"...and Not to Yield": Explorations in English Education

Back in September, I blogged about “ Constructing Standards-Based Rubrics in the Secondary ELA Classroom .” I traced my assessment journey across three stages: Analytic Rubric Holistic Rubric Standards-Based Scoring Rubric Back in January 2019, I shifted my rubric yet again. With a clearer focus of my standards , by that time (and after having taught for another full Fall semester), I knew I needed another shift. I liked scoring on an A, B, C, and F (as bands of grades rather than raw scores or percentages) but differentiating between each level was getting challenging and cumbersome. I turned more fully to Jennifer Gonzalez’s (@cultofpedagogy ) post “ Holistic, Analytic, and Single-Point Rubrics .” More in line with Gonzalez’s listing of success criteria (which also fits with learning targets), my current rubrics focus on what we are asking students to do. Then, I make a professional judgment call on whether it is an A, B, C, or F. THE RUBRIC : I CAN/CANNOT Y

While I plan to reflect on my current rubrics in an upcoming blog, I wanted to spend some time further debriefing (continuing from my previous post ) on using standards-based learning and grading. In my last post, I articulated the following three goals for next year regarding standards-based learning and grading: ·          Post my core standards (which are amalgamations and simplifications of the Pennsylvania Core Standards for English Language Arts) prominently in the classroom so they are visible (which will help me reference them more often). ·          Include explicit reference to at least one standard in each our e-mail reflections home . ·          As I conference with each student during our readers-writers workshop , I want to begin linking each conversation explicitly to at least one standard and look-for on that assignment’s rubric. The first section below reviews how my co-teachers and I assess, and then I will share some reactions from students this year.

As the school year wraps up this week, I thought I would reflect on my current practices with standards a bit. My opening blog for this school year detailed my process for distilling and prioritizing standards. For my English 9 course, I focused on the following Standards (adding Standard 9 once I got going): Standard 1 : Analyzing Literary Elements & Devices Standard 2 : Analyzing Nonfiction Elements & Concepts Standard 3 : Evaluating Text Genre, Form, & Structure Standard 4 : Utilizing Evidence & Research Standard 5 : Crafting Focus, Organization, & Conclusions Standard 6 : Composing Narratives Standard 7 : Expanding Vocabulary Standard 8 : Developing Speaking Skills Standard 9 : Employing Mechanics & Style As with all work, revising and implementing new iterations is key to fine-tuning (or overhauling!) our process. This blog addresses how I utilize grades, communicating this learning to students, and condensing my list of Standards