Overall I had been working on this major problem in my classroom:
How can teachers grade writing skills in an efficient way that also engages the student?
In approaching a prototype I had considered several things but my main focus was to work on something both practical (one that I already had the materials to create) and and helpful (could solve the problem).
In my previous research I had found that I needed to rethink the "process" of writing and what I wanted students to get out of it in order to engage them more and for my feedback to become valuable- in other words, I would need to design a writing task that redesigned the traditional approach to writing and aimed to solve some of the "dead ends" that students had been dodging all along.
Typically students are asked to think and work in these steps for a summative writing piece:
In my previous research I had found that I needed to rethink the "process" of writing and what I wanted students to get out of it in order to engage them more and for my feedback to become valuable- in other words, I would need to design a writing task that redesigned the traditional approach to writing and aimed to solve some of the "dead ends" that students had been dodging all along.
Typically students are asked to think and work in these steps for a summative writing piece:
- Make a claim (often teacher supplies topics to choose from)
- I usually collect these and help students with sentence structure and there is verbal feedback as well as written critique on the one to two sentence claim/thesis.
- Find Evidence (research, use literature, etc. )
- This often includes trips to the computer labs, and often also includes digital literacy lessons.
- Draft
- Students mainly take time to type their papers.
- Revise (maybe peer edit)
- Peer edit sessions usually involve students sharing their papers and having another students check their work using a teacher-derived checklist/ question sheet. revising students simply read the paper, and answer the questions for the piece. Each students give at least one feedback and get one feedback.
- Final Draft (turn in)
- Students are supposed to take the student suggestions and use them to revise their papers, retype and create an improved, final draft. Students usually fall short here, and often do little more to their papers- very few edits get done and they turn in the paper as soon as it is "complete" (meets the page requirements/source requirements, etc.)
- Feedback (teacher grades/edits)
- Teacher reads each students paper, marking mistakes as he/she goes and assigns an overall numeric value to the piece. The numeric grade is often broken down and calculated using a rubric that assigns points per skill (grammar, content, etc.)
- (possibly re-write after feedback) Teacher allows the students to fix and/or rewrite the paper based on the feedback given. Teacher re-reads and re-grades the revised paper.
What to do??
For my prototype I wanted to redesign this traditional thinking/working task in two major ways:
1. Have students get more involved with their own work (instead of the judgmental and subjective teacher-grades-the-student approach, which doesn't facilitate responsibility or engagement from the students).
2. Have more authenticity in the assignment (again to foster more engagement as writing in the "real world" is usually used as a true communication tool and is often weaved within different technologies and multiple persons)
For my first prototype I began to work with a unit that was required for all of my current 10th grade students and is found in almost every grade level: Argument writing.
This unit typically uses an essay (with the traditional process as outlined above) which is often assigned as 4ish pages in length for a 10th grade class. I would ultimately assign a summative grade for the final draft of the essay and the formative grades usually came from evidence collection, drafts, and revision notes ( as the writing process was completed, and in that order).
In order to outline a traditional essay, I usually hand out a rubric and help sheet that sets the clear objective for students to follow (the A paper has this,.. and each category is _____ amount of points). For my new prototype, I figured this would be a nice way to start...in hopes that I could then work backwards piece by piece.
HERE is my working prototype rubric for a NEW and improved argumentative essay unit, one that engages students and provides better opportunities for valuable feedback. Below is a version of the work I am doing- right now I am working on a Google Doc...see the actual document for more reflections on my work with this overall prototype:
1. Have students get more involved with their own work (instead of the judgmental and subjective teacher-grades-the-student approach, which doesn't facilitate responsibility or engagement from the students).
2. Have more authenticity in the assignment (again to foster more engagement as writing in the "real world" is usually used as a true communication tool and is often weaved within different technologies and multiple persons)
For my first prototype I began to work with a unit that was required for all of my current 10th grade students and is found in almost every grade level: Argument writing.
This unit typically uses an essay (with the traditional process as outlined above) which is often assigned as 4ish pages in length for a 10th grade class. I would ultimately assign a summative grade for the final draft of the essay and the formative grades usually came from evidence collection, drafts, and revision notes ( as the writing process was completed, and in that order).
In order to outline a traditional essay, I usually hand out a rubric and help sheet that sets the clear objective for students to follow (the A paper has this,.. and each category is _____ amount of points). For my new prototype, I figured this would be a nice way to start...in hopes that I could then work backwards piece by piece.
HERE is my working prototype rubric for a NEW and improved argumentative essay unit, one that engages students and provides better opportunities for valuable feedback. Below is a version of the work I am doing- right now I am working on a Google Doc...see the actual document for more reflections on my work with this overall prototype:
So far, the main prototype here is to have an audio podcast essay, and for my feedback to be alternative and more engaging (through audio). Some technologies to explore are the Kaizena Add On (or anything of the like). Also I am wondering if I can use any calendar technologies/apps to help stagger my feedback allowing for more timely responses.