
Are the ideas specific and supported, or thin and generic?
| Score | What it looks like |
|---|---|
| 5 | Ideas are specific, relevant, and supported with examples, reasons, or stories. |
| 4 | Good ideas with some support; examples may be simple but relevant. |
| 3 | Basic content is present, but support is limited or generic. |
| 2 | Content is thin, repetitive, or underdeveloped. |
| 1 | Very little meaningful content; does not develop an idea. |
5. Response (to the prompt)
Did they actually answer the task they were given?
| Score | What it looks like |
|---|---|
| 5 | Directly answers the prompt; adapts well in an impromptu setting; stays on topic and completes the task. |
| 4 | Answers the prompt clearly with minor drifting or gaps. |
| 3 | Responds to the prompt, but may be incomplete, indirect, or partially off-topic. |
| 2 | Weak connection to the prompt; misses important parts of the task. |
| 1 | Does not really answer the prompt or stops before making a response. |
The debate rubric — five dimensions
Built for argument reps — rebuttal drills, crossfire answers, constructive re-deliveries — where you want argument quality separated cleanly from delivery.
1. Argumentation
Claim, warrant, impact — does the listener know what, why, and why it matters?
| Score | What it looks like |
|---|---|
| 5 | Complete arguments: clear claim, explicit warrant (the because), and a stated impact — the listener knows what, why, and why it matters. |
| 4 | Claim and warrant are solid; the impact is present but thin or tacked on. |
| 3 | Claims are stated with some reasoning, but warrants are shallow (“it just is”) or impacts are missing. |
| 2 | Mostly assertions — claims repeated louder rather than warranted. |
| 1 | No recognizable argument structure; statements without reasons. |
2. Clash & Responsiveness
Do they engage the other side's actual argument, or restate their own?
| Score | What it looks like |
|---|---|
| 5 | Directly engages the opposing material by name — restates it fairly, then turns, mitigates, or outweighs it; nothing important is dropped. |
| 4 | Engages the main opposing point well; a secondary point is dropped or answered thinly. |
| 3 | Some engagement, but responses slide past the actual argument into a prepared speech. |
| 2 | Talks around the opposition; restates own case instead of answering. |
| 1 | No engagement with the other side at all where the drill demands it. |
3. Evidence & Reasoning
Named examples and sound logic, or “studies show”?
| Score | What it looks like |
|---|---|
| 5 | Support is specific — named examples, numbers, analogies, or cited sources — and the logic connecting support to claim is sound. |
| 4 | Real support with minor gaps; one example does heavy lifting. |
| 3 | Generic support (“studies show”, “everyone knows”) or reasoning with a visible leap. |
| 2 | Little support; relies on repetition or emotion. |
| 1 | Unsupported assertions throughout. |
4. Delivery
Does the speaking help or hurt the arguments?
| Score | What it looks like |
|---|---|
| 5 | Composed and audible with controlled pace; minimal filler; recovers cleanly from stumbles. |
| 4 | Generally steady; some filler or rushed stretches under time pressure. |
| 3 | Understandable but pace, filler, or long pauses noticeably interfere. |
| 2 | Halting or rushed delivery that makes arguments hard to track. |
| 1 | Delivery prevents the arguments from landing. |
5. Structure & Signposting
Could a judge flow this speech from audio alone?
| Score | What it looks like |
|---|---|
| 5 | Roadmapped and numbered (“two responses… first… second…”); the listener could flow the speech from audio alone. |
| 4 | Ordered with most transitions signposted; one section blurs. |
| 3 | A discernible order but few signposts; the listener works to follow. |
| 2 | Points blur together; hard to count the responses. |
| 1 | No structure a listener could reconstruct. |
Adjusting for tournament events
For the events middle schoolers actually compete in — on local league circuits and at NSDA middle school tournaments — keep the five speech dimensions and shift the emphasis:
- Original Oratory. Content and Structure carry the round: judge the originality and build of the argument. Memorization slips belong under Confidence — don’t double-punish them under Clarity too.
- Declamation. The words aren’t the student’s, so Content stops measuring originality and starts measuring understanding — do the emphasis choices show they know what the speech means? Weight Clarity and Confidence up; this is a delivery event.
- Storytelling. Structure becomes narrative arc (setup, build, payoff), and Confidence becomes presence and character work — voices, pacing, eye contact. Response covers staying inside the announced story and time.
- Impromptu. Response (to the prompt) is the star dimension — weight it up. Expect Structure to be a simple two-or-three-point frame and reward a clean close over crammed content.
The rubric is the easy half
Handing judges a better rubric fixes the arguing. It doesn’t fix the hours: thirty 4-minute recordings is two hours of raw footage before you’ve scored a dimension or typed a word. We wrote up the batching system we use to hold weekly grading to one afternoon: How to grade 30 speech videos in an afternoon.
And if you’d rather have the first draft done for you: Augmind Studio grades each submission against these exact rubrics — dimension scores, written feedback, timestamped evidence — and your coach reviews, edits, and signs before anything publishes.
Frequently asked questions
What scale should a middle school speech rubric use?
A 1–5 band scale with written descriptors for each band. Point scales out of 50 or 100 create false precision — no judge can defend the difference between an 82 and an 84 — while anchored bands turn scoring into “which sentence describes this take,” which different judges answer the same way.
How do I keep scores consistent between judges?
Three habits: use band descriptors instead of gut numbers, norm once per season by having all judges score the same recording and argue out the differences, and require a timestamp with any score that gets challenged. Consistency comes from shared anchors, not from experience alone.
Should beginners be graded on the same rubric?
Yes — same rubric, honest bands, and track the trend rather than the number. A 2 that becomes a 3 in four weeks is the real story. For true first-timers we sometimes collapse to two dimensions for a session or two — Clarity, and Courage (they got it out and kept going) — then switch to the full rubric.
Can I use these rubrics for classroom public speaking, not just competition?
Yes. The speech rubric fits any solo speaking task — class presentations, show-and-tell, book talks. The debate rubric assumes an opposing side exists, so use it only for argument drills and debate formats.
Are these rubrics free to use?
Yes — copy, print, and adapt them for your program or classroom. If you republish them, credit Augmind Studio with a link.
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These rubrics are free to copy, print, and adapt for your program or classroom. If you publish them, credit Augmind Studio with a link to this page.