Yes, you can grade with Gemini today. Build a Gem that holds your rubric and a grading prompt, paste in one submission at a time, and it returns a score for each criterion with the evidence behind it for you to check. That Gem keeps working for now. Google is replacing Gems with a new feature called skills, and for Google Workspace for Education accounts, Gems go away no sooner than June 1, 2027.
Below is the prompt I would use, what happens to your Gem and when, and where grading this way stops keeping up with a full class.
I am shopping for a replacement too
I built a Gem for my own classroom. I run an engineering academy, and I gave a Gem our handbook, our calendar, and our field trip dates and details. Then I inventoried the whole room: every shelf, every drawer, every plastic tub, and every item in them, each mapped to a letter code in a Google Sheet I shared with the Gem. It became a kind of Jarvis for the room. Students could ask it where the tape measure was instead of asking me.
I built it because "where is the tape measure?" is not a question I should spend class time on. I want my time going to the hard questions, the ones about the curriculum. That Gem is on the same clock as yours now, and I am working out what replaces it too.
Grading with a Gem is the same deal. The Gem does the first read, and you make the call.
The grading prompt
In the Gemini app, signed in with your school account, create a new Gem. Your Workspace admin has to have Gemini and Gems turned on, so if you do not see the option, that is the reason. Paste the instructions below, fill in the brackets, and add your rubric as a file.
You are helping me grade [grade level] [subject] work against my rubric. I make the final call on every score. My rubric is in the attached file. Use only its criteria and levels. For each submission I paste: 1. Score each criterion using the exact level names or point values from my rubric. For every score, quote the words or point to the part of the work that earned it. 2. If the work does something my rubric does not cover, say so. Do not invent a criterion. 3. If you are torn between two levels, give both and explain the difference. 4. Write one specific next step for the student, two sentences at most. Use their first name if I give it. 5. Do not give an overall grade unless I ask for one. Format: Criterion | Score | Evidence | Why Next step:
What each instruction does:
- Quote the evidence. A quote lets you check a score against the work without rereading the whole essay.
- Say when the rubric does not cover it. When Gemini keeps flagging the same gap, your rubric is missing a question. Writing rubric criteria that reveal what students know is its own skill, and a vague rubric gets you vague scores from any model.
- Give both levels when torn. The borderline papers are the ones that need you. This puts them in front of you instead of hiding them behind a confident number.
- No overall grade. You add it up. That keeps you reading the criteria instead of the total.
Grade the first five submissions yourself, then compare. If the Gem disagrees with you on a criterion, fix the rubric wording before you fix the prompt.
If your Gemini app already shows skills, the same instructions are the place to start there. And if you are after Classroom's built-in Gemini features instead, I covered those separately: what Gemini in Classroom does when you ask it to grade and how Classroom's Gemini writes rubrics for you. This post is about grading with a Gem you build yourself.
What happens to your Gem, and when
Here is the schedule from Google's page on the transition to skills:
- October 13, 2026: skills begin rolling out in the Gemini app for all users. Gems and skills both work.
- November 17, 2026: Gems move to Settings in the Gemini app. You can still create, edit and use them. This is the first change most teachers will notice. One exception: if you assigned a Gem to a student's personal Google account rather than their school account, that student loses access to it on this date.
- No sooner than June 1, 2027, for Workspace for Education: Gems are removed, including from Google Classroom and supported third-party LMS platforms. Remaining Gems become skills as inactive drafts, and you have to switch each one on before you can use it.
One open question matters for anyone who assigned a Gem to students, me included. Google's Classroom help page says Gems in Classroom will convert into skills in the Gemini app in a draft state, but it does not yet say how students will reach a skill their teacher assigned. The transition page does say sharing settings carry over to the new skills. Google also lists skills in the Gemini app as open to users of all ages, while skills inside Workspace are limited to users 18 and older on specific editions.
Unless you assigned Gems to personal accounts, none of this is urgent yet. Write down which Gems you depend on, and copy each one's instructions and files into a Google Doc you control, so a rebuild takes minutes instead of an afternoon.
Where grading with a Gem stops keeping up
A Gem handles one essay well. With a full class set, four problems show up:
- One submission at a time. That is how this prompt is built, so 150 submissions means 150 rounds of open, copy, paste, read, and record.
- Nothing goes back to Classroom. Every score and comment the Gem writes, you retype into the gradebook yourself.
- No whole-class review. Each result lives in its own chat. You cannot line up all 30 drafts, adjust the ones you disagree with, and send them back together.
- No class-wide picture. Thirty separate conversations will not tell you that most of the class missed the same step.
A privacy check before you paste
Student work is student data. Use your school Google account, never a personal one. For Gemini app users on Workspace for Education editions, Google's education FAQ says chats and uploaded files won't be reviewed by human reviewers or otherwise used to improve generative AI models. A personal account does not come with that promise. Check that your district allows Gemini for grading, and leave out anything the grading does not need: last names, student ID numbers, the header with the student's details. More on this in the ethics of using AI to grade.
The step after the Gem
This is the part of the job I built ClassLens for. ClassLens runs on Gemini too. What it adds is the workflow around the model.
You pick a Google Classroom assignment and your rubric, and ClassLens drafts a grade and written feedback for every submission in the stack. In review mode you see them together on one screen, change whatever you disagree with, and decide when they go back. In the Classroom-return modes, ClassLens saves scores to Google Classroom as draft grades. No grade reaches a student until you release it.
Because it reads every submission, it also builds a Knowledge Gap Report for the assignment: which concepts the class as a whole missed. That is the question I want my time going to.
Keep your Gem for the easy questions. If the pile is the problem, start a free trial of auto grading for Google Classroom.
FAQ
Can Gemini grade essays?
Gemini can score an essay against a rubric you give it, one submission at a time. Check its scores against your own on the first few before you rely on it. The built-in feedback tool in Google Classroom is different: it drafts comments and does not produce a score.
Are Gemini Gems going away?
Yes. Google is replacing Gems with skills. For Workspace for Education users, Gems are removed no sooner than June 1, 2027, and remaining Gems become inactive draft skills that you have to switch on. On November 17, 2026, Gems move to Settings in the Gemini app and keep working.
Will my grading Gem keep working?
For now, yes. You can keep creating and using Gems until the education cutoff. Save a copy of each Gem's instructions and files so you can rebuild it if you need to.
Is it safe to paste student work into Gemini?
Use your school Google account, not a personal one, and check your district's policy first. Leave out names and ID numbers the grading does not need.
ClassLens is an AI-assistive grading and teaching tool built by Evolved Academics, LLC. Steven Swanson is a 22-year classroom teacher in California and the founder of ClassLens.