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Rubrics as Gradeless Feedback Guides

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With an organized list of conflated standards and associated learning targets —along with a system for reporting in the gradebook —I now turn to rubrics. However, in a gradeless classroom, I found “rubric” to feel inadequate as a title, since we’re not specifically placing students on a scale. I’ve opted for the title “Feedback Guide.” This will also work into students’ weekly reflections and five-week (mid-quarter and quarterly) reflections and grade pitches . FORMER RUBRICS Originally inspired by Jennifer Gonzalez’s (@cultofpedagogy ) single-point rubric , my former standards-based rubrics looked like the following: As I read a student’s work (the above rubric was for a constructed response analyzing mood), I could put an X in the “I can” or the “I cannot yet” column next to each learning target or add more focused feedback in the form of sentences. Then, in the grade column, I’d assign an A, B, C, or F. My original post on this model can be found here . FEEDBACK GUIDES N
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Gradebook as a Record of Completion

Once I had decided to go gradeless and have students pitch a grade every 5 weeks, I needed to determine how to utilize my gradebook. Students will be reflecting on their learning each week , and I plan to have that Google Doc shared with parents, but I also want to keep our gradebook updated. We utilize Infinite Campus, and I plan to use it to communicate student completion (since feedback will appear in student weekly reflections and in their Weekly Learning Guides ). MY PAST PRACTICE In past years, I divided each assignment into a column for each standard it assessed. So, an analysis paragraph may assess elements of fiction, focus and organization, and use of evidence. There would be three columns for one assignment and would show as “Character Analysis: Fiction Elements,” “Character Analysis: Focus,” and “Character Analysis: Evidence.” I would then assign a letter grade for each standard, provide feedback, and input the letter grade in the gradebook under each category (so a stu
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Key Assessments as Course Requirements

With weekly and quarterly reflections throughout our course generally set, I needed to turn my attention to the specifics of assessments. This post, and my next two planned posts, will articulate my current thinking. This post will briefly discuss key assessments, while my next two will explore how I plan to set up my gradebook (we use Infinite Campus) and set up my rubrics for feedback. KEY ASSESSMENTS As written, our district curriculum (whose composition I led) has set writing assignments and a cold-reading multiple-choice test (modeled after our state test) for each of our four units in English 9 and 10. Depending on the unit, the writing assignments range from literary analysis paragraphs, to creative writing, to a multiparagraph persuasive composition, to script-writing, to a multiparagraph argumentative piece, to a multiparagraph literary analysis (spread across grades 9 and 10). I plan to label these assignments as “key assessments.” Following Joe Feldman’s (@JoeCFeldma
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Weekly Learning Guides to Organize Student Learning

With Standards and Learning Targets determined and an overarching reflection and organization document for the semester , I needed to turn my attention to organization on a weekly scale. HYBRID SCHOOL PLAN My students are scheduled to return to school on September 8 th . I will see half of each class on Tuesdays and Thursdays and the other half on Wednesdays and Fridays (with Monday being a virtual day for everyone). I do not want to rely on in-person instruction once school begins—especially when students become absent (for any reason). Rather than needing to see a student in-person to “catch them up,” I want everything available online. Then, we can use class time for conferring and community. To this end, I will also be settling on weekly-long explorations/lessons. Each week will include brief instructional videos, readings, an assessment (usually writing), and a reflection. We’ll begin journaling (either in response to literature or as open-writes) early on. Our school util
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Organizing a Learning Reflection Process

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With my English 9 course standards and learning targets decided, I next turned to figuring out how to possibly organize a data collection system that focused on feedback and reflection rather than points. Some of my most recent thinking can be attributed to Sarah Zerwin ( @SarahMZerwin ) and her book Pointless: An English Teacher's Guide to More Meaningful Grading . In the past, I had developed work logs where students could record their reading, journal, and copy the day’s learning target. Last spring, before going virtual, students were tracking their online vocabulary program progress and gathering evidence of their writing style in two additional Google Docs. I wanted to keep many of these organizational options, but I also wanted to ensure that I didn’t have students needing to always open so many documents. WEEKLY LEARNING GUIDES Last spring, for my Honors English 9 class, I created a Google Doc for our two units we explored while at home. For my Academic English 10 cl
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Developing Learning Targets for Power Standards

[ Revision note, 8/22/20: Shout-out to Hector Caudillo ( @CaudilloHector ) who suggested I rearrange the learning targets of Standard 2 . They have been sequenced so writing a claim comes first, then formatting proper in-text citations, and then using those citations to analyze the topic at-hand. The text below is edited from my original posting .] Continuing from my previous post , I plan to use the following six guiding/power standards for the 2020-2021 school year: Standard 1 : Reading Nonfiction and Informational Texts Standard 2 : Composing Nonfiction Standard 3 : Reading Fiction and Literature Standard 4 : Composing Fiction Standard 5 : Developing Speaking and Listening Skills Standard 6 : Employing Mechanics, Style, and Vocabulary Even from my post a couple days ago , I have changed a category and added Vocabulary back to Standard 6. I was going to have it integrated throughout, but it makes more sense to have one learning target (subcategory) for it under one Stan
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Revising Power Standards in Preparation for Going Gradeless

Two years ago, I began combining and rearranging the English Language Arts content standards that I would utilize in my courses. Since then, I’ve made developments in my assessment practices, and as I prepare to begin on a hybrid schedule this fall and utilizing grade conferences (where students will present evidence of their work and pitch the grade they deserve), I wanted to further refine my work. My plan to is post much more frequently in the coming days and weeks as I articulate my own journey in preparation for the school year (our students begin on September 8 th , 2020). Since my first post on this in August 2018 , I reduced my eight standards to six to make it more manageable. Last school year, I utilized to the following six standards (reduced from the Pennsylvania Core Standards): 1.      Standard 1 : Applying Literary Elements & Devices I can define and apply various elements of fiction (characterization, setting, point of view, conflict, plot, tone, mood, etc.) a
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