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

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...

[ 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...

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, ...

This year, I began seating students in pods so we could better implement turn-and-talk opportunities during our mini-lessons (rather than asking questions and having students raise hands and answer individually). A couple years ago, I tried having students choose the classroom arrangement . We have had a few exercises where we had students work in their “pods”: reading and responding to short articles, locating examples of literary elements in a text, and working through a sample standardized test. My classroom set-up with pods at the start of the 2019-2020 school year. However, while the turn-and-talk is generally working (as I find best how to facilitate and teach that procedure), the short group work activities have been met with less success. THE CHALLENGES I have found a handful of challenges with pod seating: 1.      Off-Topic Chatter During Mini-Lessons . There tends to be more chatter among groups during our 15 to 20 minutes of mini-less...

From Workshop to Standards-Based Scoring After establishing a workshop model last year in my 9 th and 10 th grade English classes, I want to move closer to standards-based grading this year. For me, establishing an instructional model that more closely works with standards-based learning was an important first step. Please refer to this post for a summary. Now, I can continue my exploration. In this blog post, I will walk through the steps I took to establish the eight standards I will assess my students on in Academic English 9: Standard 1 : Analyzing Literary Elements & Devices Standard 2 : Analyzing Nonfiction Elements & Concepts Standard 3 : Evaluating Text Genre, Form, and Structure Standard 4 : Utilizing Evidence & Research Standard 5 : Crafting Focus, Organization, and Style Standard 6 : Composing Narratives Standard 7 : Expanding Vocabulary Standard 8 : Developing Speaking Skills Step 1: Prioritizing Standards Last year, I revi...