Carly Straight

This section stressed the importance of assessments beyond the typical multiple-choice exam. It is important to allow students the opportunity to express the knowledge they've gained in multiple ways, and perhaps in ways that are closer to their preferred styles of learning. This allows for deeper understanding as opposed to memorization, which does not always translate to long-term retention. 

I didn't realize that Canvas has an e-portfolio option. Having my students work on that over the course of the quarter would allow them to reflect on each individual assignment as it's graded and returned to them beyond just what their final score was. That reflection would hopefully encourage real learning and fewer repeated errors. 

The use of well-written rubrics can help turn what can often be subjective scoring into more objective scoring, which is fairer to the students. In addition, it gives the students a clear indication of what is expected of them and what they can expect to learn. Descriptive verbs used in well-considered objectives can help teachers bring students to deeper levels of understanding.

I need to include more formative assessments in my courses in addition to the summative assessments I currently rely on. This will give me more real-time progress on my students' areas of strength and weakness, which allows me to reinforce concepts that they are struggling with. Part of my implementation will simply be asking more open-ended questions more frequently. 

It is important for students to learn skills beyond just their day-to-day tasks. Having the solid foundation of soft skills allows them to prepare for any field they may want to enter and sets them up for success and potential promotions down the line. These are also skills that students need while they are in school, and it is important to build these skills into the curriculum as a way to encourage/require students to begin using them. The more comfortable they are using these skills now, the more natural it will be to use these skills in the future.

Once a rubric is complete, the process is not over. You need to evaluate whether the rubric actually serves its intended purpose. This can be done through feedback from coworkers and students and from the use of a metarurbic. 

It is fine to use already developed rubrics from the internet or from your school's resources as long as those rubrics specifically match the criteria you are looking to grade. If not, you can adapt them to match. A good rubric is fair for all students and would yield similar results if used by multiple people to grade the same assignment.

Make sure the rubric measures what you want them to measure and that you use the appropriate type for the assignment. In addition, create assignments that allow for more complex thinking and problem-solving, and allow students to use these rubrics to self-reflect and to help their classmates.

Rubrics are valuable grading tools because they allow for consistency and clear expectations. However, it is important to remember that they may need revising over time. You must take the time to reflect on your own work, just as you are asking the students to do, and make improvements where necessary. These changes could be in the content goals or the wording of the rubric.

I am an English teacher, so I use rubrics all the time. I will be working to individualize the rubrics more to each assignment.

It is important to keep not just the material in mind, but the "why" behind the material in mind. Adult learners already have a wealth of knowledge and experience to draw on, so it is the educator's job to make the learning as experiential and applicable to to the student as possible.