# data[].attributes.body
Part 3:Final Grade Proposal

The final grade I propose for myself in this class is an B+. I have worked hard to learn, finish my work assignments on time, worked hard to obtain a good grade. All my learning reflects on my grade. I gave myself what is right. I feel that I had learned so much and able to used the skills that I had learned to practice with my students. I know that will make a change to myself and my students one day.

# data[].attributes.headline
Evidence of feedback for the three FEEDBACK CONFERENCES

# data[].attributes.subject
Evidence of feedback for the three FEEDBACK CONFERENCES

# data[].attributes.headline
Evidence of feedback provided to classmates for the re-engagement plan

# data[].attributes.subject
Evidence of feedback provided to classmates for the re-engagement plan

# data[].attributes.headline
Final course reflection and grade proposal

# data[].attributes.subject
Final course reflection and grade proposal

# data[].attributes.headline
Re-engagement plan - The padlet I needed to post it on was not allowing me to post

# data[].attributes.subject
Re-engagement plan - The padlet I needed to post it on was not allowing me to post

# data[].attributes.body
What I have learned from the Chappuis text has been very useful for guiding my future teaching. I have always found it easy to find fun activities that would interest students, and I have always tried to link these to learning objectives, which most adequate foreign language textbooks plan ahead for the instructor, but the Chappuis textbook is probably one of the only textbooks that I will be keeping. I have been surprised that many of my courses throughout the program have not taken into account language textbooks in general, and perhaps this is from lack of knowledge about the subject area of world languages that many of the instructors have. Many of our courses act as if teachers will just make up a curriculum as they go along (I mean as if they had no textbook imposed by their school district over periods of many years. I have just witnessed David Douglas's adoption of a textbook, and it was a huge process involving public statements at meetings and many other things that new teachers should know about). I've never seen a language textbook that didn't plan ahead. Wayside Publishing, for example, publishes textbooks for French and Spanish students, and these take into account all of the topics we have covered in this program, whether it be backwards design (in Methods classes), which I still believe is largely a trendy theory culled from a manufactured crisis (what teacher would ever not think of teaching objectives, logically? such a theory severely underestimates the intelligence and experience of teachers). What teacher would not plan this way? However, I do see that lack of planning in my CT, but this is not just her, but linked to an entire misinterpretation of Krashen, whose theories are rejected by the foremost theorists in Applied Linguistics and have not been proven with any data. Thus the term "Krashen burn". I have never seen a college outside of PSU that espoused Krashen. Most places have moved beyond him a long time ago.
In my teaching placement, I am severely limited by the particular teaching philosophy of a deformed version of Krashen's Comprehensible Input that I have learned is extremely popular with a certain segment of middle and high school teachers, and that involves massive amounts of English, largely has student engage in translation into English, and hesitates to ask students to speak before French 2. There is very little assessment, no set curriculum, no set learning objectives (at least none have been shared with me). I think that some of this is undergirded by the effect of the pandemic, but I have to imagine that much of this philosophy also took place during in-person teaching. I am constrained in what I am encouraged to do, and I am limited in what I am allowed to do. I am not even allowed to take attendance. I am not encouraged to email students or contact them.  All of this means that the students do not see me as their teacher in many ways, and this has been very frustrating. Luckily, I have taught for almost 20 years, so I have some experience, and I was able to pick up a lot of useful information from observation, in terms of more frequent comprehension checks of younger students, as well as giving additional practice before expecting students to engage in more complicated conversations.
In terms of my grade for the course, I will reiterate my initial statement, that I think that it would be more helpful to have us fill out a self-assessment rather than look at rubrics and craft a paragraph. I have used self-assessments with college students for many years, and what I like to do is have students fill out the form (which I distribute at the beginning of the year, and which we help modify together to make it relevant to them) 2-3 times per semester, each time with the student filling out the form, then I hand it back with whether I agree or not, then students can keep submitting it or meet with me until we come to an agreement. I also include items on the self-assessment that pertain to expectations outside the classroom. Having a one page form  would be especially helpful during a pandemic. You can decide which grade you want to give me. I am not going to tell you. The grading throughout this program has been all over the place. Some instructors give low grades to students because of one assignment. Others  are flexible, given the pandemic and the extraordinary situation we find ourselves in. If I receive a low grade because I refused to give myself a final grade, I think this says more about how this course is set up right now than anything else.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Create a new document and edit with others at the same time -- from your computer, phone or tablet. Get stuff done with or without an internet connection. Use Docs to edit Word files. Free from Google.

# data[].attributes.headline
Brandon Calderon - Final Course Reflection and Final Grade Proposal

# data[].attributes.subject
Brandon Calderon - Final Course Reflection and Final Grade Proposal

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Create a new document and edit with others at the same time -- from your computer, phone or tablet. Get stuff done with or without an internet connection. Use Docs to edit Word files. Free from Google.

# data[].attributes.headline
Final course reflection and grade proposal

# data[].attributes.subject
Final course reflection and grade proposal

# data[].attributes.body
I really liked this quote “ We don’t learn from experience we learn from Reflecting on experience” because reflection is a thing that I have done many times in this course and in other classes. And I think it has given me an insight how things are moving, where did I perform well, where did I stumbled , faltered and what can I do to improve. As I am learning to reflect on my own learning I hope that in I will be able to incorporate simple ways to integrate reflection in my own classroom.
From this course I am able to delve deep into what does is mean to have Assessment literacy knowledge and how to apply it when assessing students of my class. Reading from Jan Chappuis  book seven strategies has given me much information about assessment. There are many aspects involved in assessment, not just giving students grades. A teacher should be able to identify clear and appropriate purpose for each assessment. It should be clear what are the learning targets being assessed and then create  quality assessment that aligns to those targets. employing a variety of assessment that are appropriate for students learning targets. Through this class I understood that  don’t just give students back their grades and assessment without proper response and reflection. This is such a vital time in the learning process, and I want to make sure that students don't just fixate on the grade they received, but that they actually reflect on the whole process. Have students set their own goals at the start of a unit, and then come back to them at the end and assess whether or not they met them. If goals are set by the students themselves, they are far more invested and interested in their learning. The student actively seeks to understand why they are being assessed and what knowledge they are trying to master. I think assessment literacy definitely makes you more proficient and a better teacher and helps to to practice balanced assessment.
I would say that the overall course was intensive, rigorous and of high quality that has shaped me and my teaching practice. My field placement was a web academy where I got to learn in a positive learning environment. I am thankful to my CT who has supported and guided me throughout and have inspired me. I have learned a lot from crafting lesson plans, preparing presentation slides, conducting classes, parent teacher conferences, attending staff meetings, PDs, IEPs, assessing and proving actionable  feedback to students. Learning how to build rubric with evaluation criterion was anew thing for me. I made one for EdTPA submission and now I think that these are really wonderful  tools. All this has shaped, me , guided me and has given me enough training that I can teach with confidence and clarity in future. I want to become a teacher who is not only expert in subject but inspires and is able to take care of the big responsibility of teaching.

After learning so much about assessment and various strategies I think learning is more important than grades. But If I have to grade myself I will give myself grade A.

# data[].attributes.headline
Parts 2 & 3. Final Course Reflection and Final Grade Proposal 

# data[].attributes.subject
Parts 2 & 3. Final Course Reflection and Final Grade Proposal 

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Final Course Reflection & Grade Proposal 

# data[].attributes.body
Reflection and Grade Proposal

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Create a new document and edit with others at the same time -- from your computer, phone or tablet. Get stuff done with or without an internet connection. Use Docs to edit Word files. Free from Google.

# data[].attributes.body
I’ve done a number of these before for a corporate level job I used to have. I’d assess the goals I’d laid out for myself and write out how I think did in aiming to achieve those goals. It’s not that I had to achieve those goals exactly to do “well”, but I needed to try and at least aim. I was assessing myself by own standards with input from my immediate supervisor on what they observed from me in that year. I found that I tend to grade myself lower than others grade me. Maybe I’m overly humble. Maybe I criticize myself too much. Maybe it’s neither, or maybe it’s both.

At this time of this self-assessment, I’ve learned a lot about assessment itself. I’ve come to care about this topic within teaching with as much rigor and intent that I can offer to myself and to students without pouring over into the unhelpful plane of becoming too explicitly critical of school at school, where I need to be there for my students. My assessments, the grades I give, have the potential to have profound impact on students (not that it necessarily will, but as I’ve said innumerable times before, everyone’s a microcosm), so being clear, focused, purposeful, understanding, and considerate is vital.

In terms of the work I’ve done in this class, I’ve maybe been the most verbose in these reflections as I have in any other writing I’ve done during grad school (that I’ve turned in, at least). Not that word count or adjective-choice represent my effort, though I do wish to emphasize the amount of thought I’ve put into my own practice. It’s a lot. I think about this stuff all the time. I think I think about it because I think it’s important, that it’s important to think about it. Also, it’s honestly taxing to convey. On my course towards articulation of these things I often get caught up in the spiderweb of my own thoughts and get stuck for a while and tire myself as I attempt to loose myself. I don’t know what the spider is in this analogy, but I’m keeping the imagery. Overall, I've done the same earnest approaching of my goals that I've always attempted (actually far more now as I care about my students more than I could ever care about an abstract company). I always try, spiderwebs aside.

Since you could say I’m some sort of “fan” of the 1-4 proficiency grading system, I’ll use this for my own final self-grading. I could just as easily argue a 3 for myself as a 4 (however, I couldn’t be so as self-debasing as to attempt the 1 or 2 arguments, since empirically those grades would not hold weight). If the purpose of this class is to initiate a plethora of thought processes and consideration, then yes, I would give myself a 4. If part of the purpose is to attempt demonstrate these thoughts and care into ‘work products’ of some sort, then despite the lateness on a couple assignments (actually, I don’t even remember if I had turned in anything late in this class. The classwork blends together too much for me. Nonetheless, I don’t believe in marking down for lateness), then still a 4. If I argue a 3 for myself, it’d be on the basis of that I can always improve and then teacher betterment never ends, but I know this. I don’t need to mark myself down for something that I know. So, 4.

# data[].attributes.body
In a way, I can sum up my teacherly meditations with a question I repeatedly ask myself: “do we need to do this?” Or in alternative phrasings: “does this matter”, “do I need to assign this”, “what is this leading to”, “can we do this in class instead of as homework”, and you could probably assume the other possible iterations related to these. If I can’t justify why I’m giving an a particular assessment, let alone explicitly and meticulously justify why I give something as brazen as a GRADE on something, then what in the world am I doing. These realizations compound to the point of an almost cynical remembrance of past schooling and even recent observations of things other teachers assign that I can’t justify in their place. Now the issue with being critical is that it paints the critic, either deliberately or inadvertently, as more knowledgeable than the author of what is being critiqued (or more biblically judged), but I don’t think I am more knowledgeable at all. I think this is something that everyone goes through. You realize that something isn’t going right, that something isn’t working, and you attempt to remedy it, and the key for self-esteem is to keep in mind that you are learning. All teachers are learning. We’re all constantly learning, as we should be. In nostalgically parental language, sometimes we just have to sit and think about why we did something.

This immense emphasis on importance of course informs all actions that relate to the assignment of something. All assignments should be accompanied with feedback, possibly advice, courses for improvement or increased cognizance, and the feeling that students can take the risk. Turning in anything is a risk since we have to judge the work, but it’s the relationship between teacher and student that allows that risk to be taken and for that feedback to be understood and meaningful. This allowance and safety of risk-taking has been one of my biggest takeaways. Obviously, all students are coming from someplace different and that attitudes towards the class, content, and even purpose of school are going to differ, but the environment of “it’s okay to try” needs to be felt by students as it is reflected in the assessments and grading practices of the teacher. The action must connect with philosophy.

# data[].attributes.headline
Reflections 1, 2 and 3 with Final Course Reflection and Final Grade Proposal

# data[].attributes.subject
Reflections 1, 2 and 3 with Final Course Reflection and Final Grade Proposal

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Create a new document and edit with others at the same time -- from your computer, phone or tablet. Get stuff done with or without an internet connection. Use Docs to edit Word files. Free from Google.

# data[].attributes.body
The major points within chapter 7 have been most beneficial to me for this moment in time as it reinforced the importance of encouraging the student — or in my case team member — to reflect. To reflect on where they've been, where they're at, what they're working through, and visualizing where they're going and how they plan to get there. Chapter 7 cleanly lumps this into three categories (at least that's how I rearranged my notes): opportunities to track their progress, reflect on it, and to speak on it.

Over the course of this class I've been working to have my team members lead more of their own development and for them to ideally become more proactive in identifying their areas of opportunity, but I read chapter 7 a week early and I am so glad I did because it refined my approach and continues to shape improvements to my 'student led conferences' (to borrow the phrase), and my bi-weekly 'progress reports.' I make sure they have access to all the metrics and assessments as soon as I have generated them so that they can look on them and reflect as they see fit and have as much information available to them whenever they work through any self-evaluations. Now I don't grade them in these times, these are observations or 'formative assessments' and skills based metrics. It is only on a monthly basis that I am required to do something of a summative assessment. I make sure that I schedule at least 2 conferences a month (more if they take the initiative to request them). It's been difficult to get some team members to take charge of their own development, but by incorporating the lessons and shares from this class my team and I have definitely made major strides.

# data[].attributes.headline
Reflection for Learning # 3 and Final Grade Proposal. 

# data[].attributes.subject
Reflection for Learning # 3 and Final Grade Proposal. 

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Create a new document and edit with others at the same time -- from your computer, phone or tablet. Get stuff done with or without an internet connection. Use Docs to edit Word files. Free from Google.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Create a new document and edit with others at the same time -- from your computer, phone or tablet. Get stuff done with or without an internet connection. Use Docs to edit Word files. Free from Google.

# data[].attributes.body
I think I have been able to reflect on my own learning and through my assignments I have shown my understanding of the course objectives and standards. I believe I should receive an A in this course as I have met most of the criteria. I think I was late on one of my assignments but given that juggling full time teaching and being a student while living in a pandemic I’m hoping that won’t have much impact on my grade, especially since we’re all trying to practice a no harm policy and instead show understanding given the times we are living in. I’ve put in a lot of effort in my action plan and the feedback conferences and I think I’ve demonstrated my proficiency on this course concepts when creating the formative and summative assessments. Therefore, given this plus my attendance and punctuality I should receive an A.

# data[].attributes.body
During this course I can tell I’ve been paying closer attention to the process of assessing for learning and for grades as well as self-assessing. As I mentioned in my previous reflections, assessments used to be something that existed for the purpose of giving a grade, and I think a part of me will always correlate the two, but I’m also realizing it’s importance in its intentionality as it holds the educator accountable of being explicit about what we want our students to be able to accomplish. Learning objectives, targets and rubrics used to be something I knew I had to include but never really processed the how or why. I like being able to reflect on these practices and talk about them. I’m more conscious and intentional about creating I can do statements and including them in every part of the lesson , they are as important as learning targets as they tell students the purpose of what they are doing and learning, likewise they deserve to have rubrics, standards and a criteria to follow so as to evaluate themselves and know what we will be evaluating them on. Another huge takeaway that became much more present this term is giving students feedback and the impact it can have on the learning process. I love that feedback forces us to focus  around the students’ skills and it’s not centered around getting a  grade. I appreciate that this course has helped bring forth concepts that I intrinsically knew were important but were always on the back of my mind and how now because of its intentionality it’s helping modify my lesson making, instruction and feedback giving.

# data[].attributes.body
With the end of the quarter fast approaching, I am having a difficult time reflecting, this time for different reasons. Though I can blather on all day no matter what the circumstances (particularly if there are dogs involved), I am feeling quite unmoored by some very difficult circumstances in my family that will certainly make finishing the program even harder than it already felt in terms of the time available and the emotional bandwidth. Besides this, I do feel that I have learned a great deal in my coursework this quarter, and that I will be reflecting for years to come on many of the questions we have brought up recently. I have rethought so many of my go-to teaching strategies, and there has been so much "un-learning" that I am left feeling like a pile of scaffolding with only the barest idea of what the edifice will look like later.
That being said, I feel now, and have felt for some time, like I am behind in terms of where I should be, experience wise. My placement just really kicked into gear now that I am (mostly) teaching my own section of French 1. I have much more freedom to try out ideas, but I still feel constrained. I have been told I can do whatever I want, but because the examples I have seen up to now are so far outside how I have ever taught, it's difficult for me to plan lessons. The nice pacing and flow that my CT has with her classes feels impossible to replicate. One, we don't discuss how things will happen or in what order, so I'm always a bit in the dark. Two, it's actually fairly difficult to go into uncharted territories after seeing someone teach a certain way for a few months. My own experience, while extensive, doesn't always help me. I'm not quite sure how my CT plans how she will scaffold assignments and activities, for example, and trying to figure out the recipe from watching someone cook is much harder than reading the recipe leisurely on one's own time. The other issue is that I do not feel empowered in my placement to make the class my own. My CT insisted on doing attendance. She emails students if they do not come to class. She calls parents to check in. She has not mentored me in any real way about HOW things are done, and I'm not sure why, although I'm sure I'm not the only one. Often in college teaching I did not receive much in the way of help, and I am very used to working almost completely independently, but I think that I am more emotionally invested right now because the students are so much younger. I feel like so much more is at stake than for my college students, and this might not be correct. I'm also still not sure how to speak to high school students, because I don't want to be quite as distant as a college professor can be, but I also don't want to patronize or infantilize them. But, despite all this trepidation, I keep trying each day, and I really like my students. My experience helps me in one way, in that I know many of my current feelings will change with some time and more freedom.

# data[].attributes.body
Not a lot has changed since my last reflection but I think I’ve been reflecting more on self-assessment and the importance of student’s metacognition. I’ve always tried to include self-assessments form for students to measure how they are doing in class overall and I do think these are important and students can definitely be honest, but I think I also need to include more specific self-assessments as from the examples shared in class, they can greatly benefit their language development as it adds another level of metacognition

# data[].attributes.body
The more we have talked about assessments in this class and the different methods and benefits the more I realize I don't feel like I have a strong hold on how exactly I want to continue with assessment and subsequent feedback in my own classroom. I think one of the most important aspects is consistency, which I don't feel like I'm establishing in my student teaching classes, but hopefully I'll get the hang of by the end of this student teaching experience this year and can work towards establishing in a new teaching position next year. The school I work at right now does an 80% assessment to 20% daily class work final grade percentage, which leaves assessment a huge portion of the grading process.

I think especially given that I plan to have more creative projects that students have time to work on to demonstrate their learning and understanding of language and cultural contexts in the classroom, I feel good about that breakdown. I think this really helps keep the assessment portion less stressful, but at the same time I do kind of worry about only 20% of the grade being daily work and that not contributing to motivating factors to attend class or participate in classwork and homework. Teenagers are at a developmentally appropriate stage of not quite having mastered time management and self-control and self-motivation, especially when it comes to school work, so I do hesitate leaving the gradual learning process more up to them and grading so heavily on a final product that maybe they are not equipped to produce if they haven't been doing the practice work to get to that level.

But I think that's the point of making classwork and homework engaging, so that students are getting in that practice by feeling excited and interested in coming to class and participating and practicing the activities in their own time. I've had an idea for a while that I'm not necessarily putting into practice with my student teaching which I feel kind of bummed about, but I would love to have students turn in a portfolio of their most interesting and/or meaningful work samples, and use that as a portion of the assessment at the end of a quarter or semester. But, I don't feel like I have been generating enough assignments for them to adequately choose from that would work well within a portfolio system, so that is something I'd like to work on developing and implementing more as I gain more experience as a teacher.

# data[].attributes.body
It has been super interesting dealing with assessments as both student and teacher over the past year, but particularly this quarter as we've studied both assessments and grading, while grappling with our own philosophies. I would probably give myself a B for this course only because I think my performance over the past couple of months has slipped - for a variety of reasons. I've participated in live class and I've turned in all the assignments required for this class, but I haven't kept up with all of the readings (despite a strong start) and I've had to spread out the little energy I have into multiple competing concerns. I've enjoyed what I've learned in this class from the readings, discussions and reflections, and I've become a more informed teacher because of it.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Create a new document and edit with others at the same time -- from your computer, phone or tablet. Get stuff done with or without an internet connection. Use Docs to edit Word files. Free from Google.

# data[].attributes.body
As this course is coming to an end I will definitely start by saying that enormous learning has taken place. Sometimes I had felt overwhelmed by the work, assignments, student teaching but the overall process have been really exciting and filled with learning opportunities.  I have learned a lot from this assessment course. What does it mean, what are the various ways and how to best apply these practices in assessing students. I believe it is important for learners to see how much they have learned over a period of time. Sometimes I use to wonder  how harsh or lenient should I assess my students. Now I realize that assessment is very important tool in shaping student learning. I apply differentiation and come out with different types of assessment that cater for different learners. Several things I can do to check and evaluate whether my students have acquired the desired learning objective or not. During instruction, I keep in mind to engage students in some activity and then informally ask them some questions which would allow me to know what my students know and where is their understanding of the concept stand. At the end of the instruction I usually ask my students to complete the exit ticket and also write down the main idea or concept of the lesson.  From these tools I can gauge the level of understanding of the subject. I can also give students a one-question quiz based on the material just covered in the class. By asking students to answer the question collectively by discussion or individually.

# data[].attributes.body
Looking back through my learning logs it is clear how much this class has impacted my thinking around assessments. It has nicely complemented our grading focus in methods class to give a much clearer picture of the intentionality of both pursuits.
Assessments course has also neatly woven into consultancy protocols and mock interviews, bringing the learnings from Chappui and our classroom community into the real world. Overlapping skills is a good way to teach, I think, so I was pleased to see it in action in our program.
What has been particularly interesting, and often eye-opening, has been the peer group discussions around assessments our cohort is building, along with stories from PLCs and CTs about assessments in the classroom. It is clear that approaches to assessments are all over the place. Something my hiring principal told me during our interview when I asked him what makes a good teacher was, "don't waste their time." I have thought of these wise words as I build assignments and assessments for my own students. The pandemic has only brought this advice into even clearer focus.

# data[].attributes.body
Taking some time to reflect after everything that has happened in the last few weeks is actually feeling really welcomed. I can say with assuredness that the 20hrs per week of my field placement is easily more than 40hrs per week with grading, parent emails, lesson planning, more grading, assignment creating, PD and PLC meetings, student progress reports, all the admin work of adding attendance and setting up google classroom and synergy... all of it. I dived right in and have been working around 45 to sometimes 60 hours per week for my school. The main takeaway from that, for me, is that... I love it. I am so thrilled and excited to say that even the tedious stuff doesn't get to me (I am sure it some day will) but I am genuinely, wholeheartedly, and emphatically excited about this future I am charting for myself. Even more so now that I have a job lined up (thanks to Darin).

By some miracle, this school wants me for BOTH of my passions (ELA and apparel design). Can you believe that? I am pinching myself. I have been doing internal summersaults for days. I also attended a seminar about Trauma-Informed Pedagogy this week which has been an interest of mine for months (I have been reading a lot of books on the topic as well) and I think it will be deeply advantageous as I embark on supporting students at Open School. So, right now, the main takeaways for reflection for me right now are pure enthusiasm and excitement. If I could just get the EdTPA stuff over with...

I'd also like to touch on grading philosophies. Having delved into my own draft/initial start of a grading philosophy, I feel like I've really been re-imagining what it is I would like to offer students. I have been thinking critically about the places where my past instructors were missing the mark with me (especially when it came to grading policies) and how I can serve students with a truly culturally responsive practice. I basically think grades, in general, aren't advantageous or effective, but they are the hallmark of a system that will limit access if they aren't implemented in some form or another, so I have to work within that framework. I hope I find ways to do so, and I am excited that I'll be working in lock-step with Darin to develop course work that reflects a lot of our shared attitudes about this.

I don't really know what else to say right now. All I can think about is the bright future that is ahead of me. It has been difficult to distinguish the forest from the trees during this term because of the workload and the EdTPA demands, but I think the light at the end of the tunnel just made itself vaguely visible to me :)

I have also been feeling the deepest level of appreciation for my colleagues in this cohort. Just when I thought I had already met all the close friends I wanted in my life, this program has introduced me to some of the most dedicated, intelligent, and consummate professionals I have ever met. I guess a reflection I am having is that I am deeply grateful for the future of working relationships and advice-givers that are in my life now.

That's all I have for the moment. Thanks for reading.

# data[].attributes.body
All parts in this document.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Create a new document and edit with others at the same time -- from your computer, phone or tablet. Get stuff done with or without an internet connection. Use Docs to edit Word files. Free from Google.

# data[].attributes.body
I can’t say that I’ve seen considerable development in my own ideas since the last reflection posting, nor has my approach differed, nor have my feelings changed much regarding assessments and the like. As of right now in my class, formative assessments have a better completion rate than the summative assessments, namely this is due to all the formatives being done in class. I’ve yet to put any formatives in the gradebook, at least for the synchronous curriculum. Everything that we do leads up to the demonstration of skills in another way. For example, right now students are demonstrating the skills they’ve learned in the previous unit, now on their own, addressing the text we’re working with with their new skills basically as a granted tool for this unit. In this way, the units have begun to build upon themselves. Doing formative assessments in class yields far more engagement than assigning them to do outside of class. Distance learning just isn’t working for my students. If we don’t do something in class and together (which runs quite smoothly), it’s unlikely it’s going to get done on their own time.

Something about homework comes off to be as very ‘summative’, but maybe it’s really just up to me what type of descriptor I’m adding to it. I could convince myself that anything is a formative assessment, realistically. Giving something as homework has the essence of saying “okay, show me what you’ve got”, and it’s really my own assessment or grading of that work that labels it as either formative or summative. If something is formative, I’m hesitant to put it in the grade book with a number attached since this work is by nature a work in progress toward a greater goal and a greater understanding. Summatives are demonstrations of learning that has happened and that has been internalized. It’s not that learning necessarily ends with summative assessments, but they act much more as markers in a student’s progress across the entirety of a class than formative assessments that really happen on a daily basis. For these reasons, I don’t like to assign homework unless I feel like I need to. If I am giving students something to do at home, it’s because we’ve either “done enough of it in class and now you’re showing me what you can do”, or less favorably because there’s just not time to do something in class. I’m not entirely sure what I’m getting at here, but summarily (or summatively hehehehe) I suppose I’m saying that giving grades for formative assessments that ultimately impact a final grade seems hypocritical to what formative assessments are supposed to be.

# data[].attributes.body
All parts in this document.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Create a new document and edit with others at the same time -- from your computer, phone or tablet. Get stuff done with or without an internet connection. Use Docs to edit Word files. Free from Google.

# data[].attributes.body
Thinking about student self assessment has been an exciting endeavor for my teaching practice and has helped me resolve some issues behind equitable grading practices. Mainly, my understanding for how to best administer a self assessment practice has evolved from a singular understanding of what self assessment can be, and the limitations that are presented in a language classroom, when student typically rely on the teacher as a source for what areas they did well in and what areas they can improve on. What I've found though, is that if I first showcase how self evaluation can occur on a work sample that I produce, and have the students evaluate its strengths and areas for improvement (glows and grows), then students evaluating their own performances seem to become a little more full and comprehensive. Students seems to get a better grasp on their own performance first, while at the same time, being able to check in with their classmates to see where each other's improvements might lie. Group assessment of each other's work is still a work in progress, as far as having students comfortably and reliably create their own self assessments and those of their classmates. It does seem though, that as the routine of self assessment becomes more clear in my classroom, and I structure these activities around the comprehensive learning goals from our rubric, student participation in the process seems to get bette with each pass.

# data[].attributes.body
As I go into the week waiting for students to turn in their narrative pieces for grading, I feel excited. Chappuis writes,  “noticing progress is a powerful tool in helping students believe in the connection between their effort and their success (p.271).”  I believe in this idea too, and my goal for the feedback is to not shut students down but give them an opportunity for revision. While I am a believer in revision, I am wondering how many students will take me up on that offer. I know we are closing in on their senior year, and after talking with them during one-on-one meetings, all of them feel overwhelmed and stressed. But I still have hope that at least 2 kids will revise that "need" to (such as not passing or getting a 3 and wanting a 4).

With all of this in mind, something I have implemented recently that might come back to bite me is my level of flexibility. Comparing last terms kids to this group, I am noticing students have more responsibilities that are demanding their attention that is not school related. Multiple students have work during my class, a handful have people they're caring for at home, and others work evenings and need to sleep (therefore not allowing time to do work). When I started this course, I make it very clear that if a student is in contact with me, I am willing to bend the due dates. And honestly, I am happy to do that. This term has kicked my butt, and I need grace and time to get my stuff in gear. Lots of these kids have 5 or 6 other things that are big going on, and I want them so be successful just like those who are able to go to school and have school as their priority focus.

However, I am also noticing that some students are taking advantage of my kindness.... I have 4 kids who show up to Zoom class, I will send them a message via Zoom about meeting up to go over their work, they reply saying "sure, that sounds good" and then leave mid lesson. It is frustrating; and because I am not able to talk with them, I don't know their situation unlike my other students. Right now the balancing act is not too bad, but as more summative assessments are submitted, the further behind these kids will be. I made a deadline for myself that if I don't see work turned in for a select group of students on my radar,  I will be emailing parents. I have to, even though I don't want to.

With all this in mind, I have found that I am proud of what I do in the classroom thus far. I have come such a long way from August where I was a fly on the wall to now where I am leading the class. Right now I am practicing my reading aloud skills by reading this really long short story in class. As an English teacher, its humorous to me that reading a text aloud gives me stage fright- but so far its. been going well. I stop for note taking checks and ask guiding discussion questions as we read, which gives me a break from reading paragraphs on end aloud. In comparison to last term, the reading of the text has taken a bit longer, but I am pleased with the level of participating I've been getting as we check in on the note taking template I made for them.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Create a new document and edit with others at the same time -- from your computer, phone or tablet. Get stuff done with or without an internet connection. Use Docs to edit Word files. Free from Google.

# data[].attributes.body
One thing that has been glaring at me about formative assessments  is their effectiveness in creating success on summative assessments. This seems obvious, but it is much more surprising when you see the results in action. The students who are doing the best in all of my classes are the ones who come to class. Out of those who come to class, the highest achievers are the students who participate in the formative assessments in synchronous activities. There have been a couple of stragglers this year who have been able to complete the week's assignments without coming to class, but as we build on the targeted skills and they continue to miss synchronous class, their assignments have demonstrated a remarkable drop in meeting the target objectives.  I attribute this to the lack of practice and teacher instruction. As we've continued distance learning I have learned to only focus on 1 or 2 skills a hexster. With the infrequency of synchronous class and the struggles our student community has had with the pandemic, this has resulted in the most effective way to teach them...something. By focusing on 1 or two skills at a time, the engaged students have become quite proficient in the lesson objectives and they have prepared themselves for our eventual return in april/fall. This year has put what we've learned in the reading to the test - Practice doesn't make perfect, but it sure as hell makes you better.

# data[].attributes.body
This Term has been challenging, one of the most take away. I had learned so much during the class, meeting, and when I while teaching. This term has taught me not only professionally but for myself. I felt connected to this class but they're still knowledgeable and understanding about it because there is so much that I need to learn and experience. However, regards about assessment I think this year has been challenging for my students.
There are many reasons I think students should focus on having interactive and fun learning. I had gained so much confidence and learning from students. I believe my students have something to bring into the class. As a new teacher, I do the best to understand my student. I worked hard and tried to come up with different varieties of activities to make learning fun.

However, my takeaway from this class is  I learned from my classmates, there are many ways to display a rubric assessment for students.  I used a regular rubric that students can be able score themselves, so they can see the areas that I need to work on. I feel that I still need to know more about this content based on the student's results tried to come up with other alternatives to better support the students.

I am excited to get to know more about my students and see them face to face. I am looking forward and happy to get to know my students. Also, to learn more from the students and to work in the areas I need to improve.

I am excited and ready.

# data[].attributes.headline
Part 2 & 3: final course reflection and grade proposal

# data[].attributes.subject
Part 2 & 3: final course reflection and grade proposal

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Create a new document and edit with others at the same time -- from your computer, phone or tablet. Get stuff done with or without an internet connection. Use Docs to edit Word files. Free from Google.

# data[].attributes.body
As I’ve mentioned before, during my first year of teaching assessments were an area of struggle for me initially. I assumed assessments meant an exam, but as we have discussed and in class, read in our text, and conversed with our colleagues, assessments are much broader.  This term has been really difficult, with edTPA casting a tall and dark shadow behind us all and my full-time job, I haven’t really felt connected to any of my classes really. That’s not because I don’t want to care but rather because I am exhausted by the end of the day and this class plus the other classes we are all taking happen to be in the evening after an already full day. But I will say that this assessment course has been pretty productive for me thanks to the useful textbook readings and our peer collaboration time. I often reflect on my first year of teaching and wish I could go back to change some of the mistakes I made, but since I can’t do that, I’ll simply do the next best thing and make sure not to repeat those mistakes. Due to the nature of CDL, assessments are possible this year but I have spent some time discussing possibilities with my work colleagues in hopes of also learning from my experienced coworkers.

Thinking ahead, I hope to involve my students’ opinions more for creating more interesting and interactive lessons and assessments. By gaining a stronger grasp of my student’s strengths and weaknesses I will be able to better support my students. An area that I’ve been paying more attention to is my learning targets - my principal pointed out that it’s best to use clearly defined achievement language, meaning that students know without a doubt when they’ve reached the lesson objectives.

Without a doubt, this school year has been extremely difficult for teachers and educators. As we make our way back into the building, we’ll need to teach our students how to be students in schools once again. It’s going to take some time but will definitely be worth the challenge. In due time I hope to use some of the strategies my work colleagues use such as, involving students in the assessment process. Such as displaying a blank rubric on the screen and filling it up with students, asking students how they can successfully self-assess, and sharing what I’m specifically looking for, and so on. I can color code the rubric as well to keep it more organized. I’m both eager and anxious to return to the building, sooner or later that day will come.

# data[].attributes.body
I've been thinking a lot about self assessment and goal-setting lately and how the learnings that happen in the classroom can be directly relevant to the requisite skills outside of the classroom. I am teaching quite a few seniors this year, many  of whom are graduating in the next few weeks and some who are heading off to college. I try to find relevance in everything we do in school and I think it's vital that we teach goal setting and self assessment in the framework of life skills as much as academic skills. I sometimes tell my students of my marathon running days and how each workout was structured months in advance. I would have daily, weekly and monthly goals all counting backwards from race day. The goals were easy to see and filling them in became a point of pride after each run. That was my goals. It's easier to be attentive when you are passionate about the end result and the journey it took to get there. That's the first thing about goal setting. There's no point in trying to get kids excited about goal setting if they couldn't care less, or don't see any value in the end result - clearly they won't enjoy the journey.
Self assessment along the way during marathon training was also hugely important and I tell the students about having to pay close attention to my legs, my general fatigue, my mental health during these gruelling training sessions. Knowing when to pull back and when you are capable of more is a crucial life skill. High expectations and the understanding that most things worth accomplishing in life are not easy is a valuable lesson.
Chappuis talks about this in chapter 4 when he discusses 'challenging learning targets' Knowing how hard I challenged myself when the target was difficult gives me reason to believe that putting challenging learning targets in front of students will likely produce similar results. I am much better about lesson learning objectives and making sure students know why we are doing what we are doing, but I can do a better job of painting a bigger picture at the beginning of the unit.

# data[].attributes.body
Something I didn't get around to commenting on on my first reflection is lesson objectives, and I think I'm slowly but surely gathering a larger appreciation for them. At first I thought they were a little superfluous or even just for show or to check off a box mandated by the district or whatnot... But as I've seen them in practice and as we've talked about them as a class (and in other classes), the more and more I see just how much of a solid tool they are. A learning objective is a super concrete way for not only a teacher to assess what they expect a student will "walk" out of their classroom being able to do, but is also a totally concrete thing for students themselves to reflect upon, and hopefully additionally use that to determine their own progress and increasing skill base within a particular subject.

On a recent hike with my mom, who is an elementary school teacher, we were chatting about learning and language objectives and my confusion being able to differentiate and clearly express between the two. Similar to another realization in a breakout room with colleagues, where I realized that assessment was just simply "How do I know what my students know?" my mother also gloriously and simply explained learning/language objectives as "How will the student show us what they have learned?"

As I expressed in my reflection one how I was becoming more and more aware that active and direct feedback was something I wanted to focus on in CDL, as well as of course continue on into in person classes, I think that having students engage in self-assessment is something else that I definitely want to incorporate more into my classes. And, funnily enough, I feel like feedback and reflection through self-assessment are quite closely related to one another! In any case I think that rubrics are a good solution to incorporating more feedback and self-assessment. Not only do they provide clear guidelines and expectations of what an assignment or project should include, but they create a clear framework for dialogue around a summative assessment, both for teachers provide feedback but also for student to analyze and determine their own concept and assessment of their performance.

So, given all these fairly recent aha moments and realizations and slight clarity into some of the larger issues of what it is to effectively teach, I would still consider myself emerging. But, I'm aware of these things as well as the many many many other things that teachers need to be constantly and continually aware of in their classroom and lesson planning endeavors, and being aware is, and my humble opinion an okay place to be. We are all constantly working to be more aware, more effective, more well-rounded, and just generally better versions of ourselves, and I'm definitely somewhere along that process!

# data[].attributes.body
Something that I've really enjoyed and benefited from this deeper look into assessment has been my realization that every aspect of teaching is in a way a formative assessment. We are always trying to gauge what it is our students are absorbing and what it is they're walking away from our lessons with. So, given that we are constantly assessing our students, how can we become intentionally aware of that and use it to the best of our ability to inform better teaching practices and teach more directly to the individual differences and specific needs of each of our students? This class has helped me identify some useful tools for doing this and helped me start looking at different ways I can put them into practice in my own classroom.

I think one of my main takeaways from this class is just to focus on the act of reflection. Reflecting upon our students' interest, engagement and performance is the best way to gather data about their journey as learners, which in turn is a direct reflection upon our abilities as teachers. Something that really stuck out for me during a conversation with colleagues in a breakout room is the simple question "How do I know what my students know?" As simple and obvious as this question is I think that letting it be at the forefront of what guides me in my assessment of my students is fairly pivotal. Keep it simple. Bam.

As far as summative assessments go, the more and more I think about the ways that education is changing and progressing for the better, to create more equitable opportunities and reduce unnecessary stressors, I've come to the conclusion that projects are a great way to assess student growth. Luckily in World Languages this works quite well and the projects are actually usually extremely informative and interesting! And I always learn just as much about my student as a person as I learn about what they've learned in my class. Which I think are, honestly, equally valuable.

The stairs and stars assignment was really eye-opening for me because I realized that I think I should be giving more feedback than I have been giving. I think, of course, in a brick and mortar, in-person classroom setting there really is just so much more direct, in the moment feedback naturally happening because there's just so much more actual interaction happening between teacher and student and among peers. I do think I am actually fairly good at this in person, but the stairs and stars activity helped me reflect on the absence of this in my online classes this year. It's something that I think is just as important as ever, and since it comes less naturally in CDL it's something I'm going to have to more conscientiously focus on creating opportunities for and following through with. That has given me plenty to think about and plan, and will no doubt be a continual journey for the rest of this CDL experience.

I think all in all I'm still emerging as a well-rounded educator in charge of not only planning and administering lessons as well as getting to know my students and encouraging them to try their best and be their best but also in concrete assessment and feedback that I can provide for students. It is something I appreciate being pushed to hold myself to improve upon.

# data[].attributes.body
I very recently had my 2nd formal observation with my school principal for this school year, in a way it was my CDL teacher assessment. It went well since my principal was very explicit on what he was looking for since our first observation back in November. After our post-observation we spent a decent amount of time talking about my learning objectives, my 'I can' statements, I really liked his feedback. He suggested I do away with general objective goals and rather narrow in by using achievement focused language. The sort of language that students can easily measure themselves against with no ambiguity. This really brings together my lesson strength and assures my students of what the big takeaway will be. Thanks to this class and feedback from my principal, I am placing more care and attention to the language I use in my learning targets and make sure to revisit if necessary, this is especially true during CDL since we aren't necessarily doing any assignments during distance learning. Learning targets in a way are taking the place of assessments during CDL so I make sure our lesson goals are met with each new unit.

# data[].attributes.body
Assessments are one of those requirements that are necessary but not always so enjoyable. I struggled quite a bit with fitting assessments into my teaching routine during my first year of teachings. It's an area of my teaching career that I feel will get better with more time and practice. It's been tough to develop curriculum that touches upon all key components while assuring my students to not feel anxious about the upcoming assessment. I believe that once I have clear vision of the current and upcoming lessons I will provide in class, it'll be that much more smooth of a transition to assess my students. Afterall, students perform according to how well they are taught which greatly reflects on my organizational and lesson delivery skills. I have to admit that during my first teaching, assessments towards the end of the quarter was something my students and I did not look forward to. I definitely want that experience to not repeat itself. My biggest take away from this course is crafting more specific  learning objective with achievement language, and better use of rubrics that are more student focus with clear guidance and improving student feedback. I hope Canvas remains an integral part of our classes even when we return to our traditional classrooms, I have definitely benefited from the audio and video feedback options readily available to educators.

# data[].attributes.body
This is my third actual week of class, and I've been recording for Edtpa since last week, trying relentlessly to find some way of showing all three modes in one video. It's been very difficult to show interpersonal communication, since I have not seen any examples from my observations in Quarter 1 and 2. I have been trying to incorporate some of the routines that I think work well from my CT, such as calendar talk, a funny meme or "password" question at the beginning of class, and lots of comprehension checks. The hardest thing for me is to include less content and to do more with the content I do include. I also struggle with knowing how much practice to include and how to scaffold that for high school students, since I am so used to college students. It has helped me to plan my class around learning targets, although it is hard to come up with them, because I'm operating in a vacuum in that the learning targets of my CT are not formulated. I think that she is trying to get through the year, and she has mentioned that she's afraid to do assessments this year. There are no tests, quizzes, projects, or larger assignments. Students do comprehension checks, which are mostly translation. I think that during a "normal" year, there is a cultural project at the end of the year, but nothing like that was done this year. This makes me hesitant to do larger projects, because I feel like it would make my CT feel very uncomfortable. I guess at the learning targets from the classes that I have observed, but I feel very nervous asking her what they are, because my question betrays the underlying feeling that this is not very clear, and therefore that her instruction is lacking in a significant way. This has been the hardest thing with my placement, to ask questions that do not undo the fragile alliance between myself and my CT. I am anxious to try and apply more of what I have learned from the Chappuis text, and I have been trying to integrate feedback more, especially, last week and this week. I have been using Jamboard as a way for students to practice the learning targets (such as writing your birthday in French), and then give a few points with a rubric and use the "private comments" function on Google classroom. I have also been integrating more self-reflection by utilizing some of the lists of strategies for learning from my placement school's textbook (that no one is using). I ask students to list which ones are difficult to do, or that they don't understand, or that are easier for them, or that they will work on more that day. I would like to incorporate more self-assessment and help students establish their own goals, and I'm hoping to create a Google form for students to have them reflect on this in the coming weeks. I'm not sure if my CT will let me have conferences with students (I don't even get to usually take attendance), so I'm not sure how I will practice some of these ideas this year. I will definitely refer back to this book in the future, and I think that I would be able to get more out of it, as well as other texts and lessons from other classes, if I was in a different placement. I am glad to have a placement, and I have learned a lot.

# data[].attributes.body
Chapters 4 and 5 has been the most impactful in my current work at this time. It just so happens that February is mid-year review season for my work and the way we do mid-year reviews is by self-assessment followed by manager assessment. I know - it's all too perfect how these coincide.
So I took chapter 4 to heart and made sure my 1 to 1 connections revolved around their self-assessment on how my team members were doing, the two of us then working to align on their assessments, and then we set goals and prepared them for their "real" mid-year review with their reporting manager. Yes they're on my team, but we're all in a career experience so their manager handles reviews and the like.

Even in this brief period of time I see that "stronger sense of self-efficacy" Chappuis mentions on page 193 as I've move towards the team being more self-directed — or at least let them lead the conversation more with some guidance from my line of questioning. In having them lead more of the conversation lately I've seen them offer more feedback and ideas regarding the career experience, team, and even my own leadership. The conversations have proven fruitful in my own growth as I aim to better lead and teach by the end of this career experience.

Another note regarding growth and development through this class: In week 5 I spoke with my breakout group about languages and mentioned I’m Half-Bolivian and raised without Spanish being spoken in the household. One classmate (sorry I can’t confidently remember exactly who) reminded me that it’s never too late to learn Spanish and I’m happy to report that I am slowly working through a Spanish language app!

# data[].attributes.body
For anyone in the ELA methods class at the moment, you know that this reflection really can’t be written without conjoining the work we’re doing in these two classes. Assessments and grading are inextricably paired. One begets and is contingent on the other. The assessment and rubrics created for an assignment guide the student toward a path to success and hopefully ‘learnedness’, while the same two pieces guide the teacher in the fair analysis of the student’s work as representative of their learning (to the best that we shape these materials to do so). Like many of my peers right now, the revolutions being mentally encountered on a a near assignment-to-assignment basis as the realizations compound that much of what students are being assessed for ultimately is unfair, doesn’t matter, is a teacher cop-out, or some unseemly combination of all three of these (with the ultimate bleakness being reached in ‘busy work’), is jarring in the most agitating yet exciting of ways. It’s made almost blindingly clear that the baroque grading systems of our schooling, not excluding much of schooling now, to put it plainly, just don’t work. It doesn’t make sense. If you think about the amount of unnecessary assessments, participation grades, botched life-lesson attempts, or unrecognized stubbornness for the grading traditions of olde, that all of this being so ubiquitous borders on an almost literary absurdity when we consider what is fair, equitable, or even right.

In my own class, I’m finding I’m having to awkwardly or at times subtly undo and unravel some of the assignments and assessments built into the curriculum that are assumed to have worth by merit of existing, when in actuality if I had to explain the purpose of some of these to students, if I did choose to assign them, I would dread having to use the anti-response of a single “because”, because that’s where the reasoning ends on some of these. Put under an equity lens, too many things fall to pieces. My transparency with students regarding the purpose of every assessment, every assignment, every bit of reasoning for each grade, and the personal philosophy I’m cultivating around these topics seemingly breaks through a new roof on weekly bases. Through my openness about these subjects and the conversations I have in class, I feel like I’m at times teaching or suggesting to my students what a teacher should be or needs to be (or could be?), spotlighting the possibilities; not that I am that teacher at the moment, at least not yet, but this is a permanent becoming anyway. I do not mean to frame this as any type of aggrandizement; quite the opposite, actually, if not an inadvertent apology.

I feel that I keep coming back to this idea of an experiential component of teaching that is extremely human. One way to describe this would be in juxtaposition to the industrial model of public school, which remains the dominant structure so long as school is an assembly line with fixed endpoints at which students are decidedly placed back on the belt for reassembly/education or reluctantly deemed failures of some sort and left alone (excuse the palpable cynicism). This is very mechanical, very inhuman. Counter to this would be a system in which each student is their own grading system and on their own timeline, valued and properly challenged in a way that is vitalistically motivating, not being compared to others due to blanket procedures or sacrificed as collateral when the the year’s gradation time arrives. This type of romanticism, while weighing heavy on me, admittedly, is still motivating. Idealism is impossible in wholeness, but echoes of ideals can show up where we can express creative and loving agency in our own teaching, creating spaces where teachers and students can be humans. I didn’t want to end this reflection with the tone of frustration as expressed above. But it is a creative frustration, importantly.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Create a new document and edit with others at the same time -- from your computer, phone or tablet. Get stuff done with or without an internet connection. Use Docs to edit Word files. Free from Google.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Create a new document and edit with others at the same time -- from your computer, phone or tablet. Get stuff done with or without an internet connection. Use Docs to edit Word files. Free from Google.

# data[].attributes.body
I will certainly start by saying that I am learning a lot. When I started student teaching I use to be so nervous , little panicked and tried to cover up my nervousness. Now gradually with practice, help and support I am gaining confidence and feel more comfortable and have started really enjoying the process. I think It has shaped me from worrying if everything will go smoothly or not  to taking things and situations as they come and happen. I remember how much time I use to spend in making one presentation or preparing for the lesson plan. Now making presentation slides is not hard for me anymore.  I like to research and incorporate ideas, simulations that my students will love doing and learning. Also I have learned how to align the lesson plan with the learning objective. Now I consciously plan according to the learning objectives.
From this course I am learning very important aspects of assessment. It is not just about grading students. Assessment is much more and beyond just points, grades or tests. While readings and building assessment and rubrics, I have come to understand that it is important that students should also understand why they’re being assessed, what knowledge they’re trying to master. This broadens their thinking process and learning happens not for grades but for real learning and grades follow. I realized the fact that when student comes to DBAs( discussion based assessment ) they get  the opportunity to ask for and receive the information they need to grow. They have an important role in promoting their own success and we as educators want our learners to become active participants in the learning process.
I am learning  how to employs a variety of assessments that are appropriate for the students and learning targets. Analyze the results of assessments and give appropriate feedback and support student learning. Overall I would like to conclude that assessment literacy is teaching me many things and is career long learning process.

# data[].attributes.body
The TL;DR: everything is practice.

The thoughts I am having as I attempt to wrap my head around a grading philosophy, the development of a rubric, and effective assessments that measure student LEARNING instead of performance is that everything I can offer them is practice that will be part of their journey. I think placing myself as a small character role in the story of their path to becoming adults with lots of brilliant ELA-inspired things to ponder is a pretty good step for me right now. My biggest hope is that I make assessments and assignments that spark their imagination and give them tools to enrich their lives with. I want to try to be clear with them as we approach every text, every assignment, every assessment--that there are real world applications for these things and REAL WORLD assessments where these things will surface and our class is practice that gives us formidable and useful skills. I hope I find authentic ways to deliver that message to them so that they learn to trust me that I am never trying to give them asinine or unimportant stuff to think about. With this in mind, I am going to be very specific in my feedback cycles. I will always give individuated feedback to major assignments and make sure that I render my feedback through a lens of the proficiency level that my students are demonstrating. I don't know if this is useful to conceptualize or not, but when I think about the employees I have had at my store for the last few years, and how they have all learned new skills to deepen the function of their roles at my company, I think about how all of the levels of proficiency had to be scaffolded from different starting points. All eventually rise to the level that meets their personal needs and that's learning... when I receive some of the assignments that I've given my students and they show levels of improvement that reflect the singularity of their own personal proficiency levels, it definitely reminds me that I need to make sure I really SEE each of them (and their potential!!). I hope I can find ways to develop assessments that scaffold for different points of entry and proficiency levels, as well. These assessments are ALSO practice, and they should provide me and the student with composite data of actionable areas for improvement and development. Lastly, I want to make sure that development conferences are a major part of my practice. I want to have eye-to-eye, respectful and meaningful conferences between myself and the student so that I can clarify any feedback that might be eluding them. I think this is where I am landing at this point, but I am also in a swirl of thoughts about grading, evaluating, and reflecting on student work.

# data[].attributes.body
As a student teacher, I am still learning and noticed that I am not totally in charge of my class. My CT watched me as I teach and makes sure that I am covering everything based on the content level. I wondered if the students are enjoying the new unit? Are they enjoying the lecture ?. Well, I arise and stand for my pride to make sure they are learning. I want my students to feel they are welcoming in a safe environment but also building community. I follow up with the students by asking if are understanding it.

During our class activity, ask them if they have any questions as they participate. Some of them choose to participate by responding to their answer in the chat. As continuously learning from my student I learned from myself as well.

However, I see that my students are assessing as an ongoing self-assessment. During class, students use self-assessment to monitor their learning. I want my students to reflect on their learning and be able to make adjustments so that they can understand. I need to see if I can learn or find a solution from it. These concepts that I want my students to master the content that I am teaching them. That’s the concept that I am learning as an educator and for my student to achieve. I am still learning as I continue to listen, watch and reflect I know that as an educator I will make a difference.

# data[].attributes.body
Assessment for learning is something that can take many forms. For me, the main purpose of any course of learning is to feel emotionally engaged and to grow in understanding within your own learnings targets as well as those of your peers. For that reason, assessment of learning for me is consistent check-ins, daily exercises, and group/self assessment strategies that encompass where learners are at in their knowledge of the subject, evaluating this in relation to where they are headed, finding possible strategies for how to get there. In terms of what that means of really world assignments, I think as far as summative assessments go, one option is to focus on project creation as a method for emotionally engaging students in the task at hand while also allowing for multiple different forms of evaluation to take place simultaneously. Recently, that has meant a project where students complete a final evaluation through a video project. This project allows students to perform their presentational skills in speaking as well as writing, and creates an assessment where the task is not only an evaluation of rote learning. I think this type of assessment allows for students to demonstrate their understanding while grounding it in some form of meaningful context. I used the GRASPS method for designing the assessment.  You can find more information on this method here: https://teachingcommons.unt.edu/teaching-essentials/course-design/grasps-model-meaningful-assessment

# data[].attributes.body
Now that I am teaching my own class without my co-teacher making suggestion to how I teach, I have been mulling over the ways I would run a class differently. Our unit order will repeat what was done last semester, but the way it's taught is now through my lens. I am working on a narrative writing unit with my students. Rather than having my senior English class write me a story about their experiences, or navigate through their life in some other way, I am having them practice  narratives by writing a cover letter for a company of interest, or a scholarship essay. As I think we all have experienced- the burn out is real and taking over our kids. To try and work against this, I am doing my best to alter the assessments from last semester to make them beneficial for students beyond the classroom.

I think at this point with my seniors, they want out; and I don’t blame them. I gave my students a survey for a writing and reading inventory to see what their stance on ELA was- with no judgement on their answers. The last question asked "What do you hope to gain from this course?" and of my 28 students, 19 of them answered something to the effect of "nothing, I just need this credit to graduate." Initially, this was a bummer because I am really excited to work with these kids on my own, and build that classroom community from the ground up. But, I also know what its like to be almost out of school having not been able to spend that time with my peers, collaborating in person, and enjoying the camaraderie before we part ways.

With my assessments, I aim to teach them skills that can be applied to life outside of school. I have been mulling over teaching them how to build a website on Google, because thats a cool function and skill for anyone to have. There they could turn in their work and incorporate some creativity for their site. However, my students are displaying low levels of engagement already, and asking them to be creative like this may be a total flop.

In comparison to last semesters narrative piece, I want students to work shop their writing with peers. We didn't do much peer evaluation, and I think having as many eyes on a piece of writing, the better. My goal is to have students break down their narratives by paragraphs, and workshop their introductions, body paragraphs, and conclusions. Then, I want them to do a final peer review where they evaluate each others work for organization, and the inclusion of the Three C's; concise, community, and compelling, which is included in the rubric. My hope is by doing a lot of peer revision, the classroom community bonding is strong and students find a way to want to be in my class.

# data[].attributes.body
The past few weeks have really been a whirlwind! Between meeting with my CT, to working on edTPA as well as other grad assignments and schoolwork, it's nice to take some time to reflect on it all. I think some key takeaways for myself as I continue to find effective ways of assessing students are that (most) of my students learn best when they are able to correct their mistakes in front of the teacher, whether that be in a virtual or in a non-virtual setting. I have far too often left written feedback expecting that the student will be able to synthesize what I have given without further guidance, and expect a quick turnaround. However, this is usually not the case. Leaving voice notes on homework in Canvas has been more effective at bridging that gap, but the best thing has been able to meet with students one on one, to discuss specific issues that need to be addressed. This is why it is so crucial during synchronous sessions to be able to see student work in real time, and communicate with them directly about what could be modified. I have actually started experimenting with google hangout in which I can start a private chat (something that Google Meet is sorely lacking) with students who I know would prefer not talking in front of the entire group. Once we go back to hybrid I might still consider using this as students will have their computers with them during class. All in all, I think this class has been really insightful and has helped me collaborate with others and think about ways to keep improving my practice, as well as make things easier for my students in the long run. Thank you!

With regards to a letter grade that best represents my learning from the course I would give myself an A. It has not been easy to balance school/work life, not to mention during a pandemic. I have given feedback to my colleagues and received feedback, and have learned valuable skills from analyzing how to give feedback to students, to building rubrics, and more. I know there will always be more to learn but as teachers the reflection process is integral, as we are constantly thinking about things that we did well, and things that could be better for next time. This is why I love this career! There is no one day in the same.

# data[].attributes.body
Assessing is still a huge work in progress, but it has moved to the top of my priority list - and that's saying something considering the amount of work I still need to do to become anything like the teacher I want to be. What I have recently stumbled on, that's been cemented by our assessments textbook and our methods class is that the only thing we should be measuring and assessing is mastery of skills and how proficient students are as they move through the unit. I say stumble because I have been trying to connect with students with really poor attendance or assignment completion rate and I've been doing whatever I can to get them engaged in anything even resembling academic skills. My breakthrough came with student A who hadn't turned in one assignment in 5 weeks across any of his five classes. Student A attended my morning advocate session and we began talking about what was impeding his engagement with school. Disinterest in the subjects and not seeing the point, was his general observation and I've seen some of the assignments (and some of my own, if I'm being honest) and I couldn't argue. But knowing that skills are way more important than content, I decided to try something different. While we were talking about music and Netflix, student A began talking passionately about "Raising Dion," a Netflix show about a single mother of color raising her son who happens to have superpowers. I could tell just by talking to student A, a student of color, that this show resonated with him. That seeing himself in the text was important. In my Lit and Comp class we have been working on a Talk to the Text graphic organizer as a way to close read and begin textual analysis. I asked student A to chose an episode and I built a Talk to the Text assignment for him around that show. He turned it in and I knew I was onto something. Since then, I have repeated similar exercises with other reluctant students and seen much success.  I can assess these students based on the skills without worrying about the content and it's allowed them to see the value in these skills outside of the traditional academic environment
.

# data[].attributes.body
I used to have such an anxious reaction about assessments, for such a long time and because of the way I was taught I used to relate it with exams and nothing else. This has been an ongoing process for me to realize what assessments look like and what they’re for, this was especially relevant last school year when in my school we couldn’t  assign a final grade to students due to the pandemic. We were supposed to measure a student’s proficiency and performance and offset a pass or no pass, which makes complete sense!. And I realized how important it was to stop putting so much emphasis on the traditional assessments and focus on the learning goals I establish and if the students have been able to meet them with my support. I have also realized that every moment is an opportunity to assess. Something that I have implemented into my routine as a way to check for understanding and give feedback to the class is after instructing and students interacting with the content I ask for examples. In addition, I repeatedly go back to the objectives (I can do statements) I showed at the beginning of class because students need to know the purpose of what they’re doing and then show them again at the end so we can all ask ourselves are we able to do this, can we provide an example of our understanding? I always look forward to these as it lets all of us know where we find ourselves and how we can improve.

# data[].attributes.body
Cassie mentioned this in her Part 1, but our Methods teacher's advice about focusing on one piece of feedback has been resonating with me as well. There are many skills that students need to develop throughout their lives studying ELA, and oftentimes we, the adults teaching ELA,  have no memory of learning these skills and too often assume that close reading or writing skills are common sense - that we have always had these skills rather than honing them our entire lives.  I frequently have to remind myself that it has LITERALLY taken me over 36 years to learn how to read and write and I am STILL developing these skills. I hate catching myself believing  these assumptions.
Every week I read an assignment a student has turned in and I honestly don't know how to grade it. Maybe they missed the mark on meeting the assignment's objective, but they also have run-on sentences, frequent grammar and spelling errors, they're writing in text acronyms, or maybe their sentences are completely incomprehensible in the case of some of my IEP students. How could I possibly give them feedback on everything they're doing wrong? If I did, they would avoid my class like the Corona Virus. I have never approached grading as an opportunity to correct all of my student's mistakes, but I have piled on more feedback than was productive and I have certainly forgotten my own ELA journey more than once. After hearing our Methods instructor's advice, I decided to let each student know in our one on one meeting last term that I will only give them feedback on the learning objective and one, MAYBE two writing tips.  I was surprised when nearly every one of them responded with relief and borderline enthusiasm. It makes me wonder, what the hell have I been putting them through if a statement about feedback gives them such relief?
This PSU term has given me a lot to work on in my practice, but that hasn't discouraged me. For some reason, even though every week I learn something new that proves my old practice wrong, I feel better about my teaching instead of worse. Maybe it's because every time I learn something new to fix, it becomes an opportunity to improve. We are all under a lot of pressure this term. We are teaching, we are full time students, we are in a pandemic, our students are giving up, we want to give up...Some days the work feels endless. But the pressure and constant failures can be a good thing. They are an opportunity to be better and stronger and more resilient. Well, that's what I keep telling myself.
OK, enough rambling. All that to say, I'm narrowing my focus on my feedback and I think it will be much more productive.

# data[].attributes.body
My perspectives with regards to assessing student learning has absolutely evolved over the course of the term, and has really allowed me to take a step back and identify what I can be doing to make feedback more easily understood for my students. Whether this be finding more opportunities for giving in class feedback, or creating individualized breakout rooms where I can work one on one with students who need more clarification on assignments. I also feel I have made strides in knowing if I am giving too much information to a student on an assignment, and finding ways to let the student understand how to correct their own mistakes. This is crucial, as before I feel like I was trying to correct everything myself! Now I can appreciate that teachers in the past have implemented strategies towards students working together to grade their own work. I also know how valuable it is to create teacher exemplars that show students what they need to do exactly to align their work to the standards. Having clear standards that students know they are working towards, and also rubrics where students can see exactly how to meet standards or exceed them is so important to implement on a regular basis. These are things that in the past I feel I would be overwhelmed in creating, but have gotten easier with more experience and time. I have also begun to utilize exit tickets more, which are really easy to give out in a virtual format. To be honest I prefer virtual exit tickets to real ones, because it was a lot of wasted paper. This is a great way to identify who is understanding the lesson objectives, and who requires more clarity. Students who feel too shy to say they don't understand in front of the class might feel comfortable saying it in an exit ticket instead. I look forward to seeing what my fellow colleagues think about this process!

# data[].attributes.body
I apologize for submitting this assignment late, as I have been having a difficult time keeping track of each Padlet.

As of now in this course I have appreciated being able to take a deeper look into learning objectives, as well as how I am exactly assessing my students and their work. In completing the stars and stairs activities I have tried to hone in on what are areas that I can improve in assessment. Whether it be pacing, giving live feedback, or checking for understanding, I understand there are things I could be providing to my students in order to give them the best opportunity to succeed in our classes together. Comprehensive distance learning is unique in that there are so many online assignments in which we can leave comments, likes, and alternative forms of feedback. I know personally I am going to try to make a point of using verbal feedback, where I can utilize the recording feature in Canvas. With regards to creating assessments I have been fortunate enough to be able to borrow rubrics from my colleagues, which students are familiar with and don't require as much time going over in class necessarily. There is much to be learned still, but I am happy with what I have been able to learn and focus on thus far.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Create a new document and edit with others at the same time -- from your computer, phone or tablet. Get stuff done with or without an internet connection. Use Docs to edit Word files. Free from Google.

# data[].attributes.body
This course and its assignments have helped me reflect about all my interactions with my students really and I think it will also influence my future ones. This whole school year has brought its own challenges, I think the most frustrating one is  making sure we reach every student, making sure that they are engaged and that they learn. I used to enjoy providing feedback to my students while in the classroom because it meant making a connection, having a one-on-one interaction with the students. I was sad to realize that most of the time these had been reduced to generic comments left in Canvas after an assignment had been submitted which then the students might see or not and definitely much later. In the past few weeks I’ve endeavored to meet with every group as they work on their in class group activity so that I may be able to see their development and how I can be of help.  Every activity and task is an opportunity to assess formally or informally but not for the purpose of the grade but in terms of performance. I treasure these opportunities as I feel it's the only chance that I get to assess and provide feedback during the learning process. This has been one of my biggest takeaways while taking this class, feedback given at the right moment can really impact a student’s performance positively.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Create a new document and edit with others at the same time -- from your computer, phone or tablet. Get stuff done with or without an internet connection. Use Docs to edit Word files. Free from Google.

# data[].attributes.body
(Warning: this is quite glum.) I'm struggling with reflecting on anything right now, for a variety of reasons. This course has been very helpful in learning more about assessment, but because of the nature of my placement, I have still not been able to apply much of anything that I have learned in this program. I do not have a DVD player, so I have not gotten to enjoy whatever is on the DVD, but otherwise the Chappuis text is very useful. I learned a lot of academic vocabulary for ideas I was mostly familiar with, but it is helpful to have these organized as a reference source for future use. I have always found rubrics very useful, for example, as well as offering different kinds of models (weak/strong). As far as feedback goes, since we have spent a great deal of time on that, I think that when I actually get to try out some of these ideas, it will be very exciting. In my placement, there is not any feedback as far as I can see, or much planning of learning objectives. Maybe during a regular year this occurs, hopefully.
One thing that baffles me, however, and I may be alone here, is the idea that comes from our readings and my placement that students are meant to be 100% responsive so often for so much. It seems so exhausting! I thought that we were trying to get away from perfectionism and such, but I find the way time is made to be so full of "utility" is quite robotic. I think there is so much value in those moments when students are allowed to think without "producing" something. There is value in idle pondering within the classroom! The constant need to produce output has got to wear on them in this very trying time we are going through. Someone could write a lovely paper on Foucault and remote learning, but I'm not the one to do it!
I am not comfortable giving myself a grade without some kind of rubric. I often have student assess their own participation grade, but I provide a rubric to help with the awkwardness. My grades have been all over the place throughout the program and I have never quite understood them, but c'est la vie! I certainly feel like a complete failure most of the time in these courses since being remote, as my time is never my own and there is a litany of impossible choices (do I help my daughter learn multiplication, or do I finish this assignment, or do we get fresh air today?, repeat to infinity...). Once upon a time, I got lovely grades and was very self-righteous about it. I could spend as much time as I wanted on everything and judged others who didn't harshly. Now I realize I was a fool. I am a very privileged person in many ways, but I know enough now to know that people often try to do what they can despite impossible lives.

# data[].attributes.body
My take aways for the assessments strategies that we've learned so far have been mostly about effective feedback, either directly to individual students or simultaneously in a whole class setting. Specifically, the text delineates three main functions of feedback that I have found to be super helpful in my own practice. "Where am I going? Where am I now? and How can I close the gap?" are questions that seem to be beneficial all along the way. Within where am I going: "providing students with a clear and understandable vision of the learning target" is an essential first step in starting down the path of learning. Next, "Use examples and models of strong and weak work", is super important so that students have a reference and even a spectrum of what your are expecting of them. Then in "Where Am I Going", descriptive feedback and having students self-assess their own work is a great step in passing the torch off to the students to officiate their own learning. Especially because you can see where they stand on their ability level. Finally when closing the gap, using evidence to show students their learning allows them to be reflective learners as well as and for them to better see their strengths and weaknesses at a distance. Focused instructions also helps with that in that if there's a clear focus for you in class then it is much easier for the students follow along. Finally, making sure that students have the opportunity or 'think time' to "track, reflect on, and share their learning progress is what ties it all together.

# data[].attributes.body
This course has been instrumental to refining my approach to feedback. The organization I have been with for the last six years places a high value on creating a culture of feedback. I am glad I've had that time to work on how I deliver peer feedback but I have been in a leadership experience for the last six months and delivering feedback to a member of your team creates another relationship dynamic entirely. There is a lot of similarities between this dynamic and the student teacher dynamic in regards to perceived power, expectations, and respect and it is for that reason that I find this class so immediately beneficial. On top of that the differences between the two force me to adapt what we are studying to a corporate learning/competency environment

I'll highlight a few key moments and learnings from these first four weeks that I found particularly beneficial. Starting with defining and describing feedback as it pertains to this class and the learning environment I focused on a few key refreshers from Chappuis — that feedback should be accessible, have coaching value, and should inspire confidence and hope. It may not seem like a particularly inspired comment, but reminding ourselves of the importance of feedback and the best elements of it has already improved my feedback I deliver to my team in these past few weeks because of the increased intentionality I bring to it. In doing my best to deliver feedback with this framework in mind I am able to clarify my expectations to my team members, work with them to make the feedback actionable, and demonstrate the why that informs the feedback.

To summarize some of my reflections from week four — my work is of a more often asynchronous nature and for that reason I need to make more of an effort to let them create the action steps for my feedback. I feel like I'm often out of time and lead that portion more so and more often than I should. I have long believed that feedback should be actionable but I became used to spelling out what I expect that to look like for my team or at least start that conversation in a significant way. I am striving to have them do more in generating action steps and then I work with them until we agree upon in. I guess we could see this as a negotiated contract of sorts?

- Brandon

# data[].attributes.body
First, I want to share my perspectives based on what I learned during assessment based on my student teacher. I feel there is so much knowledge that I need to learn when I use assessment with the students. Although, what I had learned from the assessment is that it involves the evaluation of students learning over the courses of times. I think its fundamental purpose is to estimate a student’s level of understanding to enhance students' learning during the learning process. I think that based on what I learned from student's performance through formative assessment and sharing the results with my cooperating teacher it has helped us to know student's ability performance. As a student teacher, I noticed that students learning and improvement matter to me in all matters. I think it is important that students are receiving the best learning for a better result when they assess. I wonder how I can be able to provide better knowledge when I give students feedback based on their results ?. Students should receive feedback that identifies strengths, weaknesses, and other things to keep in mind for future assignments-discussions. I think students should have an opportunity to learn about the areas that still need improvement and how they could grow and develop for themselves.

Based on what I have learned about students' participation since I have worked with them is stable.  Every time I worked with them I tried the best to help them in ways that gave them positive encouragement and positive feedback to help them while they were working with me. Indeed, feedback and discussion is critical and distinguishes between our discussion while working on any particular assignment. As a student teacher, I do the best of my ability to direct a stable community between the students and myself. I had learned so much from them and I constantly asked for feedback from the class. I noticed that the students need more examples to help them to evaluate their work. I think students need more support in a way that could help them to feel confident in their ability in their work.

In my opinion of what I think about student grades and performance is that the students need to obtain specific learning objects of interest. Overall, I think students will have success helping them to attain interests.  I am still learning myself and I would say that I continuous learning.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Create a new document and edit with others at the same time -- from your computer, phone or tablet. Get stuff done with or without an internet connection. Use Docs to edit Word files. Free from Google.

# data[].attributes.body
I am learning a lot during this entire course. The  very first thing that I got to understand is the formal and informal formative and summative assessments. I  was confused and did not understand until now when I am actually using these in my practice. I am now able to understand the underlying idea behind all these types of assessment. I remember how confused I was when my supervisor gave me feedback and asked me “ How you will come to know, what the students know”. I thought I had questions and Exit ticket and that is enough. But after the various readings and practice I come to the realization that my questing and probing should be ongoing along with the discussion and should be more frequent. I think this has  allowed me as well as students to know where we are in the learning process, where we need to go and how best to get there. This course has made me more mindful of the importance of the feedback. How it should be planned and given. And I see the results and effects of effective feedback, Students do get encouraged and motivated. In my web academy we regularly have DBAs(Discussion Based Assessment). Now I am able to make more sense of these assessment criterion.  A lot is happening right now. I am writing lesson plans, working on planning commentary, preparing presentation slides, Reading and reflecting. With all things going and moving forward some times I falter, get nervous and then I think what I always say to my students, “keep learning and keep growing”. If I have to grade myself I would say that I am emerging and learning each day.

# data[].attributes.body
As we begin talking about feedback and assessments, I find myself  reflecting on how I have already been interacting with my students. From class conversations, my biggest take away thus far is the importance of feedback that is given DURING the learning process. When I think of feedback, I default to the comments given after an assignment  has been submitted. But when I ask for feedback from my peers on my own work, I always ask while I am in the creation phase. I think this same idea should be applied to the classroom- and it doesn’t  always need to come from me. I think the application of peer feedback has been forgotten about in online learning because we have so many other considerations. But using peer feedback tackles a couple things:
1. Students get the in the moment feedback on their work and can use the *ask for help* button when they need more assistance than what a peer can provide
2. Students get to see more than one example of what the end product could be like, thus sparking some inspiration in their own work
3. Students get to talk to one another! Which is so important, even if it is with strangers/acquaintances!

So, while the feedback on Canvas is  important, I think that feedback is used to justify the grade given, and not the actual process. Process feedback/feedback that takes place while they're "learning" can make an impact on their performance and maybe give them confidence.

Another take-away I gained is the importance of clarity and transparency. When giving students  work- whether its formal or informal- students have the right to know what they're doing, why they're doing it, and how it is going to impact them later. I want to start attaching a rubric on everything summative, and be very clear about what they're doing in the classroom activity wise.

# data[].attributes.headline
Part 2&3 Final Course Reflection and Final Grade Proposal Added

# data[].attributes.subject
Part 2&3 Final Course Reflection and Final Grade Proposal Added

# data[].attributes.body
Reflection for Learning 1 & 2 & 3

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Create a new document and edit with others at the same time -- from your computer, phone or tablet. Get stuff done with or without an internet connection. Use Docs to edit Word files. Free from Google.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Create a new document and edit with others at the same time -- from your computer, phone or tablet. Get stuff done with or without an internet connection. Use Docs to edit Word files. Free from Google.

# data[].attributes.headline
Part 1 (forgive me for how long this is...)

# data[].attributes.subject
Part 1 (forgive me for how long this is...)

# data[].attributes.body
At this point in the course—and in this program at large— I think I am finally forming some connections with pedagogical theory that we have researched and the strategies for assessment/feedback that are explored in our textbook this term. I find this textbook to be an extremely valuable tool and I suspect I’ll refer to it a lot (especially as I begin to form my own approach to assessment/feedback/developing rubrics in my own classroom practice). I am seeing the connections to a range of theoretical frameworks because the efficacy of feedback and assessment is so clearly informed by the complex dynamics of proximal development and human connection in the classroom community. Each student is their own being, impacted by immeasurable and countless personal circumstances that can make any single lesson effective and meaningful, or maybe cumbersome and superfluous, or perhaps frustrating and negative. There are so many reasons that students need/deserve informative and individuated in order to connect to the content and lesson objectives, and it really seems to matter to them how invested they feel their teacher is in their performance. I am holding a lot of space for this in my heart right now as I am forming connections with students for the first time in my life, and I see that they only “buy in” to what I am teaching them if they are met with a level of buy-in from me. I am not entirely sure if I am expressing this thought with clarity, but the crux of what I am really feeling is that the most important thing I am seeing with feedback is that my students want actionable steps and they want to feel seen. As an ELA teacher, the nature of writing is really shaping itself before my eyes: it is about developing a voice. I can only help students with this if I actually hear the voice they put forward. As for the “small stuff” of feedback (such as grammar, formatting, academic lens, etc), I am feeling very inspired by a recent suggestion from my methods instructor to offer ONE piece of feedback and ONE piece of advice about honing writing skills on each paper. I think this is a more attainable approach to creating actionable, efficacious, and individuated feedback on student work in a way that is realistic for me. I am going to hold myself to that standard rule and formula for giving feedback on structural aspects of student writing, and make sure that I focus the lion’s share of my feedback on assessing the student’s present skill level and effort.

To this end, I am also finding that grading based on performance and skills feels disingenuous to me. I have students whose writing skills range in pretty extreme ends of the spectrum, but the effort that is being put forth feels like a more true basis for a grade. I am still unsure if that is the best approach, but I can’t imagine giving a student whose writing skills are rudimentary, but whose effort shows a clear level of dedication, a lesser grade than a student whose writing skills are more developed. I want to keep this in mind when I develop rubrics because I want to be sure that my guidelines for grading rules are a reflection of student engagement, effort, and attention to the lesson, and not predicated on what writing levels I think students “should” be performing at based on their grade range. I am going to hold myself to a standard of culturally responsive pedagogy in this way and make sure that my approach to student work is about meeting them at the place where they ARE (not where I think they “should” be).

Today I am going to be working on developing a rubric for my EdTPA unit, and it feels like a great opportunity to apply some of these thoughts. There are concrete aspects to the grading rubric that ostensibly feel like they will make my task of assessing and providing feedback more clear for students to interpret, but I am also hoping to develop relational attributes to the rubric that reflect student connections to the content that are personal and authentic as the primary basis for my grading practice.

Some rules I am going to follow: give feedback early and quickly so that students have the opportunity to work with it. Make sure I follow-up on feedback given to assess it’s efficacy (and make sure that feedback cycles are built into my weekly work flow). When I have my own classroom (whether distance learning or in-person) I hope to have one-on-one student feedback sessions as often as possible, and would like to build them into my lesson units as a part of the summative assessment process. I think for now, this is where I would locate my thoughts. I am still feeling very early in my experience of this important pedagogical praxis (and I have yet to have much agency in my cooperating classroom to really apply a lot of the theories I am analyzing here) but I do feel that I am developing a very personal sensibility about assessment and feedback. I would consider myself emerging in this capacity. I do struggle with being too complimentary and perhaps still a bit shy about giving feedback pointers, but I am going to get better at that as well.

# data[].attributes.body
To me, assessment has always been the trickiest aspect of teaching, where the 'learning process' for giving feedback can only ultimately summount to "well here's what I've done" anecdotes of teacherly advice that one must deconstruct into self-applicable components for each class and for each student. For one example, while there are general strategies, frameworks, and guided processes for giving feedback, each person is their own microcosm of potential that requires some semblance of personalized consideration for feedback to be effective, or even listened to. The amount of things to consider in giving feedback seems to require near chessmasterly cognitive abilities to plan for in constructing feedback: one's own authority, how the student views the teacher, what the assignment is, what the learning goal of the assignment is, what the student's insecurities are, how the student is feeling that day, how class is going/went that day, if you're talking audibly or through text, what skills the student has, what potential the student has, what the student likes to do, what the student doesn't like to do, etc. However, to consider each one of these with precise deliberation renders constructed feedback into a piece of overly and overtly tailored almost alien experiential awkwardness between two human beings who are by definition flawed and limited beings by nature, extending of course to our communicative abilities. More concisely: highly systematized feedback sounds weird. Now, this all sounds rather histrionic considering these musings about feedback would in name apply to something as simple as "hey, good job, maybe work on this thing", but the sheer dearth of info on "how to give feedback and how to assess" would make it seem like a dangerously fragile endeavor that without ample strategic knowledge, we could fail the potential of our students. What I've concluded thus far in class and from my experiences in my own student-teaching is that there is a fat line between intellectualizing the process of feedback and intuiting the process of feedback. It is important to prepare to give feedback, to think about what you're saying, but viewing the process as too much more of an event than "a human being speaking to another human being whom they care about in order for the listener to become more" creates a cloudy barrier between the event itself and the very motivational root of feedback which I believe to be, or should be, if I can be super cheesy for a moment, love. The hyperstructuring of the event of giving feedback objectifies care for a student in the same way that an HR department can roleplay sympathy for an employee in order to keep the company moving towards capital growth and gains. How can employee X get back to benefiting the company? How can this student resorb back into the class? Why are giving feedback at all? What does help, advice, good will, tutoring, or mentoring (albeit teaching) mean? I think in a very cynical way, if school was not structured as an assembly line, passing students through grades to the final product of "educated kid", love may be able to surface more in our feedback. I did not expect this reflection to turn into whatever this is, but this is what I'm thinking about.

To complete this prompt more as it was assigned and intended by answering the provided questions: the levels of my own thoughts and feelings about assessment and grading have reached their most amorphous state in terms of theory, yet in their application, the personability of my feedback has achieved simultaneously its most effective voice. In my attempt to make every student feel important and valuable, I have been increasingly honest, direct, and daresay intimate in my provided feedback which has been a careful treading of the dichotomy between teacher and (the profesionally dreaded anti-role of) peer. At the same time, I've been making an effort to draw in the classroom as a communal unit in the feedback-ing process through guided peer review and emphasizing that we should be looking out for each other, that we all have something to offer everyone else, even in the slightest of ways. In continuation of my bizzaro thoughts on what grades mean, especially in our current socio-economic structure of systematized learning, giving myself a grade feels, to quote myself, weird. I suppose if I had to, I would say 'emerging' since anything above that seems disingenuous to give myself considering how long I've been doing this.

# data[].attributes.body
This course has made me reevaluate a lot of my practices. It has made me much more intentional in how I give feedback and how I assess the student's skills. One example of how my practice has changed is I am now scheduling time to give thoughtful feedback. In the past I felt overwhelmed with grading and reviewing their work. It is daunting, and during distance learning it has also been discouraging. But I now know that is partly because i had no strategy for giving feedback and helping them reach the learning targets. Asking myself "where are the students going, where are the students now, where to next" has helped me be more intentional in guiding them to success. It has also helped me be less vague. The obvious conclusion I recently made was scheduling time for feedback and grading. This takes away the time constraint pressure that has always led me to giving quick, vague feedback. I didn't realize until this class why students always ignored my feedback. I now think it is because they didn't understand what I was asking them to change. Another huge change in my practice this term has been adding a "checklist for success" on every assignment. I have noticed a significant improvement in most of the student's work and I think posting these expectations on the assignment has helped the students understand my expectations. Having a "success criteria" available for the students has absolutely helped them reach the learning targets.
Right now what is weighing heavy on my mind is grading. We've been studying grading in my methods class and it has been a great accompaniment to this assessment course. I would like to move to not having a point value for my formative assessments and just have the students view them as practice or exercise.
I'm not sure what letter grade I would give myself for this course so far. I'm still learning a lot and don't feel like a letter grade would properly measure where I'm at. But there is a word I would use to grade where I'm at: emerging.

# data[].attributes.body
Out of all the textbooks we've read in this course, Strategies of Assessment is the most accessible and the most practical, not to mention the most digestible. I'm not searching for a dictionary every two minutes and that's reflected in the amount of reading I'm doing this quarter compared to quarters past.
Constant feedback and immediate feedback and feedback with the intent to inform teaching as much as learning have been the 3 big takeaways from the readings so far. Feedback without follow-up isn't effective and it's had a direct  impact on how I'm managing the feedback cycle in my own practice. The immediacy of feedback, especially making sure that students are getting the feedback during the learning process, has also changed the way I give feedback. Since our grades are due Fridays I would usually wait and grade everything on a Friday, but I'm much more aware of grading assignments as they come in, providing the students with more immediate feedback and in a time they can act on it. It also allows me to iterate my teaching, knowing what is working and isn't working on a continual cycle.
The Seven Strategies have been so useful, but like much of this profession, a little daunting. There are only so many hours in the day and it's a constant balance to give assessments and feedback the importance they deserve while also realizing that they tie in to learning objectives, engagement, lesson plans and of course, social emotional support that all these students need more than ever during this pandemic.
Striking that balance has been nowhere more critical than during the feedback sessions. I've touched on this in my Stairs and Stars feedback conferences, but I think it can be argued that giving students time and space just to talk and connect is as important, if not more important, than any academic feedback. If this feedback session is the one time I am able to connect with a student in a 1:1 setting, I have make sure social emotional support is not an afterthought.
My final reflection is around learning objectives and a little aha moment I had recently while playing Breath of the Wild with my son. As anyone who has played this game, or others like it, will know, BOTW has a learning objective (defeating Gannon) with scaffolding along the way in the form of mini missions. Even these mini missions have scaffolding. Rather than just expecting you to figure out how to use magnesis power, for example, the game intentionally puts you in a position where you must learn how to harness this power before continuing the mission. The scaffolds are so seamlessly introduced that you are not aware they are there and they add to, rather than detract from, your engagement. All of these scaffolds, mini assessments, skills, are tied to the overall objective. I've begun to think of my learning objectives in this manner, though it's obviously still a work in progress.
I would give myself an A- for this course so far. I have engaged with the readings and the classroom discussions. I have taken the new information and balanced that with the rigors of being in the classroom during a pandemic and adapting where necessary.

# data[].attributes.body
My apologies for submitting sooo late, I wasn't even aware of this assignment until tonight!