Personalized Learning Series: Part 4

I am creating this post purely to avoid scoring my AP Literature mock exams. (I'm sure you can relate).

I don't know what it is about AP Literature versus AP Language, but I struggle so much more trying to wrap my head around the content. The abstraction of literature is something that has never truly enticed me, so navigating that prep is a challenge to say the least. (More on that eventually...)

For today's part of the series, I wanted to talk about the concept of the "I Check." In my past post, I talked about the "I Learn" which is the first stage in the personalized process. In that stage, students explore the content and provide evidence of their learning.
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The "I Check" is my assessment. In a truly personalized format, students would design all their performance tasks, but because we have that big test looming at the end of the year, I need something to make sure they invest some time with test-specific content. Therefore, that is how I design my "I Check" step. 


​To summarize, the "I Check" stage is where I hit them with multiple choice and test prep. (In addition to the other test prep... I'm still trying to shake my tethers here).

Another way to think about the "I Check" is as the traditional unit test. When I learned this format from one of our awesome instructional coaches (#HiJosh!), we talked about how traditionally units end with the unit test or the teacher designed assessment. However, this should really just be a checkpoint for feedback. Then, students should go on to demonstrate proficiency in an authentic way (or the "I Show").

​Designing an "I Check"

I know people have their beef with College Board, particularly this year, but I'm not one of them. Instead, I am deeply grateful for the amount of materials they have created in that last few years as it makes assessment development hella easy. (If you haven't - check out AP Classroom immediately).

That is usually where I start when I sit down to design an "I Check." The ability to sort the question bank by skills is hugely helpful. Most of my "I Check" performance tasks are designed after the questions from this bank. However, the one below is something of my own design (from when I was making things harder for myself... as usual). 

The main image below is a screenshot from my Schoology page - the basic overview. Below that I have the prompt students use as well as the handout I created for the task itself.
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​Prompt: 

Student Handout:

​Mastery

For our design, we require that students reach proficiency with their "I Check." That means they have to earn 91% on the work before they can move on. Because we use standards rubrics, they are just blank (otherwise I would share). That said, my biggest indicator of proficiency is that they can identify multiple reasons for why this essay would get the sophistication point and explain their annotation in the margins. 

In the latter part of the assessment, they have to demonstrate style by composing a Question 3 FRQ. To achieve proficiency at this stage, I like to say they need "moments" of sophisticated writing. In other words, there are shining moments in the writing that make you say, "Well done."

Therefore, if they can achieve all of the bullet points, I consider it Mastery, or 100%. The sophistication point is elusive, so we reward "moments" and strive towards consistency.

​If that makes sense...

​Feedback

Now to talk grading - because if we are being honest, that is the first and sometimes only concern that English teachers have. 

One of the biggest fears people have with personalizing learning is that students are going to be handing things in at all different times. While on the surface, this might seem frustrating or hard to organize, I feel it makes my feedback better. I score without the fatigue of reading 50 of a single assignment. Instead, I look at a variety of things all the time.

Also, and this is HUGE, I grade RIGHT. IN. CLASS. That means, I try to avoid grading outside of class. Why? Because if the student is in the room when I am scoring I can either A) score with them sitting beside me or B) pose questions to clarify meaning and help them correct. 

I promise you. Personalizing - though admittedly a lot of work upfront - is a dream once you get going. These conversations about feedback (instead of notes on a paper) have been so much more impactful in getting students moving in the right direction.

In fact... My goal next year is to grade EVERYthing in class, all the time. If it's worth doing, it's worth taking the time to sit with the kids and score. Fortunately, using a personalized flexible format, gives me the time to make that happen!

Upcoming Posts

• Guiding Students Through Performance Task Design ("I Show")
• Teaching Reflection (...if I even figure it out).

(And if you are wondering, I did finish those mock exams... Until I got the makeup ones today).