Assigning an essay on "A&P" without a story-specific rubric invites inconsistent grading and confused students. A learner who writes a clean five-paragraph summary of Sammy quitting his job might earn the same score as one who argues that the narrator is unreliable, simply because the rubric only measures structure. A well-designed rubric makes the intellectual expectations visible before students begin writing. It also gives teachers a shared language for explaining why one paper is stronger than another.

The best rubrics for this story begin with the central task, which is interpretation. Students must decide what Sammy's decision to quit reveals about him, about the people around him, and about the small-town world Updike describes. Because reasonable readers disagree, the rubric should reward the quality of the argument and not the particular conclusion. That keeps the grading fair and encourages students to defend a view instead of guessing what the teacher wants.

Four performance levels usually work better than five or six for a single short story essay. Each level should describe observable features of the writing, such as whether evidence is specific, whether commentary explains the evidence, and whether the paper acknowledges complexity. Vague descriptors like "good analysis" force teachers to guess and leave students without direction. Concrete descriptors let a student predict their own score before submitting, which is a strong sign that the rubric is working.

Criterion One: A Claim That Can Be Argued

A top-level claim in an "A&P" essay takes a position that a reasonable reader could dispute. For example, a student might argue that Sammy acts less out of principle and more out of a desire to be seen as admirable by a group that has already left the store. A weaker claim simply states that Sammy quits because he thinks Lengel was unfair. The rubric should show this difference in plain terms so students understand why the first claim earns more credit.

• Advanced: the claim is specific, debatable, and tied to Sammy's motives or the story's larger meaning
• Proficient: the claim is clear and relevant but somewhat predictable
• Developing: the claim restates the plot or offers a general observation
• Beginning: no identifiable claim, or a claim unrelated to the text
• All levels: the claim is judged on arguability, not on whether the teacher agrees

Criterion Two: Evidence and Commentary

Evidence in a literary essay is more than a copied line. Strong writers choose moments such as Sammy's detailed descriptions of the girls, his comments about the customers he calls sheep, or the moment he walks out into the parking lot. They then explain what each detail shows about his attitude and why it matters to the argument. The rubric should reward students who explain the connection and not just those who include many quotations.

Teachers often find that students over-quote and under-explain. A useful guideline is to ask for one sentence of evidence followed by at least two sentences of commentary. Writing that expectation into the rubric prevents the common situation where a student includes five quotations and no analysis yet still believes they did everything right. It also makes comments easier to write, since you can point to a specific missing piece.

Criterion Three: Voice, Setting, and Craft

Updike's story is told entirely through Sammy's voice, which means craft analysis and character analysis are tightly linked. A student who notices how the casual, wisecracking narration makes the girls seem both glamorous and slightly ridiculous is doing real literary work. The supermarket setting also deserves attention, since the store's rules, its aisles, and its customers frame Sammy's choice. A rubric line for craft helps students move beyond what happens and consider how the story is built.

Not every student will be ready to analyze voice on the first attempt. Including a modest craft criterion encourages the habit without punishing early efforts, especially in ninth and tenth grade classrooms. You might weight it lower than the argument criteria at first and increase its weight on later short story assignments. This gradual approach builds skills across the year instead of demanding mastery all at once.

Criterion Four: Organization and Conventions

Organization and conventions matter, but they should not overwhelm the rubric. A paper with a logical progression from claim to evidence to commentary is easier to follow and easier to grade. Conventions such as quotation formatting, tense consistency, and sentence clarity can be grouped into a single criterion so that minor errors do not dominate the final score. Students then see that ideas come first and polish supports them.

Once the rubric exists, it can be reused with small adjustments for other short stories in the same unit. Changing a few lines about setting or narration lets you compare how students handle "A&P" against other texts and track growth over time. Departments that adopt a shared version also reduce score variation between classrooms. That consistency makes it easier to talk about student progress with confidence.