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 Formative Assessment in Distance Learning

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 Formative Assessment in Distance Learning

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Formative Assessment in Distance Learning

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The pandemic has closed schools, but schooling goes on—and it remains crucial that teachers find ways to see what students are learning.

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Can I do Portfolios Without all the Fuss? How do you Create a Portfolio Assignment? Why use Portfolios? What is a Portfolio?
Portfolio: A collection of a student's work specifically selected to tell a particular story about the student

Note: My focus will be on portfolios of student work rather than teacher portfolios or other types.

Student portfolios take many forms, as discussed below, so it is not easy to describe them. A portfolio is not the pile of student work that accumulates over a semester or year. Rather, a portfolio contains a purposefully selected subset of student work. "Purposefully" selecting student work means deciding what type of story you want the portfolio to tell. For example, do you want it to highlight or celebrate the progress a student has made? Then, the portfolio might contain samples of earlier and later work, often with the student commenting upon or assessing the growth. Do you want the portfolio to capture the process of learning and growth? Then, the student and/or teacher might select items that illustrate the development of one or more skills with reflection upon the process that led to that development. Or, do you want the portfolio to showcase the final products or best work of a student? In that case, the portfolio would likely contain samples that best exemplify the student's current ability to apply relevant knowledge and skills. All decisions about a portfolio assignment begin with the type of story or purpose for the portfolio. The particular purpose(s) served, the number and type of items included, the process for selecting the items to be included, how and whether students respond to the items selected, and other decisions vary from portfolio to portfolio and serve to define what each portfolio looks like. I will describe many of the purposes and characteristics in the sections below.

Some suggest that portfolios are not really assessments at all because they are just collections of previously completed assessments. But, if we consider assessing as gathering of information about someone or something for a purpose, then a portfolio is a type of assessment. Sometimes the portfolio is also evaluated or graded, but that is not necessary to be considered an assessment.

Are portfolios authentic assessments? Student portfolios have most commonly been associated with collections of artwork and, to a lesser extent, collections of writing. Students in these disciplines are performing authentic tasks which capture meaningful application of knowledge and skills. Their portfolios often tell compelling stories of the growth of the students' talents and showcase their skills through a collection of authentic performances. Educators are expanding this story-telling to other disciplines such as physical education, mathematics and the social sciences to capture the variety of demonstrations of meaningful application from students within these disciplines.

Furthermore, in the more thoughtful portfolio assignments, students are asked to reflect on their work, to engage in self-assessment and goal-setting. Those are two of the most authentic skills students need to develop to successfully manage in the real world. Research has found that students in classes that emphasize improvement, progress, effort and the process of learning rather than grades and normative performance are more likely to use a variety of learning strategies and have a more positive attitude toward learning. Yet in education we have shortchanged the process of learning in favor of the products of learning. Students are not regularly asked to examine how they succeeded or failed or improved on a task or to set goals for future work; the final product and evaluation of it receives the bulk of the attention in many classrooms. Consequently, students are not developing the metacognitive skills that will enable them to reflect upon and make adjustments in their learning in school and beyond.

Portfolios provide an excellent vehicle for consideration of process and the development of related skills. So, portfolios are frequently included with other types of authentic assessments because they move away from telling a student's story though test scores and, instead, focus on a meaningful collection of student performance and meaningful reflection and evaluation of that work.

The previous section identifies several valuable goals that make portfolios attractive in education. The sections that follow emphasize that identifying specific goals or purposes for assigning a portfolio is the first and most critical step in creating such an assignment. Just as identifying a standard guides the rest of the steps of developing an authentic assessment, identifying the purpose(s) for a portfolio influences all the other decisions involved in producing a portfolio assignment. I will list several of the most common purposes here, and then I will elaborate on how each purpose affects the other decisions in the section below.

Why might you use a portfolio assignment? Portfolios typically are created for one of the following three purposes: to show growth, to showcase current abilities, and to evaluate cumulative achievement. Some examples of such purposes include
1. Growth Portfolios

a. to show growth or change over time

b. to help develop process skills such as self-evaluation and goal-setting

c. to identify strengths and weaknesses

d. to track the development of one more products/performances

2. Showcase Portfolios

a. to showcase end-of-year/semester accomplishments

b. to prepare a sample of best work for employment or college admission

c. to showcase student perceptions of favorite, best or most important work

d. to communicate a student's current aptitudes to future teachers

3. Evaluation Portfolios

a. to document achievement for grading purposes

b. to document progress towards standards

c. to place students appropriately

The growth portfolio emphasizes the process of learning whereas the showcase portfolio emphasizes the products of learning. Of course, a portfolio may tell more than one story, including more than one category above. For example, a showcase portfolio might also be used for evaluation purposes, and a growth portfolio might also showcase "final" performances or products. What is critical is that the purpose(s) is clear throughout the process to student, teacher and any other pertinent audience. To elaborate on how the purpose affects the portfolio assignment let me answer the question...

I think of most tasks as problems to be solved, or questions to be answered. So, I find it useful to approach how to do something by thinking of it as a series of questions to be answered. Thus, I will attempt to offer a possible answer to the question above by answering a series of questions that need to be addressed when considering the design of a portfolio assignment. Those questions are:

1. Purpose: What is the purpose(s) of the portfolio?

2. Audience: For what audience(s) will the portfolio be created?

3. Content: What samples of student work will be included?

4. Process: What processes (e.g., selection of work to be included, reflection on work, conferencing) will be engaged in during the development of the portfolio?

5. Management: How will time and materials be managed in the development of the portfolio?

6. Communication: How and when will the portfolio be shared with pertinent audiences?

7. Evaluation: If the portfolio is to be used for evaluation, when and how should it be evaluated?

As mentioned above, before you can design the portfolio assignment and before your students can begin constructing their portfolios you and your students need to be clear about the story the portfolio will be telling. Certainly, you should not assign a portfolio unless you have a compelling reason to do so. Portfolios take work to create, manage and assess. They can easily feel like busywork and a burden to you and your students if they just become folders filled with student papers. You and your students need to believe that the selection of and reflection upon their work serves one or more meaningful purposes.

Selecting relevant audiences for a portfolio goes hand-in-hand with identifying your purposes. Who should see the evidence of a student's growth? The student, teacher and parents are good audiences to follow the story of a student's progress on a certain project or in the development of certain skills. Who should see a student's best or final work? Again, the student, teacher and parents might be good audiences for such a collection, but other natural audiences come to mind such as class or schoolmates, external audiences such as employers or colleges, the local community or school board. As the teacher, you can dictate what audiences will be considered or you can let students have some choice in the decision.

Just as the purposes for the portfolio should guide the development of it, the selection of audiences should shape its construction. For example, for audiences outside the classroom it is helpful to include a cover page or table of contents that helps someone unfamiliar with the assignment to navigate through the portfolio and provide context for what is found inside. Students need to keep their audiences in mind as they proceed through each step of developing their portfolios. A good method for checking whether a portfolio serves the anticipated audiences is to imagine different members of those audiences viewing the portfolio. Can each of them tell why you created the portfolio? Are they able to make sense of the story you wanted to tell them? Can they navigate around and through the portfolio? Do they know why you included what you did? Have you used language suitable for those audiences?

As you can imagine, the answer to the question of content is dependent on the answers to the questions of purpose and audience. What should be included? Well, what story do you want to tell? Before I consider what types of items might be appropriate for different purposes, let me make a more general point. First, hypothetically, there is no limit as to what can be included in a portfolio. Paper products such as essays, homework, letters, projects, etc. are most common. But more and more other types of media are being included in portfolios. Audio and videotapes, cd-roms, two- and three-dimensional pieces of art, posters and anything else that can reflect the purposes identified can be included. Some schools are putting all the artifacts onto a cd-rom by videotaping performances, scanning paper products, and digitizing audio. All of those files are then copied onto a student's cd-rom for a semester or a year or to follow the student across grades as a cumulative record. Realistically, you have to decide what is manageable. But if the most meaningful evidence of the portfolio's goals cannot be captured on paper, then you may consider including other types of media.

Obviously, there are a considerable number and variety of types of student work that can be selected as samples for a portfolio. Using the purposes given above for each type of portfolio, I have listed just a few such possible samples of work in the following tables that could be included in each type of portfolio.

b. to help develop process skills

samples which reflect growth of process skills

self-reflection sheets accompanying samples of work

reflection sheets from teacher or peer

identification of strengths/weaknesses

goal-setting sheets

reflections on progress towards goal(s)

see more detail below under Process below

c. to identify strengths/weaknesses

samples of work reflecting specifically identified strengths and weaknesses

reflections on strengths and weaknesses of samples

goal-setting sheets

reflection on progress towards goal(s)

d. to track development of one or more products or performances

obviously, drafts of the specific product or performance to be tracked

self-reflections on drafts

reflection sheets from teacher or peer

d. to communicate a student's current aptitude

representative sample of current work

match of work with standards accomplished

self-reflection on current aptitudes

teacher reflection on student's aptitudes

identification of future goals

a. to document achievement for grading

samples of representative work in each subject/unit/topic to be graded

samples of work documenting level of achievement on course/grade-level goals/standards/objectives

tests/scores

rubrics/criteria used for evaluation of work (when applied)

self-reflection on how well samples indicate attainment ofcourse/grade-level goals/standards/objectives

teacher reflection of attainment of goals/standards

identification of strengths/weaknesses

c. to place students appropriately

representative samples of current work

representative samples of earlier work to indicate rate of progress

classroom tests/scores

external tests/evaluations

match of work with standards accomplished

self-reflection on current aptitudes

teacher reflection on student's aptitudes

parent reflection on student's aptitudes

other professionals' reflections on student's aptitudes

Other Content

In addition to samples of student work and reflection upon that work, a portfolio might also include a table of contents or a cover letter (both typically composed by the student) to aid a reader in making sense of the purposes, processes and contents of the portfolio. This can be particularly useful if the portfolio is to be shared with external audiences unfamiliar with the coursework such as parents, other educators and community members.

One of the greatest attributes of the portfolio is its potential for focusing on the processes of learning. Too often in education we emphasize the products students create or the outcomes they achieve. But we do not give sufficient attention to the processes required to create those products or outcomes, the processes involved in self-diagnosis and self-improvement, or the metacognitive processes of thinking. As a result, the products or outcomes are not as good as we or the students would like because they are often unsure how to get started, how to self-diagnose or self-correct or how to determine when a piece of work is "finished."

Although a variety of processes can be developed or explored through portfolios, I will focus on three of the most common:

selection of contents of the portfolio;

reflection on the samples of work and processes;

conferencing about the contents and processes.
Selection of Contents

Once again, identifying the purpose(s) for the portfolio should drive the selection process. As listed in the tables above, different samples of student work will likely be selected for different purposes. Additionally, how samples are selected might also differ depending on the purpose. For example, for an evaluation portfolio, the teacher might decide which samples need to be included to evaluate student progress. On the other hand, including the student in the decision-making process of determining appropriate types of samples for inclusion might be more critical for a growth portfolio to promote meaningful reflection. Finally, a showcase portfolio might be designed to include significant input from the student on which samples best highlight achievement and progress, or the teacher might primarily make those decisions.

Furthermore, audiences beyond the teacher and student might have input into the content of the porfolio, from team or department members, principals and district committees to external agencies to parents and community members. External audiences are most likely to play a role for evaluation portfolios. However, it is important to remember there are no hard rules about portfolios. Anything can be included in a portfolio. Anyone can be involved in the processes of selection, reflection and evaluation of a portfolio. Flexibility applies to portfolios as it does to any authentic assessment. That is, you should be true to your purpose(s), but you should feel no constraints on how you meet them with a portfolio assignment.

How might the selection take place?

What I will describe below are just a few of the many possible avenues for selecting which samples will be included in a portfolio. But these examples should give you a good sense of some of the choices and some of the decisions involved.

When?

when a sample of work is completed -- at the point a piece of work is ready to be turned in (or once the work has been returned by the teacher) the student or teacher identifies that work for inclusion in the portfolio;

at periodic intervals -- instead of selecting samples when they are completed, the samples can be stored so that selection might occur every two (three, six or nine) weeks or once (twice or three times) every quarter (trimester or semester);

at the end of the ... unit, quarter, semester, year, etc.By whom?

by the student -- students are the most common selectors, particularly for portfolios that ask them to reflect on the work selected. Which work students select depends on the criteria used to choose each piece (see below).

by the teacher -- teachers may be the selector, particularly when identifying best pieces of work to showcase a student's strengths or accomplishments.

by the student and teacher -- sometimes portfolio selection is a joint process involving conversation and collaboration.

by peers -- a student might be assigned a "portfolio partner" or "portfolio buddy" who assists the student in selecting appropriate pieces of work often as part of a joint process involving conversation and collaboration. A peer might also provide some reflection on a piece of work to be included in the portfolio.

by parents -- parents might also be asked to select a piece or two for inclusion that they particularly found impressive, surprising, reflective of improvement, etc. Based on what criteria?

best work -- selection for showcase portfolios will typically focus on samples of work that illustrate students' best performance in designated areas or the culmination of progress made

evidence of growth -- selection for growth portfolios will focus on identifying samples of work and work processes (e.g., drafts, notes) that best capture progress shown on designated tasks, processes or acquisition of knowledge and skills. For example, students might be asked to choose

samples of earlier and later work highlighting some skill or content area

samples of rough drafts and final drafts

work that traces the development of a particular product or performance

samples of work reflecting specifically identified strengths and weaknesses

evidence of achievement -- particularly for showcase and evaluation portfolios, selection might focus on samples of work that illustrate current levels of competence in designated areas or particular exemplars of quality work

evidence of standards met -- similarly, selection could focus on samples of work that illustrate how successfully students have met certain standards

favorite/most important piece -- to help develop recognition of the value of the work completed and to foster pride in that work, selection might focus on samples to which students or parents or others find a connection or with which they are particularly enamored

one or more of the above -- a portfolio can include samples of work for multiple reasons and, thus, more than one of the above criteria (or others) could be used for selecting samples to be included

Reflection on Samples of Work

Many educators who work with portfolios consider the reflection component the most critical element of a good portfolio. Simply selecting samples of work as described above can produce meaningful stories about students, and others can benefit from "reading" these stories. But the students themselves are missing significant benefits of the portfolio process if they are not asked to reflect upon the quality and growth of their work. As Paulson, Paulson and Meyer (1991) stated, "The portfolio is something that is done by the student, not to the student." Most importantly, it is something done for the student. The student needs to be directly involved in each phase of the portfolio development to learn the most from it, and the reflection phase holds the most promise for promoting student growth.

In the reflection phase students are typically asked to

comment on why specific samples were selected or

comment on what they liked and did not like in the samples or

comment on or identify the processes involved in developing specific products or performances or

describe and point to examples of how specific skills or knowledge improved (or did not) or

identify strengths and weaknesses in samples of work or

set goals for themselves corresponding to the strengths and weaknesses or

identify strategies for reaching those goals or

assess their past and current self-efficacy for a task or skill or

complete a checklist or survey about their work or

some combination of the above Reflection sheets

Probably the most common portfolio reflection task is the completion of a sheet to be attached to the sample (or samples) of work which the reflection is addressing. The possibilities for reflection questions or prompts are endless, but some examples I have seen include

Selection questions/prompts

Why did you select this piece?

Why should this sample be included in your portfolio?

How does this sample meet the criteria for selection for your portfolio?

I chose this piece because ....

Growth questions/prompts

What are the strengths of this work? Weaknesses?

What would you work on more if you had additional time?

How has your ______ (e.g., writing) changed since last year?

What do you know about ______ (e.g., the scientific method) that you did not know at the beginning of the year (or semester, etc.)?

Looking at (or thinking about) an earlier piece of similar work, how does this new piece of work compare? How is it better or worse? Where can you see progress or improvement?

How did you get "stuck" working on this task? How did you get "unstuck"?

One skill I could not perform very well but now I can is ....

From reviewing this piece I learned ....

Goal-setting questions/prompts

What is one thing you can improve upon in this piece?

What is a realistic goal for the end of the quarter (semester, year)?

What is one way you will try to improve your ____ (e.g., writing)?

One thing I still need to work on is ....

I will work toward my goal by ....

Evaluation questions/prompts

If you were a teacher and grading your work, what grade would you give it and why?

Using the appropriate rubric, give yourself a score and justify it with specific traits from the rubric.

What do you like or not like about this piece of work?

I like this piece of work because ....

Effort questions/prompts

How much time did you spend on this product/performance?

The work would have been better if I had spent more time on ....

I am pleased that I put significant effort into ....

Overall portfolio questions/prompts

What would you like your _____ (e.g., parents) to know about or see in your portfolio?

What does the portfolio as a whole reveal about you as a learner (writer, thinker, etc.)?

A feature of this portfolio I particularly like is ....

In this portfolio I see evidence of ....

As mentioned above, students (or others) can respond to such questions or prompts when a piece of work is completed, while a work is in progress or at periodic intervals after the work has been collected. Furthermore, these questions or prompts can be answered by the student, the teacher, parents, peers or anyone else in any combination that best serves the purposes of the portfolio.

Other reflection methods

In addition to reflection sheets, teachers have devised a myriad of means of inducing reflection from students and others about the collection of work included in the portfolio. For example, those engaging in reflection can

Good skill development requires four steps:

Instruction and modeling of the skill;

Practice of the skill;

Feedback on one's practice;

Reflection on the practice and feedback.

Reflection itself is a skill that enhances the process of skill development and virtually all learning in innumerable settings. Those of us who are educators, for example, need to continually reflect upon what is working or not working in our teaching, how we can improve what we are doing, how we can help our students make connections to what they are learning, and much, much more. Thus, it is critical for students to learn to effectively reflect upon their learning and growth.

As a skill, reflection is not something that can be mastered in one or two attempts. Developing good reflective skills requires instruction and modeling, lots of practice, feedback and reflection. As many of you have probably encountered, when students are first asked to respond to prompts such as "I selected this piece because..." they may respond with "I think it is nice." Okay, that's a start. But we would like them to elaborate on that response. The fact that they did not initially elaborate is probably not just a result of resistance or reluctance. Students need to learn how to respond to such prompts. They need to learn how to effectively identify strengths and weaknesses, to set realistic goals for themselves and their work, and to develop meaningful strategies to address those goals. Students often have become dependent upon adults, particularly teachers, to evaluate their work. They need to learn self-assessment.

So, the reflection phase of the portfolio process should be ongoing throughout the portfolio development. Students need to engage in multiple reflective activities. Those instances of reflection become particularly focused if goal-setting is part of their reflection. Just as instruction and assessment are more appropriately targeted if they are tied to specific standards or goals, student identification of and reflection upon strengths and weaknesses, examples of progress, and strategies for improvement will be more meaningful and purposeful if they are directed toward specific goals, particularly self-chosen goals.

Once opportunities for reflection (practice) take place, feedback to and further reflection upon student observations can be provided by conversations with others. Conferencing is one tool to promote such feedback and reflection.

With 20 or 30 or more students in a classroom, one-on-one conversations between the teacher and student are difficult to regularly arrange. That is unfortunate because the give and take of face-to-face interaction can provide the teacher with valuable information about the student's thinking and progress and provide the student with meaningful feedback. Such feedback is also more likely to be processed by the student than comments written on paper.

Conferencing typically takes several forms:

teacher/student -- sometimes teachers are able to informally meet with a few students, one at a time, as the other students work on some task in class. Other times, teachers use class time to schedule one-on-one conferences during "conference days." Some teachers are able to schedule conferences outside of class time. Typically such conferences take only a few minutes, but they give the teacher and the student time to recap progress, ask questions, and consider suggestions or strategies for improvement.

teacher/small group -- other teachers, often in composition classes, meet with a few students at a time to discuss issues and questions that are raised, sharing common problems and reflections across students.

student/student -- to conserve time as well as to give students the opportunity to learn how to provide feedback along with receiving it, teachers sometimes structure peer-to-peer conferencing. The focus might be teacher-directed (e.g., "share with each other a sample of work you recently selected for your portfolio") or student-directed (e.g., students use the time to get feedback on some work for a purpose they determine).

As appealing as the process of students developing a portfolio can be, the physical and time constraints of such a process can be daunting. Where do you keep all the stuff? How do you keep track of it? Who gets access to it and when? Should you manage paper or create an electronic portfolio? Does some work get sent home before it is put in the portfolio? Will it come back? When will you find the time for students to participate, to reflect, to conference? What about students who join your class in the middle of the semester or year?

There is one answer to all these questions that can make the task less daunting: start small! That is good advice for many endeavors, but particularly for portfolios because there are so many factors to consider, develop and manage over a long period of time. In the final section of this chapter (Can I do portfolios without all the fuss?) I will elaborate on how you can get your feet wet with portfolios and avoid drowning in the many decisions described below.

How you answer the many management questions below depends, in part, on how you answered earlier questions about your purpose, audience, content and process. Return to those answers to help you address the following decisions:

Should the portfolio building process wait until the end or should it occur as you go?

The easiest solution is to collect work samples along the way but save the selection and reflection until the end, keeping selection simple and limiting the amount of reflection.

The more involved (and more common) approach is for participants to periodically make selections and to engage in reflection throughout the process. This gives the student time to respond to identified weaknesses and to address goals set.

Will the portfolios be composed of paper or stored electronically (or both)?

Paper Portfolio: As you know, the most common form of portfolios is a collection of paper products such as essays, problem sets, journal entries, posters, etc. Most products produced in classrooms are still in paper form, so it makes sense to find ways to collect, select from and reflect upon these items.

Hybrid Portfolio: Other forms of products are increasingly available, however, so teachers are adding videotapes, audiotapes, 3-D models, artwork and more to the containers holding the paper products.

Electronic Portfolio: Since many of the paper products are now first created in an electronic format, it makes sense to consider keeping some samples of work in that format. Storage is much easier and portability is significantly increased. Additionally, as it becomes easier to digitize almost any media it is possible to add audio and video examples of student work to the electronic portfolio. A considerable amount of work can be burned to a CD or DVD or displayed on a website. An electronic compilation can be shared with a larger audience and more easily follow a student to other grades, teachers and schools. Copies can be made and kept.

Where will the work samples and reflections be kept?

A common model for portfolio maintenance is to have two folders for each student -- a working folder and a portfolio folder. As work samples are produced they are stored in the working folder. Students (or other selectors) would periodically review the working folder to select certain pieces to be included in the portfolio folder. Usually reflection accompanies the selection process. For example, a reflection sheet may be attached to each piece before it is placed in the portfolio.

In addition to manilla or hanging folders, portfolio contents have also been stored in pizza or laundry detergent boxes, cabinets, binders and accordian folders (Rolheiser, Bower & Stevahn, 2000).

For older students, some teachers have the students keep the work samples. Then they are periodically asked to select from and reflect upon the work. Students might only keep the working folders while the teacher manages the portfolio folders.

As a parent, I know I also would like to look at my child's work before the end of the semester or year. So, some teachers send work home in carefully structured folders. One side of a two-pocket folder might be labeled "keep at home" while the other side might be labeled "return to school." The work likely to end up in the portfolio would be sent home in the "return to school" pocket.

Who will be responsible for saving/storing them?

Typically the teacher keep the contents of the portfolio as they are usually stored in the classroom.

Older students (and sometimes younger ones) are also given the responsibility of managing their portfolios in the classroom, making sure all samples make it into the appropriate folders/containers, remain there, are put back when removed, and are kept neatly organized.

As mentioned above, older students sometimes are required to keep track of their work outside the classroom, bringing it to class on certain days for reflection and other tasks.

For electronic portfolios, it usually depends on teacher preference and whether or not students have access to storage space on the network or can save samples locally, or burn them to CDs or DVD, or add them to websites.

Who will have access to it, and when?

Usually the teacher and student will have access to the working folder or the final samples.

But, for some types of showcase portfolios, only the teacher might have access because she is constructing the portfolio about the student.

For older students, the teacher might only have limited access as the student controls the portfolio's development.

Parents might have access and input as samples of work are sent home.

Other educators might also have access to final portfolios for larger evaluative purposes.

When?

Typically, students and teachers contribute samples to a working folder as they are created. Access to a portfolio folder is gained on a more regular schedule as times for selection and reflection are scheduled.

Parents or other educators might have access at certain intervals depending on the purpose of the portfolio and the process that has been chosen.

How will portfolio progress be tracked?

A checklist sheet is sometimes attached to the front of a folder so that the teacher or the student can keep track of when and which samples have been added, which have been removed (temporarily or permanently), when reflections have been completed, when conferences have taken place, and whether or not any other requirements have been completed.

The teacher might just keep a schedule of when selections, reflections or conferences are to take place.

Older students might be required to keep track of the process to make sure all requirements are met.

What will the final product look like?

Showcase portfolios will typically have a more formal and polished presentation. A cover letter or introduction along with a table of contents might be included to provide context for a potentially wide range of readers, and to give the student or teacher a chance to more fully flesh out the student's story.

Growth or evaluation portfolios might have a less formal presentation, unless the evaluation is part of a high stakes assessment. If the student and teacher are the primary readers, less context is needed. However, if parents are the primary or a significant intended audience, more explanation or context will be needed.

What if students join your class in the middle of the process?

Obviously, one advantage of choosing to build the portfolio at the end of a period of time rather than build it along the way (see the first question) is that transient students can still easily participate. They have less work to consider, but they can still engage in the selection and reflection process.

If selection and reflection occur as work is being produced, the new student can simply join the process in progress. Some adaptation will likely be necessary, but the student can still demonstrate growth or competence over a shorter period of time.

If the portfolio is also to be evaluated, further adjustment will need to be made.

Why share the portfolio?

By the nature of the purposes of portfolios -- to show growth, to show case excellence -- portfolios are meant to be shared. The samples, reflections and other contents allow or invite others to observe and celebrate students' progress and accomplishments. A portfolio should tell a story, and that story should be told.

Students should primarily be the ones telling their stories. As students reflect on the balance of their work over some period of time, there is often a great sense of pride at the growth and the accomplishment. By telling their own stories students can take ownership of the process that led to the growth and achievement. Assessment is no longer something done to them; the students are playing an active role through self-assessment.

Furthermore, others will be able to recognize and celebrate in the growth and accomplishment of the students if their work is communicated beyond the borders of the classroom. A portfolio provides a unique vehicle for capturing and communicating student learning. Parents tend to learn more about their children's abilities and propensities through a portfolio than they do through the odd assignment that makes it home and into the parents' hands. Moreover, other interested members of the school and local community can recognize and celebrate the accomplishment.

Finally, the portfolio can provide an excellent tool for accountability. Parents, educators and community members can learn a great deal about what is happening in a classroom or school or district by viewing and hearing about the contents of these stories. Perhaps more importantly, the student and teacher can uncover a vivid picture of where the student was, where she has traveled to, how she got there and what she accomplished along the way -- a fascinating and enlightening story.

Considering the audience

Of course, deciding how to tell the story will be influenced by the intended audience. For example, presenting a collection of work to a teacher who is already familiar with much of the content will likely require a different approach than presenting that work as part of a college application.

Audiences within the classroom

In some classrooms, a portfolio is used much like other assignments as evidence of progress towards or completion of course or grade level goals and standards. In such cases, the only audience might be the teacher who evaluates all the student work. To effectively communicate with the teacher about a body of work, the student may be asked to write a brief introduction or overview capturing her perceptions of the progress (for a growth portfolio) or accomplishments (for a showcase portfolio) reflected in the collection of work. Teachers who assign portfolios not only want to see student work but want to see students reflect upon it.

As a classroom assessor, the teacher also has the benefit of communicating face-to-face with each student. Such conferences take a variety of forms and vary in their frequency. For example,

A teacher might review a portfolio at one or more intervals, and then prepare questions for the face-to-face conversation with each student;

A student might run the conference by taking the teacher through her portfolio, highlighting elements consistent with the purpose of the portfolio;

A "pre-conference" might occur in which teacher and student discuss how the portfolio should be constructed to best showcase it or best prepare it for evaluation.

Additionally, classmates can serve as an audience for a portfolio. Particulary for older students, some teachers require or encourage students to present their portfolios to each other for feedback, dialogue and modeling. For example,

Pairs of students can review each other's work to provide feedback, identify strengths and weaknesses, and suggest future goals;

Sharing with each other also provides an opportunity to tell a story or just brag;

Students can always benefit from seeing good (or poor) models of work as well as models of meaningful reflection and goal-setting.

As students hear themselves tell each other about the value and meaning of their work it will become more valuable and meaningful to them.

Audiences within the family and school community

As many of us have experienced with our own children, parents sometimes only receive a small, fragmented picture of their children's school work. Some work never makes it home, some is lost, some is hidden, etc. It can be even harder for parents to construct a coherent picture out of that work to get a real sense of student growth or accomplishment or progress toward a set of standards.

Portfolios provide an opportunity to give parents a fuller glimpse of the processes and products and progress of their children's learning. Many teachers intentionally involve the parents in the development of the portfolio or make parents an audience or both.

For example, to involve parents in the process,

teachers make sure parents view most student work on a consistent basis; for example,

some teachers require students to get much of their work signed by parents to be returned to school;

some teachers send work home in a two-pocket folder in which one pocket contains work that can stay home and the other pocket contains work that can be viewed by parents but should be returned to school, each pocket carefully labeled as such;

some teachers use a three-pocket folder in which the third pocket is a place parents can pass along notes or comments or questions;

teachers also invite parents to provide feedback or ask questions about student work; for example,

a reflection sheet, perhaps similar to the ones students complete, can be attached to some of the pieces of work sent home inviting parents to make comments, ask questions or provide evaluation;

parents might be invited to provide a summary reflection of work they have seen so far;

or simply identify one or two pieces of work or aspects of their children's work that they most like or are most surprised about.

To share the portfolio with parents,

many schools host Portfolio Nights, at which students often guide their parent or parents through the story of their work. Having the Night at school allows the student to more easily share the variety of two- and three-dimensional work they have created.

after teacher evaluation of the portfolio (if that is done), the complete portfolio might be sent home for the parents to view and possibly respond to. This might occur once at the end of the process or periodically along the way.

A Portfolio Night also provides an opportunity for other members of the school or larger community to view student portfolios. The portfolios may simply be on display to be sampled, or students might guide other audiences through their work.

Similarly, during the school day students can share their portfolios with students from other classes or with school personnel.

Audiences beyond the classroom, school and family

An external audience for student work can serve to motivate students to give more attention to and take more seriously their performance. First, it may give more legitimacy to assigned work. If the work is to be externally reviewed, it suggests that it is not simply "busy work" that provides a grade but that it is something authentic valued outside the walls of the classroom. Second, some students may take more care in their work when they believe a new, different, and perhaps expert audience will be viewing it.

To extend the audience beyond the classroom, school and family, teachers have adopted a variety of approaches, including

expanding the audience at Portfolio Nights to include a larger community, perhaps even authors, or scientists or other professionals relevant to the work in the portfolio;

inviting professionals or experts in a particular field to come listen to presentations of the portfolios;

inviting professionals or experts to serve as one of the reviewers or evaluators of the portfolios;

encourage or require students to share their work with a larger audience through the Web or other media. Publishing on the Web also allows students to solicit comments or questions.

Preparing the student to share

Just as we do not expect children to write or speak well without considerable instruction and practice, it is not reasonable to expect students to effortlessly and effectively share their stories without some help. Teachers have devised a number of strategies to prepare students to communicate with the target audience. Some such strategies include

pairing up students in class ("portfolio partners") to practice presenting their work to each other;

pairing up the author of the portfolio with an older student a few grades above. The younger student would practice presenting her work as if she is presenting it to the intended audience (e.g., parents at a Portfolio Night). Both students can benefit as the older student provides feedback and encouragement and may increase her own self-efficacy for the task through modeling and tutoring the younger student.

providing models. Teachers provide models of good portfolios that illustrate how the product itself can effectively communicate with an audience through the way it is constructed. Teachers can also model the process of communication by walking through how he or she would share a portfolio with a specific audience.

Evaluation: If the portfolio is to be used for evaluation, how and when should it be evaluated?
As with all of the elements of portfolios described above, how and when evaluation is addressed varies widely across teachers, schools and districts. Take, for example,

Evaluation vs. Grading

Evaluation refers to the act of making a judgment about something. Grading takes that process one step further by assigning a grade to that judgment. Evaluation may be sufficient for a portfolio assignment. What is (are) the purpose(s) of the portfolio? If the purpose is to demonstrate growth, the teacher could make judgments about the evidence of progress and provide those judgments as feedback to the student or make note of them for her own records. Similarly, the student could self-assess progress shown or not shown, goals met or not met. No grade needs to be assigned. On a larger scale, an evaluation of the contents within the portfolio or of the entire package may be conducted by external bodies (e.g., community members, other educators, state boards) for the purpose of judging completion of certain standards or requirements. Although the evaluation is serious, and graduation might even hinge on it, no classroom grade may be assigned.

On the other hand, the work within the portfolio and the process of assembling and reflecting upon the portfolio may comprise such a significant portion of a student's work in a grade or class that the teacher deems it appropriate to assign a value to it and incorporate it into the student's final grade. Alternatively, some teachers assign grades because they believe without grades there would not be sufficient incentive for some students to complete the portfolio. Ahh, but

What to Grade

Nothing. Some teachers choose not to grade the portfolio because they have already assigned grades to the contents selected for inclusion.

The metacognitive and organizational elements. But the portfolio is more than just a collection of student work. Depending on its purpose, students might have also included reflections on growth, on strengths and weaknesses, on goals that were or are to be set, on why certain samples tell a certain story about them, or on why the contents reflect sufficient progress to indicate completion of designated standards. Some of the process skills may also be part of the teacher's or school's or district's standards. So, the portfolio provides some evidence of attainment of those standards. Any or all of these elements can be evaluated and/or graded.

Completion. Some portfolios are graded simply on whether or not the portfolio was completed.

Everything. Other teachers evaluate the entire package: the selected samples of student work as well as the reflection, organization and presentation of the portfolio.

How to Grade/Evaluate

Most of the portfolio assignments I have seen have been evaluated or graded with a rubric. A great deal of personal judgment goes into evaluating a complex product such as a portfolio. Thus, applying a rubric, a tool which can provide some clarity and consistency to the evaluation of such products, to the judgment of quality of the story being told and the elements making up that story makes sense. Moreover, if the portfolio is to be evaluated my multiple judges, application of a rubric increases the likelihood of consistency among the judges.

Examples of Portfolio Rubrics

What might a portfolio rubric look like? If the focus of the grading is primarily on whether the samples of student work within the portfolio demonstrate certain competencies, the criteria within the rubric will target those competencies. For example,
Evaluating competencies Or, Completing requirements Meeting standards Evaluating the portfolio as a whole

The more we can involve students in the assessment process, the more likely they will take ownership of it, be engaged in it, and find it worthwhile. So, it makes sense to involve students in the evaluation process of their portfolios as well. They have likely engaged in some self-assessment in the reflection or goal-setting components of the portfolio. Additionally, students are capable of evaluating how well their portfolio elements meet standards, requirements, or competencies, for their own portfolios or those of their peers. Furthermore, older peers could make excellent judges of the work of younger students. Cross-grade peer tutoring has demonstrated how well the older and younger students respond to such interactions.

Obviously, the classroom teacher, other educators, review board members, community members, etc. can all serve as judges of student work. If multiple judges are used, particularly if they are not directly familiar with the student work or assignments, training on a rubric should be provided before evaluation proceeds. The evaluators should be familiar with and clear on the criteria and the levels of performance within the rubric. A calibration session, in which the judges evaluate some sample portfolios and then share ratings to reach some consensus on what each criteria and level of performance within the rubric means, can provide a good opportunity for judges to achieve some competence and consistency in applying a rubric.

Oh, what fun would that be! Actually, the answer is a qualified "yes." Portfolios do typically require considerable work, particularly if conferencing is involved. But with most anything, including assessment, I recommend that you start small.

Here's a quick, easy way to get started if any of the above thoughts has either encouraged you or not discouraged you from considering assigning portfolios in your little world. The following describes just one possible way to get started.

Step 1. Depending on the age of your students and other considerations, have students select two pieces of their work over the course of a quarter (or three or four over a semester). Decide (with your students or without) upon one or more criteria by which the selection will be guided (e.g., their best work). To limit management time, don't wait for the end of the quarter for students to make those selections. Otherwise, all their work will have to be collected along the way. Instead, if you want to keep it simple, tell your students ahead of time that they will be selecting two or more pieces matching certain criteria, and that you will ask them to do it at the point each sample is completed.

Step 2. At the time a student selects a sample to be included in his portfolio, require the student to complete a brief reflection sheet and attach it to the sample.

Step 3. Depending on the age of your students, ask your student to save that sample and the attached reflection sheet until the end of the quarter or semester, or collect it and store it yourself at that point.

Step 4. At the end of the quarter or semester, ask your students to reflect upon the samples one additional time by describing what they liked best about their work, or by identifying strengths and weaknesses, or by setting one or two goals for the future.

There, that wasn't too painful. Okay, you ask, that was relatively simple, but did it really accomplish anything? Good question. If you don't think so, don't do it. On the other hand, it could possibly have a few benefits worth the effort. First, if nothing else it gave you some experience working with portfolios. If you want to pursue portfolios in a more elaborate manner, at least you are now more familiar with some of the issues involved. Second, if you think developing self-assessment skills in your students is a worthwhile goal, you have also begun that process. Even a little reflection on your students' part may be more than some of them typically give to their work. Finally, you may have opened, even if it is just a little bit, a new avenue for you and your students to communicate with their parents about their performance, their strengths and weaknesses, and their habits. Any of those reasons may be sufficient to try your hand at portfolios. Good luck!

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Can I do Portfolios Without all the Fuss? How do you Create a Portfolio Assignment? Why use Portfolios? What is a Portfolio? Portfolio: A collection of a student's work specifically selected to tell a particular story about the student Note: My focus will be on portfolios of student work rather than teacher portfolios or other types.

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Be ready with the skills to lead your students in Project Based Learning.

PBLWorks offers a variety of online PBL workshops, courses and services for educators - whether you're just getting started or advancing your practice, in the classroom or teaching remotely. Pick your pathway to get started...

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Be ready with the skills to lead your students in Project Based Learning. PBLWorks offers a variety of online PBL workshops, courses and services for educators - whether you're just getting started or advancing your practice, in the classroom or teaching remotely. Pick your pathway to get started...

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Informal poll: Who's here: Teachers, admin, school board, state level dept, school of ed, vendor?

The national research council's two recent reports on the NGSS include mentions of portfolios...

How will we (teachers, administrators, school boards, and state departments of education) assess student performances of these practices?

If you have one test, all the measurement relies upon that one test. Campbell's Law. Named after sociologist Donald Campbell, it states that "the more any quantitative social indicator is used for social decision-making, the more subject it will be to corruption pressures and the more apt it will be to distort and corrupt the social processes it is intended to monitor." How do we go about developing a system that lets us collect more data about student performances.

A new assessment system for the NGSS is needed

Add in my own requirements for the new assessments

NOT about assessing computer-based performances of science and engineering
The Assessment System that we build should encourage real labs, not simulations

minimize sim time, maximize exploration time

Our assessment system should not be irrelevant to students. Students are over-tested.
Enough already. Don't waste any more time that could be spent learning with students.

Call for Varied assessments

Our assessment system should not be irrelevant to students. right now in CO we give students a science exam in Nov of their Senior year, WTF? What's in it for them? What motivates students to do well on your assessments?

CSAP avoidance, classroom performance

Ongoing assessment, classroom embedded

Each student has their own blog: WordPress or Blogger, some Weebly, Tumblr. Chronological, but editable (improvable). Public, visible to family and friends as well as teacher. ALL work goes on the blog.

I didn't write that goal, the Community College system of Colorado did. College credit=need to prove to CC that standard was met.

Built to assess the AP Biology Science Process Skills

The important science process skills repeat numerous times throughout each course.

Teacher: Classroom Assessment. State: Monitoring Assessment

Did I give them...(classroom) or Did They give them... (monitoring)

Progress over time, numerical (4 pt system) or descriptive feedback

What will reporting look like at the district or state level?

-Are portfolios submitted for each grade level or course or do students add artifacts to a science portfolio over multiple years and courses?
-How will the data collected be used to promote equal access to opportunities to learn for different populations of students?

it will not be easy...
Cheating issue, high stakes produces cheating
Teacher can score/certify the portfolio, classroom pics are a giveaway

Make it an INTERNAL assessment that happens to be shared/published
Not costly, slow, and cumbersome if online portfolios are used

There will be an element of subjectivity if it is classroom embedded

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NSTA15: Performance-Based Portfolio Assessment of the NGSS

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Informal poll: Who's here: Teachers, admin, school board, state level dept, school of ed, vendor? The national research council's two recent reports on the NGSS include mentions of portfolios... How will we (teachers, administrators, school boards, and state departments of education) assess student performances of these practices?

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Video Portfolio Final Alternative Example

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Video Portfolio Final Alternative Example

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Get access to files anywhere through secure cloud storage and file backup for your photos, videos, files and more with Google Drive.

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Science Student Website Portfolio Examples

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Science Student Website Portfolio Examples

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Mandi's APBiology Portfolio. Steven M. AP Biology Portfolio. Michael's AP Biology Portfolio. Ashley's Biology Portfolio. Steven M. Biology Portfolio. Jocelyn's Biology Portfolio. Bethany's Biology Portfolio. Tiffany's Biology Portfolio. Taylor's Biology Portfolio. Kourtnei Biology Portfolio 2014. Leah Biology Portfolio 2014. Melissa Biology Portfolio 2014. Sarah W. Biology Portfolio 2014. Tiffany's Anatomy Portfolio. Sierra's Anatomy Portfolio. Steven M Anatomy Portfolio. Steven S's Anatomy Portfolio. 4acresAnatomyPortfolio. Katrina's Anatomy Portfolio. Hello my name is Katrina Horner.

I am a senior at La Junta High School and I am enrolled and actively learning in my anatomy and physiology class. We are making profiles to show our final and best projects, labs, exam grades, presentations, blogs, etc. in this class. Each of these are under the different categories in which they fit to show that I understand each separate content. Check them out and see what you think! ENJOY!! Dillon's awesome portfolio of Anatomy and Physiology. My Studly Anatomy Portfolio. Kelsey Anatomy Portfolio 2014. Nichelle Anatomy Portfolio 2014. Sarah W. Anatomy Portfolio 2014.

Tenchita's Chemistry Portfoio. Sierra's Chemistry Portfolio. Nikki's Chemistry Portfolio. Michael R's Chemistry Portfolio. Ericas Chemistry Portfolio 2014. Steven M. Chemistry Portfolio 2014.

to experience pearltrees activate javascript.

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Mandi's APBiology Portfolio. Steven M. AP Biology Portfolio. Michael's AP Biology Portfolio. Ashley's Biology Portfolio. Steven M. Biology Portfolio. Jocelyn's Biology Portfolio. Bethany's Biology Portfolio. Tiffany's Biology Portfolio. Taylor's Biology Portfolio. Kourtnei Biology Portfolio 2014. Leah Biology Portfolio 2014. Melissa Biology Portfolio 2014. Sarah W. Biology Portfolio 2014. Tiffany's Anatomy Portfolio.

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Why Use Rubrics?

Rubrics help instructors grade and provide feedback on assessments that have more than one correct answer in an efficient and equitable way. They facilitate transparency in grading, as well as increase consistency in scoring. When given alongside an assignment, students can use rubrics to gain understanding about the purpose of an assignment, to provide peer feedback, or to engage in self-assessment. Multiple graders or reviewers produce more consistent results when they have been trained in using the rubric and have been provided with exemplars (for reviews of the research see Jonsson & Svingby, 2007; Reddy & Andrade, 2010).

Three Elements of a Rubric

A rubric involves three elements: 1) the criteria for assessing the product or performance, 2) a range of quality levels, and 3) a scoring strategy. There is enormous flexibility for instructors to construct rubrics that reflect their teaching perspective within these three parameters.

Criteria define the distinct elements of expert or competent performance of the tasks central to the assignment. As the number of criteria increases, so does the amount of time required to review assignments. Too few criteria can lead to a rubric that does not effectively assess the range of knowledge, skills, and attitudes required to complete the task assigned. Generally, 4 to 6 criteria assess the breadth of competencies that are most essential to an assignment.

A single criterion can be used to create a holistic rubric with very general descriptions. Holistic rubrics do not provide targeted feedback and research suggests they are less consistently used. Holistic rubrics work well to speed grading for low stakes activities that only need very general feedback (e.g., discussion forum posts or responses). For more significant assignments, an analytic rubric with multiple criteria is more useful for reviewers and students. Effectively selecting the most important criteria is the first step to designing effective analytic rubrics. For examples of each type of rubric see the resource links below.

Quality Levels

Once the most essential criteria for competently completing the assignment have been identified, different quality levels need to be identified. Selecting the number of quality levels is a critical decision. While a greater number of quality levels allows for finer distinctions, more levels increase the time required to develop the rubric and to review assignments. In addition, research has shown that as the number of quality levels increases, consistency across graders or reviewers decreases. Considering the ultimate grade distinctions that will be made in the course can help determine the appropriate levels of quality for significant assignments.

The labeling of quality levels requires careful reflection. In learning contexts, instructors typically distinguish levels of competence, mastery, or expertise. This framing emphasizes a developmental teaching perspective and communicates a growth mindset. Instructors should beware of quality descriptors that demoralize students (e.g., incompetent, barely adequate, almost competent).

The most equitable rubrics create a detailed table describing the key features for each criteria at each quality level. Criteria are listed along the left-most column (often according to hierarchy of importance or process order) and quality levels are arranged across the top row of the table (either from low to high or high to low). Each of the remaining table cells is filled with a description of key features that can be observed for the specific criteria at that quality level. These often focus on key factors that represent bottlenecks in student learning or critical steps to increased levels of competence.

Scoring Strategy

Rubrics are flexible tools and instructors use a range of strategies to score student work using rubrics including:

1) Setting weights for each criterion, and single scores for each quality level. This approach speeds grading and minimizes discretion that might be a source of bias. Many digital tools support this strategy.

2) Weighting criteria and providing a range of scores for each quality level. This approach supports instructors interested in making more fine-grained distinctions.

3) Focusing on the overall combination of quality levels across criteria to assign a grade. This is a simplified grading structure that focuses on the overall grade and holistic judgment of the instructor or grader. For larger course enrollments, this strategy increases the risk of inconsistent or biased grading.

4) For drafts and formative assessments, focusing on providing students feedback with the rubric and simply assigning a complete or incomplete grade can be an efficient and effective strategy

Suggestions for Creating a Rubric

Determine the purpose of the assignment

Consider what, exactly, you want students to learn from the assignment. Write this down; it will guide the creation of criteria for your rubric.

Clearly establish criteria

Decide how you want to grade students. What elements of the assignment do you want to give them feedback on? This means determining the criteria associated with the task. To determine the criteria, think again about the goals of the assignment. What do you want students to accomplish? What do you want them to learn? Keep these criteria descriptions brief. Also, try to have an even, rather than an odd, number of criteria. This prevents the middle criterion from becoming a catch-all, allowing for more nuance in grading.

Determine the scoring method

Decide whether you will use a letter grade, percentages, points, a rating scale, or some other scoring method in your rubric. How will you label them? With numbers or descriptive labels?

Develop the descriptors of the criteria

Make sure the descriptors follow a logical progression. That is, descriptors indicating poor performance should be distinctly different from descriptors indicating high performance. And there should be consistency within the descriptors, meaning they should focus on particular attributes that carry through all criteria.

Be sensitive to language used

Rubrics offer a more objective means of assessing student work, but that doesn't mean they should assume a negative tone or offer an overly pointed critique of the learner. Try to refer to the assignment rather than the student when developing criteria. Avoid overly subjective language and use active voice where appropriate.

Explore results with hypothetical scoring combinations

Test your rubrics with a variety of scores for each criteria and see how significantly an outlier in one criterion will impact the overall grade. Consider whether adjustments to the weighting of criteria or the way points are allocated would more accurately reflect the appropriate grade.

Share your rubric with a colleague

Asking a colleague to review the rubric in advance is one of the best ways to ensure that your expectations are clear. You can ask colleagues to focus on specific elements of the rubric or to provide overall feedback.

Rubric Tools

Gradescope

Gradescope is a tool that enables efficient and transparent grading. Foremost, Gradescope prompts instructors to grade by question rather than by student. Within each question, the platform enables graders to create a dynamic, shared digital rubric that allows for expedited, collaborative grading and point altering.

The Canvas Rubrics tool can help you grade more quickly by providing an easy way to select the appropriate feedback, or grade by the same criteria for each student. After you attach a rubric to an assignment and configure it for grading, you can use the same grading criteria for all student submissions. Canvas will then automatically calculate the total score for you in Speedgrader.

Resources and Works Cited

Rubrics for Assessment from Northern Illinois University

Types of Rubrics from DePaul Teaching Commons

Types of Rubrics: Holistic and Analytic from Queen's University

Know Your Terms: Holistic. Analytic. And Single-Point Rubrics

Jonsson, A., & Svingby, G. (2007). The use of scoring rubrics: Reliability, validity and educational consequences. Educational Research Review, 2(2), 130-144. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.edurev.2007.05.002

Reddy, Y. M., & Andrade, H. (2010). A review of rubric use in higher education. Assessment & Evaluation in Higher Education, 35(4), 435-448. https://doi.org/10.1080/02602930902862859

Additionally, Dannelle D. Stevens & Antonia J. Levi, An Introduction to Rubrics (Sterling, VA: Stylus, 2005), is available as an online Brown Library resource and in the Sheridan Center's library.

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Designing Grading Rubrics | Sheridan Center | Brown University

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Rubrics help instructors grade and provide feedback on assessments that have more than one correct answer in an efficient and equitable way. They facilitate transparency in grading, as well as increase consistency in scoring. When given alongside an assignment, students can use rubrics to gain under…

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Whether you're new to rubrics, or you just don't know their formal names, it may be time for a primer on rubric terminology.
So let's talk about rubrics for a few minutes. What we're going to do here is describe two frequently used kinds of rubrics, holistic and analytic, plus a less common one called the single-point rubric (my favorite, for the record). For each one, we'll look at an example and explore its pros and cons.

Off we go!

A holistic rubric is the most general kind. It lists three to five levels of performance, along with a broad description of the characteristics that define each level. The levels can be labeled with numbers (such as 1 through 4), letters (such as A through F) or words (such as Beginning through Exemplary). What each level is called isn't what makes the rubric holistic - it's the way the characteristics are all lumped together.

Suppose you're an unusually demanding person. You want your loved ones to know what you expect if they should ever make you breakfast in bed. So you give them this holistic rubric:

When your breakfast is done, you simply gather your loved ones and say, "I'm sorry my darlings, but that breakfast was just a 2. Try harder next time."

The main advantage of a holistic rubric is that it's easy on the teacher - in the short run, anyway. Creating a holistic rubric takes less time than the others, and grading with one is faster, too. You just look over an assignment and give one holistic score to the whole thing.

The main disadvantage of a holistic rubric is that it doesn't provide targeted feedback to students, which means they're unlikely to learn much from the assignment. Although many holistic rubrics list specific characteristics for each level, the teacher gives only one score, without breaking it down into separate qualities. This often leads the student to approach the teacher and ask, "Why did you give me a 2?" If the teacher is the explaining kind, he will spend a few minutes breaking down the score. If not, he'll say something like, "Read the rubric." Then the student has to guess which factors had the biggest influence on her score. For a student who really tries hard, it can be heartbreaking to have no idea what she's doing wrong.

Holistic rubrics are most useful in cases when there's no time (or need, though that's hard to imagine) for specific feedback. You see them in standardized testing - the essay portion of the SAT is scored with a 0-6 holistic rubric. When hundreds of thousands of essays have to be graded quickly, and by total strangers who have no time to provide feedback, a holistic rubric comes in handy.

An analytic rubric breaks down the characteristics of an assignment into parts, allowing the scorer to itemize and define exactly what aspects are strong, and which ones need improvement.

So for the breakfast in bed example, an analytic rubric would look like this:

In this case, you'd give your loved ones a separate score for each category. They might get a 3 on Presentation, but a 2 on Food and just a 1 on Comfort. To make feedback even more targeted, you could also highlight specific phrases in the rubric, like, "the recipient is crowded during the meal" to indicate exactly what went wrong.

This is where we see the main advantage of the analytic rubric: It gives students a clearer picture of why they got the score they got. It is also good for the teacher, because it gives her the ability to justify a score on paper, without having to explain everything in a later conversation.

Analytic rubrics have two significant disadvantages, however: (1) Creating them takes a lot of time. Writing up descriptors of satisfactory work - completing the "3" column in this rubric, for example - is enough of a challenge on its own. But to have to define all the ways the work could go wrong, and all the ways it could exceed expectations, is a big, big task. And once all that work is done, (2) students won't necessarily read the whole thing. Facing a 36-cell table crammed with 8-point font is enough to send most students straight into a nap. And that means they won't clearly understand what's expected of them.

Still, analytic rubrics are useful when you want to cover all your bases, and you're willing to put in the time to really get clear on exactly what every level of performance looks like.

A single-point rubric is a lot like an analytic rubric, because it breaks down the components of an assignment into different criteria. What makes it different is that it only describes the criteria for proficiency; it does not attempt to list all the ways a student could fall short, nor does it specify how a student could exceed expectations.

A single-point rubric for breakfast in bed would look like this:

Notice that the language in the "Criteria" column is exactly the same as the "3" column in the analytic rubric. When your loved ones receive this rubric, it will include your written comments on one or both sides of each category, telling them exactly how they fell short ("runny eggs," for example) and how they excelled ("vase of flowers"). Just like with the analytic rubric, if a target was simply met, you can just highlight the appropriate phrase in the center column.

If you've never used a single-point rubric, it's worth a try. In 2010, Jarene Fluckiger studied a collection of teacher action research studies on the use of single-point rubrics. She found that student achievement increased with the use of these rubrics, especially when students helped create them and used them to self-assess their work.

The single-point rubric has several advantages: (1) It contains far less language than the analytic rubric, which means students are more likely to read it and it will take less time to create, while still providing rich detail about what's expected. (2) Areas of concern and excellence are open-ended. When using full analytic rubrics, I often find that students do things that are not described on the rubric, but still depart from expectations. Because I can't find the right language to highlight, I find myself hand-writing justifications for a score in whatever space I can find. This is frustrating, time-consuming and messy. With a single-point rubric, there's no attempt to predict all the ways a student might go wrong. Similarly, the undefined "Advanced" column places no limits on how students might stretch themselves. "If the highest level is already prescribed then creativity may be limited to that pre-determined level," says Fluckiger. "Students may surprise us if we leave quality open-ended."

The main disadvantage of single-point rubrics is that using them requires more writing on the teacher's part. If a student has fallen short in many areas, completing that left-hand column will take more time than simply highlighting a pre-written analytic rubric.

Need Ready-Made Rubrics?

My Rubric Pack gives you four different designs in Microsoft Word and Google Docs formats. It also comes with video tutorials to show you how to customize them for any need, plus a Teacher's Manual to help you understand the pros and cons of each style. Check it out here:

Sources:

Fluckiger, J. (2010). Single point rubric: A tool for responsible student self-assessment. Teacher Education Faculty Publications. Paper 5. Retrieved April 25, 2014 from http://digitalcommons.unomaha.edu/tedfacpub/5.

Mertler, C. A. (2001). Designing scoring rubrics for your classroom. Practical Assessment, Research & Evaluation, 7(25). Retrieved April 30, 2014 from http://PAREonline.net/getvn.asp?v=7&n=25.
Know Your Terms is my effort to build a user-friendly knowledge base of terms every educator should know. New items will be added on an ongoing basis. If you heard some term at a PD and didn't want to admit you didn't know what it meant, send it to me via the contact form and I'll research it for you.

Keep in touch.
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Know Your Terms: Holistic, Analytic, and Single-Point Rubrics

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Whether you're new to rubrics, or you've used them for years without knowing their formal names, it may be time for a primer on rubric terminology.

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I have written several posts about the different types of rubrics-especially my favorite, the single-point rubric-and over time, many teachers have asked me about the most effective way to convert the information on these rubrics into points. Even if you are moving toward a no grades classroom, as a growing number of educators are, you may still be required to supply points or letter grades for student assignments.

Despite the title of this post, all I can really offer here is a description of my own process. It has been refined over years of trial and error, and the only evidence I have to back up its effectiveness is that in over 10 years of teaching middle school and college, I can only recall one or two times when a student or parent challenged a grade I gave based on a rubric. This is by no means the only way to do it-I'm sure plenty of other processes exist-but this is what has worked for me.

Before I get into the specifics of the scores themselves, I'm going to describe all the things that happen before those points go into the grade book. I'll do this with an example scenario: Suppose I want my eighth-grade students to write a narrative account of a true story. This will not be a personal narrative, but rather a journalistic piece that illustrates some larger concept, such as the story of one student's chaotic after-school routine to illustrate the problem of some kids having too many activities and homework after school.

Step 1: Define the Criteria

To start with, I have to get clear on what the final product should look like. Although I have my own opinions of what makes a well-written story, I need to put that into words so my students know what I'm looking for. Ideally, this criteria should be developed with my students. Any project will be more effective if students are part of the conversation from the beginning; I would ask them what makes for a good story, what kind of criteria should be used to judge its quality, and so on. To generate ideas for this discussion, we would first read a few examples from magazines and websites of the type of writing I want them to produce, and we'd figure out what qualities make these stories work. Eventually we'd shape these ideas into a list of attributes for the rubric. (Full disclosure: This is an ideal scenario. I often skipped the step of involving students to save time, but that was ultimately not the best decision.)

I would also consult with my standards and curriculum materials, to make sure I wasn't missing something relevant and to make sure the language in my rubric is aligned with those standards.

Using the single-point format, my rubric would look something like this:

If you have been working with single-point rubrics, you know that the left-hand column is reserved for indicating how students need to improve. The right-hand column has a different title than what I have used in the past. In earlier versions I titled this column"Exceeds Expectations," providing space to tell students how they exceeded the standards. I have adapted it here to "Above and Beyond" to make it more open-ended. It can be a place to describe where students have gone beyond the expectations, or it could be a place where the teacher or the student could suggest ways the work could reach even further, a place to set "stretch goals" appropriate to that student's readiness and the task at hand.

Step 2: Distribute the Points

Once my criteria have been defined, and if I will ultimately be giving points for this assignment, I need to decide how to divide those points across each category. Assuming a total of 100 points for this assignment, I would weigh certain components more heavily than others. Because my main goal is for students to write a robust, well-developed story, I would place more value on the top two categories-structure and idea development. This is an area where subjectivity can take over, and where rubrics can really vary from one teacher to another. So again, keep in mind that this is what it looks like for me.

For a 100-point assignment, I might distribute points as follows, adding them right into the rubric with a space for inserting the student's score when the task has been graded:

Step 3: Share the Rubric with Students Ahead of Time

This part is crucial. Even if students are not included in the development of the rubric itself, it's absolutely vital to let them study that rubric before they ever complete the assignment. The rubric loses most of its value if students aren't aware of it until the work is already done, so let them see it ahead of time. I typically provide students with a printed copy of the rubric when we are in the beginning stages of working on a big assignment like this, along with a prompt that describes the task itself.

Step 4: Score Samples

Another powerful step that makes the rubric even more effective is to score sample products as a class, using the rubric as a guide. I often created these samples myself, building in the kinds of problems I often saw in that type of writing. Occasionally I would use a piece of writing from a previous student with their name removed. Ideally, we would score one or two of these as a whole-class activity, and then I would have students do a few more in pairs. This process really gets students paying attention to the rubric, asking questions about the criteria, and getting a much clearer picture of what quality work looks like. When it comes time to craft their own pieces, they are better at using this tool for peer review and self-assessment.

Step 5: Assess Student Work (Round 1)

After students have been given time to plan, draft, and revise their writing-a time when I am watching their work in progress, advising them, and regularly referring to the rubric as a guide-students submit their "finished" pieces for a grade. My feedback for a student who hit many of the marks, but needed work in some areas, might look like this:

I put a check beside the criteria that has been satisfied in that draft, and add comments to the left of those that need work. In the right-hand column, I add a few suggestions for ways this student might push herself a bit more to make the piece even better.

You'll notice that the space for scores has been left blank. There's a reason for that: When students are given both feedback and number or letter grades, their motivation often drops and they tend to ignore the written feedback (Butler & Nisan, 1986). My own experience has proved this to be true; I have often spent hours giving written feedback on student writing, but found they often ignored that. Now I know this was because the feedback also included a grade. No-grades advocate Alfie Kohn, in his piece From Degrading to De-Grading, recommends that teachers who want to avoid this effect "make grades as invisible as possible for as long as possible." With that in mind, in this round, students only get feedback, not scores.

Keep in mind that much of this feedback could be generated with the student, in a conference. If time permits, you could sit with the student and go through the rubric together, noting places that still need work and considering ways to take what's already working and improve it further.

Unless the student has satisfied all the criteria on this first try, she will have an opportunity to revise her work and resubmit it, along with the original rubric. Those who did meet all the standards have the option to revise; not for a higher score (since scores haven't been given), but to simply push the piece to an even higher level of quality.

Step 6: Assess Student Work (Round 2)

When students have improved their work and re-submitted it, if they have gotten much closer to achieving the criteria, this would be an appropriate time to assign points to go into the grade book. If the issues raised in the first round have now been addressed, they are given a check to indicate that they are no longer a problem. In cases where all criteria in a category has been satisfied, the full number of points will be given. If a problem persists, new feedback may be added, and a portion of the points will be deducted. Again, this is the subjective part: I try to consider the work as a whole and deduct only a small percentage of the total points for a small problem. Really, if a problem is significant, the assignment should be reworked until that problem has been resolved. Once each section of the rubric has been scored, the points are totaled and that total is the score that's entered into the grade book.

Q&A About this Process

Will there be a Round 3?
That depends on you and your student. If you feel the student is growing and will put the work in to improve the piece further, and you are willing to assess it again, you should offer another round, and another, if progress is still being made.

Doesn't this process result in most students getting an A on the assignment?
It definitely could. If a student is willing to put the time in to satisfy all the criteria, then she will get the A. Those who are used to getting A's will have the option to push their skills to a higher level in Round 2 or will have the luxury of moving on to something else. It may bother some people that two students who may have different skill levels could end up with the same grade, but behind the scenes, the effort to reach that grade could be very different from student to student.

Isn't this time-consuming?
Heck yeah it is. Well, sort of. For me, this type of assignment would be given over the course of several weeks. By the time I have to actually give points, I have seen that student's piece many times. I have given her informal feedback while she writes and more formal feedback in Round 1, so the time I put into all the stages ultimately results in a final product that's much stronger than it would have been as a quick, one-time thing. And that makes the final assessment process much faster.

Doesn't this result in students being at different stages at different times?
Yes. In many cases, you will find yourself with some students being "done" with an assignment, while others are re-doing it. Most teachers want their students to be learning the same skills at roughly the same time, and unless you are running a very personalized, Montessori-style classroom, you'll want some kind of consistency from student to student. Consider whether you might be willing to spend only part of your class doing the more lock-step, everyone-on-the-same-page kind of work, but set aside other times for students to work on improving past assignments or doing independent work like genius hour projects.

Need Ready-Made Rubrics?

My Rubric Pack gives you four different designs in Microsoft Word and Google Docs formats. It also comes with video tutorials to show you how to customize them for any need, plus a Teacher's Manual to help you understand the pros and cons of each style. Check it out here:
References:
Butler, R. & Nisan, M. (1986). Effects of no feedback, task-related comments, and grades on intrinsic motivation and performance. Journal of Educational Psychology, 78(3), 210-216.

Kohn, Alfie. "From Degrading to De-grading." High School Magazine (1999). Retrieved 19 Aug. 2015 from www.alfiekohn.org/article/degrading-de-grading/.

Like what you've seen so far?
I would love to have you come back for more.Join my mailing list and get weekly tips, tools, and inspiration-in quick, bite-sized packages-all geared toward making your teaching more effective and joyful. To thank you, you'll get a free copy of my new e-booklet, 20 Ways to Cut Your Grading Time in Half. I look forward to getting to know you better!

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Many teachers are confused about how to convert rubric feedback into grades or points. Even if you are moving away from traditional grades, you still may be required to supply them. Here's my process.

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Rubric Repair - 5 changes to improve your rubrics

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Rubric Repair - 5 changes to improve your rubrics

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Listen to my interview with Mark Wise (transcript):
Sponsored by Pear Deck and Microsoft Teams for Education

In my 20-year career as an administrator, I've had the opportunity to be a fly on the wall in hundreds of classrooms across grade levels and content areas. While much has changed in education over those years, one element has remained constant: the well-intentioned use of rubrics with varying levels of success.

Starting with their use as early as kindergarten and continuing through high school, rubrics are meant to clarify expectations, but poor design can make the experience anything but clear. Rows of criteria describe, often in 10-point font, how students will be graded for an upcoming project. Students attempt to decipher the details, review the exemplars provided, and note the corresponding due dates, but the information doesn't always translate into action.

This is unfortunate because a well-designed rubric can be more than just an evaluation tool. For the teacher, it can clarify expectations, which increases the likelihood that these traits will be attended to during instruction and as a result, can provide more targeted feedback. For the learner, knowing what is expected from the start along with clear indicators of progress provides an effective means to self-assess, make adjustments, and improve the quality of performance.

So how do we get there? How do we take our current rubrics and fine-tune them so they deliver on those promises? These five guidelines will help.

1. Measure What Really Matters

Teachers often include multiple criteria in their rubrics without adding the primary learning outcome they are most interested in: Did it persuade? Did it create an emotional connection? Did you win your argument? We tend to construct our rubrics with important but sometimes peripheral components of performance because they are easy to see, count, or score ( Wiggins and McTighe, p. 34). For example, if your students are writing an editorial, it could be stylistically sophisticated, well-organized, and meet the length requirement. However, an editorial, regardless of how well written, is wholly ineffective if it fails to persuade the reader.

Moreover, since students can become overwhelmed by the sheer number of criteria they are required to meet, less can be more. One way to accomplish this is to utilize a single-point rubric, which allows the student to focus on the stated expectations while receiving feedback on the degree to which they are meeting them. If you are using a more traditional 4-6 point rubric that details the continuum of performance, it is even more incumbent upon you to identify the main reason students are engaged in the task in the first place and edit down the criteria so it incentivizes students to focus on the most important aspects of the performance.

The "before" example below shows a rubric that measures a lot of things that don't have anything to do with whether a student understands the lunar phases: things like creativity, attractiveness, and whether the task is completed on time. If the purpose of the assignment is to assess whether students have really learned the lunar phases, the rubric should focus primarily on whether the content in the model is accurate and effective.

In the revised version below, all of the criteria is focused on the quality and accuracy of the information in the model and measures the desired scientific thinking from building the model in the first place.

2. Weigh the Criteria Appropriately

As designers of rubrics, we can signal to students that certain criteria matter more than others. Just because a rubric has four criteria, doesn't mean that each needs to be worth 25 percent of the score. With the weight of each criterion adjusted, the rubric itself guides students to focus on what is most important.

In the example below-which is the same revised rubric from above, but where the teacher wanted to include some accountability for mechanics-all four criteria are weighted exactly the same. This means a student who demonstrates a perfect understanding of the science behind lunar phases, but who struggles with spelling and punctuation, could end up with a C on the project. That would not be a true reflection of mastery.

By contrast, in the revised rubric below, "Mechanics" is only assigned 10 percent of the overall grade, while the other three criteria make up 90 percent combined. This way, the final grade will be a much more reliable measure of student understanding of lunar phases.

Another thing to keep in mind is that each criterion doesn't have to be graded every time or the same way. Within the structure of the rubric, teachers have a great deal of flexibility. Although all of the criteria are important, we can use our discretion by grading only certain items, then attending to the others when those skills or concepts are formally taught and practiced. Likewise, since our expectations of what students can accomplish at the beginning of the year are quite different from what we expect at the end of the year, we can continue to adjust the grade or point values we assign to each column.

3. Check Your Math

Your point values for each column need to yield an accurate reflection of the student's performance. For example, if on a 4-point rubric the "3" is "meets expectations" most teachers believe the point value should reflect a range from A- to B+. This stands in contrast to a C (3 out of 4 points) which is what would be earned if a student met expectations for the criteria within that column. This can result in either the teacher giving an unfair grade or altering the feedback in order to generate the desired grade.Either result isn't helpful for the student.

A design tip is to look at each column vertically and choose a number or range that would be appropriate for a student scoring exclusively within that column. The corresponding grades don't have to reflect a neat 4, 3, 2 progression. Often using decimals or a range of numbers is necessary to align each column vertically to a grade that matches the column's descriptors.

4. Can Do Rubrics, Not Can't Do Rubrics

We need to consider the language we choose so that our rubrics encourage students to improve. Without realizing it, when teachers detail the levels of performance, we tend to use degrees of deficiency (e.g. mostly, somewhat, lacking) rather than affirmative non-judgmental statements as to what the students are capable of at each point along the continuum. If we are going to truly use the rubric as a tool to enhance students' ability to self-assess and thus enhance their performance, we must provide clear markers along the way for how students can improve and not unintentionally send the message that their ongoing work is insufficient rather than on a path of progress.

The examples below show two rows in a rubric for a research project. The first uses deficit language to describe the lower levels of performance, while the second describes each level in terms of what the student CAN do.

A real-world model that clearly illustrates a learner's progression toward achieving proficiency is the traditional swim chart which indicates where the swimmer is in on the path toward achieving independence in the deep end of the pool. The language of the swim chart describes traits-from treading water to extended front crawl-that are required for the learner to move from Tadpole (beginner) to Seal (advanced). The expectations are clear, measurable, and non-judgemental; it describes what swimmers can do rather than what they can't. We can view the transparency and progression of the swim chart as an aspirational goal for our rubric design, being mindful to choose language that states the desired outcome, rather than anticipated problems.

Educators are already working toward this in the area of world languages. The American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages (ACTFL) has performance descriptors that describe the learner's degree of communication fluency. ACTFL has also developed "Can Do" statements that describe what language learners can do consistently and independently. Like the swim chart, these indicators allow learners to use the statements for self-evaluation so they are more aware of what they know and can do in the target language. In turn, world language educators have developed rubrics that match those desired outcomes.

5. Models, Models, Models!

When we design rubrics, we tend to pore over their construction. We perseverate over the language we use ("should I say 'clearly.'.. or 'distinctly'?"), repeatedly delete rows or columns, and painstakingly choose fonts.

From the student perspective, they experience the rubric differently. After being introduced to the rubric at the start of the project, the next time students typically see it is when it is returned, replete with circled boxes, teacher comments, and a final grade attached. Understandably, many students suffer from "rubric fatigue," a condition caused by encountering a series of disconnected rubrics across subject areas on any given day.

What students really benefit from are actual models (both exemplars and non-exemplars) that link to descriptors on the rubric that illustrate the quality of work expected. For example, in the real world we typically have many models of the performance or product we are trying to create or implement-whether it is for how a game should be played, a song should be sung, or an editorial should be written. Similarly, when launching a project, showing students multiple examples of prior student work or appropriate real-world examples makes the rubric meaningful and brings these descriptors to life.

Another strategy is to have students sort the various models in order to determine the specific qualities that make some examples stronger than others. The teacher can then incorporate the students' language in their draft version of the rubric or highlight aspects the teacher may have initially overlooked before distributing the final rubric. This process allows the students themselves to generate the criteria and descriptive language of the desired performance which deepens their understanding and creates shared ownership of the expectations for quality work.

Similarly, the rubric can become more user-friendly if we make the criteria more visible to students. This can be done by adding hyperlinks of models tied to the descriptors so students can access a range of examples to inform where they are along the continuum and show them exactly how they can improve.

Better Rubrics Support Student-Centered Learning

As educators, we are rightfully drawn to the goal of establishing a classroom where students have opportunities to engage in complex problem solving, participate more actively in dialogue and debate, design their own experiments, or research topics that interest them. These types of experiences-ones that do not result in a single "correct" answer or follow a formulaic procedure-require more of an open-ended assessment tool with clear guidelines for success that students can use to guide, self-assess, and ultimately improve their learning. Hopefully by following these five suggestions, your rubrics will help clarify what you really want students to take away from the experience, provide your learners with the means to get there, and allow you to fairly and honestly assess their performance. ♦

Reference

Wiggins, G., & McTighe, J. (2012). The understanding by design guide to advanced concepts in creating and reviewing units. Alexandria, VA: ASCD.

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Rubric Repair: 5 Changes that Get Results

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Rubrics are meant to clarify expectations, but poor design can make the experience anything but clear. These five guidelines will help.

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General Scoring Rubric from CA Mathematics Framework

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General Scoring Rubric from CA Mathematics Framework

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Science Claim, Evidence, Reasoning Common Assessment Rubric

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Science Claim, Evidence, Reasoning Common Assessment Rubric

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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.

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Planning Tools, Rubrics, Management Tools, Self-Reflection Guides, etc.

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After engaging with a text (article, video, photo, interview, etc.), complete one of the following activities:

Después de comprometerse con un texto (artículo, video, foto, entrevista, etc.), completa una de las siguientes actividades:

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After engaging with a text (article, video, photo, interview, etc.), complete one of the following activities: Después de comprometerse con un texto (artículo, video, foto, entrevista, etc.), completa una de las siguientes actividades:

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Scan for missing citations quickly and easily with originality reports

With so much of the world's information readily accessible, educators face a big challenge in helping students keep their work authentic. Originality reports, available in Classroom and Assignments, can help students improve their writing by flagging needed citations, while also providing you with a fast and easy way to verify academic integrity.

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Originality reports | Google for Education

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With so much of the world's information readily accessible, educators face a big challenge in helping students keep their work authentic. Originality reports, available in Classroom and Assignments, can help students improve their writing by flagging needed citations, while also providing you with a fast and easy way to verify academic integrity.

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Student Agency: What Do Students Want to Create to Demonstrate Their Learning?

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Student Agency: What Do Students Want to Create to Demonstrate Their Learning?

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2020 AP College Board Exam Administration Security Considerations

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2020 AP College Board Exam Administration Security Considerations

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Like many college-level exams, this year's AP Exams will be open book/open note. However, students may not consult with any other individuals during the testing period (with the exception of students working on the AP Computer Science Principles Create performance task) . We will take the necessary steps to protect the integrity of each exam administration, as we do every year.

We are confident the vast majority of AP students will follow the rules for taking the exams. For the small number of students who may try to gain an unfair advantage, we have a comprehensive and strict set of protocols in place to prevent and detect cheating. We are keeping some of these protocols confidential to maximize their effectiveness. Others are listed here.

We've Designed the Exams with Security in Mind

The exam format and questions are being designed specifically for an at-home administration, so points will not be earned from content that can be found in textbooks or online.

Each subject's exam will be taken on the same day at the same time, worldwide.

On test day, students will be required to verify their identity and confirm the work they submitted is their own.

We'll Use Tools to Detect Plagiarism

We're using a range of digital security tools and techniques, including plagiarism detection software and post-administration analytics, to protect the integrity of the exams.

In addition, each student's AP teacher will receive copies of the work the student submits to us, enabling teachers to spot inconsistencies with students' known work.

Students Who Violate Exam Security Will Receive Consequences

Students whose responses mirror online content or other students' submissions will have their scores canceled.

Students sharing or receiving exam content or exam responses, or engaging in any plans or efforts to provide or gain an unfair advantage, will be blocked from testing or their AP scores will be canceled. This includes communications or assistance in person, via the Internet, via social media, or by any other means.

If we determine that a student gained or provided an unfair advantage on an AP Exam, we'll notify their high school so the school can choose to take necessary disciplinary action, as appropriate. We'll also provide information about the incident to colleges or other organizations to which the student has already sent any College Board scores (including SAT scores)or to which the student would send scores in the future.

Students who attempt to gain an unfair advantage also may be prohibited from taking a future Advanced Placement Exam as well as the SAT, SAT Subject Tests, or CLEP assessments.

Under certain circumstances, College Board may inform law enforcement of any incident to determine if prosecution of the test taker, or anyone assisting the test taker in misconduct, is warranted.

We encourage anyone with knowledge of any dishonest behavior with respect to the Advanced Placement Exams to contact College Board Test Security. Reports can be made confidentially at our Test Security Web Hotline.

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Like many college-level exams, this year's AP Exams will be open book/open note. However, students may not consult with any other individuals during the testing period. We will take the necessary steps to protect the integrity of each exam administration.

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Provide Options for Expression and Communication

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Provide Options for Expression and Communication

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High Quality Authentic Assessment Rubric

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High Quality Authentic Assessment Rubric

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High Quality Authentic Assessment Rubric

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Working Toward Culturally Responsive Assessment Practices

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Working Toward Culturally Responsive Assessment Practices

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This blog post was written by NCTE member Valente' Gibson.
A few years ago, I was given the opportunity to be a member of the Professional Dyads of Culturally Relevant Teaching, a project of NCTE's Early Childhood Education Assembly. The space was created to support educators who teach children of color, children who are emerging bi- and multilinguals, and children from low-income households. In a mutual mentorship, teacher educators and teachers work together to explore and delve deeper into culturally relevant pedagogies.

What can you learn from culturally relevant assessment in comparison to what you learn from conventional assessments?

This question was posed during my work with the Professional Dyad about culturally relevant assessments. The dyad provided an opportunity to suggest culturally relevant approaches for assessing students that get at what they know rather than concealing what they know. Culturally relevant means of assessment give insights about the kinds of assessments that lead and front students' cultural strengths and curiosities and nurture and extend literacies.

The dyad experience was my first introduction and launch into changing assessments in my classroom. My students were bogged down by standardized testing via benchmarks and end-of-the-year state assessments. Instead of griping about these assessments, I wanted to find ways to connect culturally relevant assessments with traditional assessments. I began by identifying areas and insights into what I know about culturally relevant teaching.

"All instruction is culturally responsive. The question is: to which culture is it currently oriented?" -Gloria Ladson-Billings

Assessment is one of the first words that you hear during your time as a student, as a student teacher, and as a classroom teacher. We harp on the positive and negative effects that assessments can have on students in schools. When talking with other teachers about assessment, we understand the importance of getting to know our students. We agree that we cannot create a curriculum that meets their needs, much less their cultural needs, if we don't first get to know them as human beings.

Discussions about the following questions have helped me to refine my thinking about classroom assessments:

Why do we/I assess?

As a teacher, I assess students to find out what students have learned, to hold them accountable, and to help guide and set the pace for the classroom. It was crucial that I offered traditional classroom-based assessments because of standardized testing. I found myself translating the language of standardized testing and created assessments that both students and families easily understood. The creation of these assessments was an ideal way for me to build small groups and change my instruction for upcoming days. During my process of learning about assessments, I realized that I had never considered what my students or families thought about testing. I would observe my traditional assessment results and seek to understand what my students didn't grasp.

It finally hit me that I needed to understand my students first and use my own classroom assessments to accurately understand their knowledge. I wasn't able to effectively help them in the classroom until I understood them as people and understood their culture. This process was a great way for me to improve my teaching practices and guide me to the creation of culturally relevant assessments.

Which assessment methods are most of the teachers I talk with using to assess their students' learning or understanding?

One common tool is a rubric. I've worked with other teachers to learn how I can make rubrics more culturally relevant. One strategy that I have found useful is to collaborate with families, parents, and students to create rubrics. I first discuss home language with my students and send home a questionnaire to parents that helps me understand the students better from a home perspective. I always include a section on my rubric about the student's presentation style, and my students are allowed to present on classroom tasks based on what their parents or guardians answered in the questionnaire.

For example, a student was able to present their writing in spoken word because a mother suggested that the best way they can share their knowledge is to "talk it out." In the questionnaire, the parent answered that their child "talks out" their knowledge at church by speaking in front of the congregation after a Sunday school lesson or vacation Bible school. Talking it out was a perfect way to provide an environment that allowed them to implement their home culture at school.

Another tool that I have used is written conversations. I allow my students to write in their home languages, and in one case, two partners wanted to write their conversation using African American Language. The ease at which the conversation flowed and the investment of both students was such a pleasure to observe. They were actively engaged in their writing and didn't complain that they didn't know what to write because it came naturally.

What is culturally relevant/responsive teaching and how do we become responsive as teachers?

One of the most important lessons I've learned in my journey to become more responsive as a teacher is the need for constant dialogue around assessments. We all need to look into our daily traditional assessments and discover ways that we include students and their cultural knowledge, and scaffold their learning with what students already know.

When we collaborate with other teachers, in addition to parents and students, we are in a better position to learn about cultural literacy practices of our students and more about their community. When I engaged in conversations with parents and students, I was able to find ways of integrating their lives into our classroom. As my students were able to connect with assessments, they were able to be more successful in the classroom.

As you seek to understand culturally relevant assessments, find yourself as a teacher. Question yourself about whether your assessments are responsive to students' learning in the classroom and respectful of their culture. I suggest collaborating with families and inviting them in to have a night of creating assessments.

Also, invite your peers to talk about the assessments that you are using. Share your best practices with your peers to demonstrate how you all can work together to create assessments to be relevant to your students. This collaboration is important and necessary so that we can learn from one another and best aid in the growth and development of our students.

Resources

Going Public with Assessment: A Community Practice Approach-This volume by Kathryn Mitchell Pierce and Rosario Ordoñez-Jasis shares classroom vignettes, strategies, and resources for "going public" with literacy assessment through teacher collaboration with colleagues, with families, and with the community.
Learn more about the Professional Dyads and Culturally Relevant Teaching proje ct. Valente' Gibson is a fifth-grade teacher at Jackson Creek Elementary, Columbia, South Carolina. He holds the position of Treasurer with the NCTE Early Childhood Education Assembly. Valenté was a participant in the PDCRT (Professional Dyads and Culturally Relevant Teaching) project. He is also a teacher for the Center for the Education and Equity of African American Students (CEEAAS), where he helps develop learning modules that embed culturally relevant curriculum for effective teaching of African American students.

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Working Toward Culturally Responsive Assessment Practices - NCTE

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This blog post was written by NCTE member Valente' Gibson. A few years ago, I was given the opportunity to be a member of the Professional Dyads of Culturally Relevant Teaching, a project of NCTE's Early Childhood Education Assembly.

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How to Create Culturally Responsive Assessments

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How to Create Culturally Responsive Assessments

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Education Week - Education Futures: Emerging Trends in K-12

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Not all students are natural-born test takers. Any educator who has spent even a small amount of time in classrooms knows this - much in the way that different students have different learning styles. Most times, teachers can account for this in their classrooms based on the students they serve. Even if the teachers do not adjust the tests or assignments from one year to the next, their general demographic remains the same from one year to the next based on location.

An inner city math teacher, for example, could tweak his tests with word problems that best relate to the students entering his classroom and not use obscure references that make the material seem even more disconnected from the real life of the students. A science teacher at an elite prep school could do the same, using references that strike a chord with the students who walk through the door and grounding the material.

Statewide assessments don't have that level of customization. They are created for one set of students and then applied to the rest. A student who feels isolated from the material in front of her will not be as successful in answering the questions, plain and simple. English as a second language learners, for example, may not perform as well on assessment tests as their peers. Standardized assessments make many assumptions about those who are taking them and to the detriment of the students. For assessments to be effective, the student answering the questions should always be considered.

So what sorts of cultural differences should be considered when assessments are created?

Socioeconomic status. Students from homes where one or both parents have a college education tend to have more advanced linguistic capabilities and accomplishing school tasks comes more easily than students from economically disadvantaged homes. This is not to say that test questions should be easier or in any way "dumbed down" based on the income of a family in question, but assessments should be carefully written with these factors in mind. Perhaps there is a reason beyond basic comprehension that white students from middle and high-class homes tend to perform better on standardized tests. Perhaps it is not the actual material that they have more effectively mastered, but the actual tests that have put them at an advantage. If every student had the chance to take a test that played on his socioeconomic strengths and avoided pitfalls that made that student feel isolated from the material, perhaps we would see a drastic change in test scores. Considering the socioeconomic status of students is a very important part of the assessment process that needs to be addressed for all students to succeed.

What is spoken at home should play into the type of assessment students receive. Students who speak English as a second language, even fluently, should have the option to take their assessments in whatever language makes them the most comfortable. There should never be a debate about whether a student knows "enough" of the English language to perform well on an assessment. If there is even a question, the student should be given the test in his native language or at least asked for the preference. If we are truly trying to gauge what these students know, we should not force them to battle the language barrier to present that knowledge. Students should be allowed to request tests in whatever language makes them the most comfortable - no questions asked, and no hoops to jump through.

Learning style. This one is a little more complicated to implement and possibly a pipe dream at this point in the assessment reform process. BUT a perfect assessment system would allow students to answers questions in such a way that complemented their personalities and learning styles. Teachers could help determine this through their observations of the students. The trick would be to ensure that all the material was equally difficult and that the students were placed with the right test based on their true learning style. A student who did well in traditional test taking, for example, may perform worse in a testing environment that was tailored to visual or hands-on learners. This type of assessing would need some trial and error to get right but could end up yielding big results in student test success. It's something that would need a lot more research and testing before implementation, but I believe it is worth the effort to reach a point of truly fair and accurate assessments.

One of the largest arguments against standardized assessments is that they are just that - standardized. To give a full picture of what students are learning, assessments need to be customized to fit those students' life circumstances and personalities. It is contradictory to say that American public schools embrace students from all backgrounds, and at all learning levels, and with every personality type but then to test one model student that is not an accurate representation of any of them.

This doesn't further our educational pursuits, and it certainly does not further the academic success of the students who take the tests. Blanket assessments are not even an accurate representation of a teacher's strengths. By trying to accommodate the masses, assessments have left behind the individuals and the result is a system of testing that does nothing to help anyone in the process and contributes little to what we truly know about actual student progress.

As they exist today, standardized assessments are ineffective, misleading and not helpful to public school culture. By adjusting these tests to meet the individual needs of the students taking them, the assessments would at least stand a chance of mattering in the lives of the students who take them.

It may be impossible to tailor each test to the needs of the student who will take it, but as technology improves, I believe the tools will exist to make this at least partially a reality. Consider an assessment future where teachers can type in a few short answers about a student and then receive a customized test based on the responses. We have the technology through our smartphones that tell us right down to the grocery store aisle what is for sale - surely there is a developer out there who can do the same targeting for test making. We should be able to create the tests that will most benefit our students and give educators the most accurate picture of what is being learned and comprehended.

As assessment makers become more technologically sophisticated, so too should the tests. States should demand these types of options of their test makers in the best interest of their students. There is no reason not to pursue more advanced forms of test delivery that take the backgrounds and learning styles of students into account. At this point, that type of test reform is necessary to understand what is being taught and learned in our K-12 classrooms.
Assessments of the future
It's time to tear apart the traditional way our K-12 students have been tested and look for a more targeted approach that implements technology, focuses on information gathering and accounts for the differences between the students who take the assessments. It will take a lot of work, and it will cost some money, but the result will be effective assessments that tell us something about the progress of individual students.

If we want to make our public schools places that deliver the brightest minds of their generations, then we owe it to these students to make testing fair and beneficial to them. It should not simply be a process of measuring sticks and statistics; assessments should give us a wider, detailed perspective on what our students have learned so far, how they've learned it and what their learning outlook is for the future.

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How to Create Culturally Responsive Assessments

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Not all students are natural-born test takers. Any educator who has spent even a small amount of time in classrooms knows this - much in the way that different students have different learning styles. Most times, teachers can account for this in their classrooms based on the students they serve.

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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.

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Spanish Google Meet Hangout Etiquette  (1).png

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Developed by the Right Question Institute, the Question Formulation Technique, or QFT, is a structured method for generating and improving questions. It distills sophisticated forms of divergent, convergent, and metacognitive thinking into a deceptively simple, accessible, and reproducible technique.

The QFT builds the skill of asking questions, an essential - yet often overlooked - lifelong learning skill that allows people to think critically, feel greater power and self-efficacy, and become more confident and ready to participate in civic life.

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What is the QFT? - Right Question Institute

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The Question Formulation Technique (QFT) is a simple but rigorous step-by-step process designed to help […]

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Download this file to your desktop, open it with Adobe (not a web browser), fill it out, save it with your name as the file name (i.e. bretklopfenstein) then drop it in the google folder linked below.

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As another school year comes to a close, many of us are designing our end of the year assessments or knee deep grading them. For those still in the planning stages of their end of the year assessments, I want to encourage you to think outside of the box.

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The Top Influence on Student Achievement is Self-Reported Grades

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The Top Influence on Student Achievement is Self-Reported Grades

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Self reported grades comes out at the top of all influences. Children are the most accurate when predicting how they will perform: so where does that leave us?

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The answer keys are locked to contributors only. In other words, you need to contribute some answers in order to get access to ALL of them.

If you don't want to contribute answers you can still get access by completing a tedious captcha verification. This is to encourage you to contribute answers! However we understand not everyone has the time to do this, especially if you have homework and other assignments due the next day.

Edgenuity vs E2020 Answer Keys

E2020 recently changed its name to Edgenuity, however alot of the answers for subjects stayed the same. We still get alot of people confused about this so we wanted to clear it up here. Whenever we say e2020 answers we are also refering to answers for edgenuity quizzes and tests.

Who Are These Answers For?

We don't encourage you to just grab all the a

nswer keys and finish Edgenuity just to get back to watching TV. Use the answers when you need them as a safety net and to help you learn faster. They are also excellent study guides and learning tools - not just hacks for cheating e2020.

Answers by Subject

The answers are organized by subject and then by lecture. Make sure to use the ctrl+F key to search for any specific question you need answered. The following subjects are available, we try to add new courses as they are released but there may be a delay of several months.

Algebra 1

Algebra I is the most common math course taken on edgenuity so its our most frequently updated. About once every 6 months new questions are added to the unit tests and we update this section first. Some of the lecture answer key pairs include: Polynomials, Factoring, Relations and Matrices.

Geometry

After Algebra 1 Geometry a and b are the most requested subjects for Edgenuity. The semester starts with a review of Algebra 1 and then go into Trigonometry, Surface Area and Volume, Quadrilaterals, and Vectors. The complete list is available in the contributors sections.

Algebra 2

This course is a toughy! We get alot of people visiting our site for help because they are stuck on a quiz or test in this section. These answers really come in handy on the cumulative exam as well.

Other Subjects

We are currently 36 subjects strong! Heres an overview from most updated to least:

The organization of the answer keys is setup to help you sync to where you are stuck as quickly as possible. Ordered like this:

Subject - > Semester - > Lecture -> Quiz Sections - > Pretest answers -> Tests -> Exam and Cumulative Exam

Other Edgenuity Cheats For Finishing E2020 Fast

Along with the answer key you can use some other techniques for speeding up the lectures.

The Skip Video Cheat

This little hack is how to skip long videos in Edgenuity so you can get right to answering the unit tests (Thanks to StevenW for submitting this). Just follow these steps:

1. Start the video and begin watching it as normal

2. Press the pause button

3. Disconnect - then reconnect your wifi

4. Refresh the page with the video

5. Drag the marker all the way to the end of the video so it ends in a few seconds

And voila! You just saved 10 minutes of your life. Now you can just enter the answers from our database into the cumulative exam and you are already done.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N1aSifouLvU

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Edgenuity Answer Database - How to Pass Edgenuity and E2020 Tests Fast

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The answer keys are locked to contributors only. In other words, you need to contribute some answers in order to get access to ALL of them. If you don't want to contribute answers you can still get access by completing a tedious captcha verification. This is to encourage you to contribute answers!

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Give students a chance to connect with each other and be heard.

Creating a classroom community where meaningful conversations can happen isn't easy -- it's an ongoing process that takes time. But using online discussion tools can be one great way to help your students build these skills. Plus, the ability to engage in online discussions responsibly is a great 21st-century skill in and of itself.

Online discussions often lead to better in-class discussions afterward -- you know, the kind where students raise their hands and speak out loud. With online discussions, students have a chance to engage with each other virtually, often having their thoughts and opinions validated. Afterward, they're typically much more willing to share out loud in class and often share in thoughtful ways.

Still not convinced? Here are a few more reasons to consider using online discussions:

Because comments are more permanent, students tend to think a bit more critically about what they say.

Especially for more introverted students, online discussions can be less intimidating than speaking in front of the class.

It's easier for students to share dissenting opinions or "outside-the-box" ideas.

As students type responses, they often recognize and share more nuanced and compelling points and arguments.

Anonymous posting (though still teacher-moderated), a key feature with some discussion tools, can help erase the fear of public judgment or ridicule.

Everyone has ample opportunities to be heard and connect with other classmates, ensuring equity among all voices in your classroom.

If you're looking for an online discussion tool, you've got a variety of options. Here are a few top picks and teacher favorites:

Price: $15/year/class; $299/year/school
Platforms: Android, iOS, and web
Grades: 7-12

Backchannel Chat's moderated online discussions are intended to engage students and encourage them to share. Think of it as a teacher-moderated, private version of Twitter, where students can discuss topics that might just transcend the virtual space. Setup is quick and easy: Teachers sign up, name their chat, and give students the URL. Students can join with only a name; no other personal information is required. Teachers can moderate discussions, remove messages, and "lock" the chat at any time.

Kialo is a free platform designed to foster thoughtful debate and discussion. Students can browse for and participate in existing discussions or create their own. Once they've chosen a discussion, students then choose their side -- pro or con --- and add their own opinions via "claims." Kialo is a good platform for teaching the importance of reasoned, respectful arguments when trying to persuade others. Most teachers likely will want to create private discussions limited to their students to focus on a curriculum- or class-related topic.

NowComment is a document-annotation and -discussion platform that allows students to mark up and discuss texts. Upload a document (in any number of formats) to create an online discussion area. Paragraphs for text are numbered, with the document shown on the left and the comment panel on the right. You can control when students can comment on a document and when they can see each others' comments. For group projects or peer-reviewed activities, you can have students upload their own documents.

Known mostly as an online plagiarism detector, Turnitin has some lesser-known tools, too, including a built-in discussion platform. While the discussion tool may not be as robust as some other choices, Turnitin's tool does offer anonymous posting and teacher-moderation options. Plus, if your students are already signed up and have accounts, getting started will be a cinch.

YO Teach! is a backchannel web app teachers can use to create and moderate chat rooms for real-time student interaction. The admin features allow teachers to delete posts, mute students, control room access, and use the interactive features. Students can interact with teacher and peer posts by sharing text messages, replying to others' posts, voting, responding to polls, sharing and annotating pictures, and submitting drawings. YO Teach! can be an engaging way to encourage collaboration and social interaction among students.
Image courtesy of Allison Shelley/The Verbatim Agency for American Education: Images of Teachers and Students in Action.

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5 Online Discussion Tools to Fuel Student Engagement | Common Sense Education

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Creating a classroom community where meaningful conversations can happen isn't easy -- it's an ongoing process that takes time. But using online discussion tools can be one great way to help your students build these skills. Plus, the ability to engage in online discussions responsibly is a great 21st-century skill in and of itself.

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Protocols By Tag | New Protocols | Spanish Protocols | Portuguese Protocols | Protocols For Youth Engagement

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Nearpod: Foster a love of learning in every student

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Create active learning experiences students can’t wait to be a part of.

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Google Forms - create and analyze surveys, for free.

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How to Sign and Submit you Digital Time Card

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How to Sign and Submit you Digital Time Card

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How to sign and submit your digital timecard.webm

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Are you getting the most bang for your buck by utilizing the high impact instructional strategies made famous by John Hattie combined with the wonderful tools from Google? If your answer is no, then look at how you can employ practices, such as self-reported grades, that are scientifically proven to increase student achievement, and incorporate Google tools at the same time.

John Hattie’s Effect Size

John Hattie developed a way of synthesizing various influences in different meta-analyses according to their effect size. Effect size is a measure of the contribution an education intervention makes to student learning. In his first study, Visible Learning, he ranked 138 influences that are related to learning outcomes from positive effects to negative effects. He found that the average effect size was .40 and anything above this line is considered “highly effective.” Hattie has updated his work to include over 250 influences on student achievement. You can read more about John Hattie’s work here.

Now, let’s look at one of the strategies that is high on Hattie’s list, and how it can be applied to your classroom teaching using Google tools.

Self-Reported Grades (Effect Size 1.33)

Self-reported grades is a practice by which students assess the quality of their own work or their level of mastery over a given objective. With an effect size of 1.33, it can provide up to three years of additional growth in learning for every year. That’s a huge impact! The validity of self-grading is often assessed by comparing a student’s self-reported grade with the grade  provided by a teacher. Below are a few examples of how you can allow students to track their own progress.

Personal Grade Tracker

A personal grade tracker is a way for students to practice personal grade and progress monitoring in a structured way. Personal grade trackers are a great way to teach students how to monitor their growth and progress. They also help teach responsibility and self-awareness. Students keep track of each graded assignment throughout the year. Check out this Google Sheet Template by Mathew Mays. I really like that it includes a space for personal reflection!

Rubrics

Rubrics are a wonderful way to give your students the power to assess their own work. As the teacher, you also grade the student’s work with the same rubric. Afterwards, you compare the two rubrics and then discuss the results with individual students. By using rubrics as a way for students to self-grade, you are allowing them the opportunity to think critically about their work. Regular use of self-graded rubrics will help your students learn to target their work toward your expectations. They might even have fun playing the teacher and grading their own work.

Google Docs 3 Level and 4 Level Rubric Template – Creating a rubric in Google Docs is simple. For instance, you can easily insert a table and then enter your criteria.

Google Drawing Picture Rubric Template – The best option for creating picture rubrics is Google Drawing.

Google Sheets Data Spreadsheet and Chart Rubric Template – Most rubrics I have seen are created in Google Sheets because it is easy to tabulates scores with this tool.

Grid and Scale Type Google Form Rubrics – Google Forms is great for general rubrics. Both grid and scale type rubrics can be created with Google Forms.

Google Classroom – Google is currently beta testing built-in rubrics in Google Classroom. Teachers will be able to create and attach a rubric to an assignment posted in Classroom. You can sign up to beta test it here.

Orange Slice Teacher Rubric Add-On – This Google Doc add-on allows teachers to easily and quickly make rubric selections and convert the Analysis or Holistic rubric into a percentage or points grade.

Goobric Extension – This Chrome extension enables flexible, efficient rubric-based grading and works with the Doctopus add-on for Google Sheets.

It’s a Win-Win

Using self-reported grades is a win-win in the classroom. Not only does it alleviate student anxiety, but it also makes students feel that they have control over their own evaluation and learning. In addition, when students grade their own work, they can see exactly where they are making mistakes. They obtain this feedback far sooner than if the teacher collects the work, grades it, and then returns it later. There’s no reason not to try it in your classroom.

Diana Benner

Diana specializes in leadership development and all things Google. She has served as an instructional technologist, instructional designer, and online learning specialist, supporting districts all over Texas and in state government. Diana earned a Masters of Education in Educational Technology from Texas State University- San Marcos. She also holds two bachelor’s degrees, one in Spanish and the other in Political Science, from Texas State.

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High Impact Strategy: Using Google and Self-Reported Grades

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Student self-reported grades is a powerful instructional strategy that all teachers should use. Combine it with Google tools and the learning skyrockets.

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Student-Self Assessment and Portfolio Template

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Student-Self Assessment and Portfolio Template