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

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

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