Grade the process, not the product. I am sticking to my guns on this one. The goal for teaching writing in secondary schools is to make students more effective communicators. Letter grades, a form of ordinal ranking does not necessarily accomplish this. Here is my hippy holistic rubric for multi genre papers:
20 pts. total
Thesis: Construction of thoughtful thesis statement with adequate support throughout the project.
5- clear and concise with support
3- central theme exists without support
0- missing component
Structure: organized project with all six components
5- All six support thesis or prologue
3- 3-5 components in support of thesis
0- missing component
Synthesis of information: research and obtaining materials as the pertain to the prologue
5- All repitends tie in with central theme
3- most repitends tie in with central theme
0- missing component
Creativity: Components of project support prologue and utilize imagination
5- unique thought expressed
0- missing component
As for the group teach presentation I was very pleased with every ones progress on day one. The activity was interesting and was enjoyed by all.
Day two had a discussion that lacked luster. I regret not being able to direct the class into a more positive direction before spiraling into the depths of rubric banter. I give John, Anthony and Brian an A and I give myself a B because what kind of arrogant bastard gives himself a perfect assessment.
love dan
6 comments:
Dan,
I thought your group did a great job. The activities were fun, interesting and engaging. I liked the way you all did everything as a panel. I think it is hard to do a group teach but you guys had a lesson that flowed. The rubric part was difficult only because we all lack the experience of writing good rubrics. It takes teachers many, many tries before developing a good rubric for the specific projects of their students. We had to do some similar activities in two other classes that I have had and it seemed to go about the same way. I don't think you guys had enough time left to properly cover how to build a rubric. I wasn't quite clear on some of the directions for completing it either. I do, however, think that you handled yourself well and you had a good classroom presence.
P.S. I don't like giving myself a grade either because if you give yourself a bad grade people will say you are either being too hard on yourself, don't have confidence or you are being falsely humble. If you give yourself a decent grade, you look like you think you know it all. I figure that I know what I learned about myself and my teaching from the process and hopefully I conveyed that in my blog and my meeting with Shannon.
I thought the methods applied for teaching this unit were stellar. You took an approach of hands on as opposed to individual lectures which made the chaos of creating a multi-genre paper in one sitting manageable. I especially appreciated the round robin each of your group members--including yourself--made to the differing cells of students. Your efforts to help us create a multigenre paper were well appreciated. I particularly recall you printing off poems about the famine without me requesting them. You showed interest in what I was undertaking and took the steps above and beyond to make information accessible to me.
The only issue I had was I couldn't see your style of teaching. All be it a wholly unique way of teaching--as a panel more than individually--I couldn't discern the voice of each member. On the other hand, your group had such cohesiveness with one another on the topic that it displayed to me a way of teaching with unity as well.
I would have been grateful to hear more from your lips; I believe that you are a truly inspirational writer and giving your voice more would have added to the experience.
However, since I had never constructed a multigenre paper, I found the first day an exploration in discovery. I learned what I consider a valuable technique in writing, something that I would love my future students to partake in.
Thank you for this experience. I did come away learning new ideas--especially when we addresses how to implement this technique in the classroom. It was an eye-opening initiation into the realm of the multigenre paper.
Your assessment of your group teach is quite accurate. The first day was a total rocker! I loved making my multi-genre so much that I wished I could've had more time to do it. Day two was mostly great - I really liked answering those nine questions and I liked how you guys were set up like a panel of experts. I only had trouble with creating the rubric - I wasn't really sure what I was supposed to do, or how to go about doing it. I've been on both sides of the table in learning that it's hard for students to particpate when they're confused about what's being asked of them. I also thought that it was hard for all of you four to participate equally on the second day, while it was no problem on the first. However, I really enjoyed everyone's relaxed style on the second day, and I think the panel facilitated that. I'm looking forward to your Indy Teach because you're such an easy-going dude with such a deep talent for creative writing.
Dan, I like your approach to many things in this class. You always come with alternate ways of doing things. This give the class a more holistice view and tells us that not all of our students will want to learn the same way as we do. For this, I appreciate your wonderful insight.
I think that you di very well on the group teach. It seemed like John was talking most of the time but he tends to have a powerful voice. I think that you did vry well when we were workshopping. You had many good ideas and thoughts for us to ponder. I never did multi-genre papers in high school and I just love this technique. I think it is wonderful for the student who hates traditional writing assignments. Thanks for opening my eyes to such a fun way to teach writing.
Dan,
Let me commend you, as many of your peers have already, on the fantastic job of you and your group. I recognize the difficulty of both working with other strong-minded individuals (team-teaching) and pulling off a week (or months) worth of classroom materials in a mere two days. You had a big challenge in teaching Romano, and you did well presenting the main points and features.
On the first day I enjoyed your welcoming style as the facilitator of the creative writing station. I thought it especially great to see you hopping around to learn everyone's topics and then surfing to help us find some great repetends. This demonstrated genuine interest and enthusiasm in your students and their work. As a student who tends to get overly focused on one task, I would have liked to hear you explain your station a bit more, so that I might have taken advantage of it earlier. Taking time to model and explain the structure of each station will be important as you begin to organize a writer's workshop for you own classroom.
During the panel presentation on Day 2, I felt you asked some great questions and tried in earnest to get us thinking and talking about the importance and problems with evaluation. As I've mentioned to the others, while creating a rubric was an important activity, I think our time would have been better spent digging in to the topic of the MG paper itself. I would have liked to here more of your perspective--you have a unique view to share as a creative writer. What are your thoughts on the benefits of this style of writing, as opposed to more traditional forms?
Overall, I'm pleased with the work your team was able to accomplish in the given time.
I look forward to hearing your individual voice and perspectives in your Indy teach.
Group Teach grade: A
Post a Comment