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

As I work to assess my students more appropriate in my workshop environment, I have continually shifted how my rubrics are formatted . After hearing Dr. Connie Moss from Duquesne University ( @DUSchoolofEd ) speak on Learning Targets again at a recent in-service, I began to see how her concept of “student Look-Fors” could better articulate our learning goals in class. “Look-Fors” are the aspects in a learning experience that students can look for in their own work to see if they are on-target to demonstrate their learning. In earlier iterations, I had written Learning Targets with accompanying Performances of Understanding (POU) for each lesson. For example, here is one of my Learning Target and Performance of Understanding from two years ago: I know I can discuss text structure when I categorize examples from the myth of Theseus into the aspects of the Hero’s Journey . The first portion (“ I know I can discuss text structure ”) is the learning target, while the proof (“...

My Instruction and Assessment Philosophy Over the past couple years, I have been reading into standards-based grading and “healthy” grading practices. Along with a variety of blog posts, @TG2Chat/#tg2chat and the #sblchat community, the following resources have assisted me in developing my standards-based assessment (and, in turn, instruction) philosophy: ·          Grading from the Inside Out by Tom Schimmer ( @TomSchimmer ) ·          On Your Mark by Thomas R. Guskey ( @tguskey ) ·          Assessment 3.0 by Mark Barnes ( @markbarnes19 ) ·          Standards-Based Learning in Action by Tom Schimmer ( @TomSchimmer ), Garnet Hillman ( @garnet_hillman ), and Mandy Stalets ( @MandyStalets ) I believe that students must seek learning, not points, and that their grade in my course should be a reflection on tha...

In this post, I want to review my past practices in scoring writing, my newer approach to feedback in workshop, and then articulate some challenges. These blogs are as much for my reflection as they are (hopefully) a guide to some of you who may be facing similar issues or planning to jump into a workshop approach. HOW I USED TO SCORE WRITING Before I began using workshops, my classroom was a bit more traditional: whole-group instruction, engaging lessons (sometimes with technology), whole-class novels, and writing assessments with brainstorming, planning guides, and time to write. For any writing assessment, we had students work from previous short-writes and referred them to models we had read in class of that writing style. We would always have planning guides due before we asked students to start writing, and after glancing over them, we’d give whole-class notes on segments of planning to review. For some shorter, paragraph-length assignments, we would leave comments on p...