Written by Christine Witcher A great assignment is open-ended. A closed-ended question is a closed door. Open-ended assignments are an invitation to think critically and creatively about a topic. There is a time and place in instruction and assessment for closed-ended questions - we need to know what our students can recall and understand before we know they're ready to move on to higher-order tasks. But the great assignments, the one's we share with our colleagues and the ones that grow our students confidence, are open-ended. A great criteria is singular, challenging, and a bit subjective. As teachers, we are subject area experts. One of our tasks is to help our students become experts themselves. This means that we must clearly define for them what excellent work looks like. We do this with our assignment criteria. By distilling our assignments down to smaller, bite-sized tasks, we can bring the focus in on one, single criteria. Our instruction and feedback, then, can elevate student work and allow for students to channel their effort into mastering one skill at a time. It's the classic argument of depth over breadth.
When we add a step of formative feedback into the work process, we allow ourselves the opportunity to increase the challenge level of the criteria. We can also make the criteria more subjective, which moves students farther down the path towards being subject-area experts.
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Written by Christine Witcher When a student creates an account they will be asked to choose one of three options:
When a student selects I am a student under the age of 18, they will be required to enter a Consent Code before registering for the site. To generate a consent code for a student:
The consent code will be good for 2 hours. By sharing the consent code you are acting in loco parentis to give consent for your students to register for the site. You should read our Privacy Policy, Terms of Use, and COPPA Notice before doing so. Written by Christine Witcher When a student walks up to a lab bench and turns on a hotplate, they (and their families) are trusting that I have provided them with the information and equipment necessary to stay safe as they learn. As their teacher, I have what's called a Duty of Care. This includes knowing the possible risks, weighing those risks against the educational benefits of the activity, and providing students with reasonable protections, like wearing goggles and lab aprons. I take this duty very seriously, even writing it into each lesson plan. The physical risks associated with lab work are no greater than the security risks associated with using connected technology. So why aren't we all taking cybersecurity just as seriously? There are laws regulating how student information can be collected, stored, and used. Designed by teachers and guided by research, Flash Feedback provides a rapid peer review session for both text- and image-based assignments. Each peer review session is structured around a single criteria and scaffolds the review process to support high-quality feedback between students. We're looking for innovative educators interested in exploring how rapid formative feedback can transform learning. As a beta testers, we'll ask you to use the product in your own classroom and keep us updated via email of both the successes and challenges that you experience. In exchange, we're excited to offer a full year of free access following the close of beta testing.
Request an invite at www.flash-feedback.com or by emailing us at [email protected] Written by Christine Witcher Flash Summary 1. Set up an assignment, choose a single criteria 2. Enroll your students and have them upload work samples 3. Monitor the review session 4. Intervene with students who need help First you'll decide when to run a review session. I find that it works best early in the work process, generally around a first draft or sometimes earlier. I also prefer keeping the work samples to a paragraph or so. Then, you'll set up your assignment and decide on a feedback criteria like, This work sample includes sufficient detail to fully support the claim or This work sample presents an algebraic proof that is both complete and elegant. Notice that both of these criteria are a bit subjective and are challenging enough that students will have to think critically to make an informed judgement.
Once your students have uploaded their anonymous worksample, you'll be able to: |
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