Student-Centered Approaches to Assesment

Where does college composition fall in the shift away from outcome-based educational programs like No Child Left Behind and Race To The Top? Though these are programs that the federal government instilled in elementary, middle, and high schools, they directly affect student performance in college composition. The stringent requirements set forth by restrictive educational policies like Common Core and Standards of Learning (SOL) divert student attention and passion away from the act/experience of learning. These outcome-based programs emphasize product over process, elevate the significance of test scores (and the importance/necessity of high test scores), reduce student critical thinking skills, kill curiosity, and imply that grades are accurate representations of student intelligence and potential.

In the article entitled The Case Against Grades, Alfie Kohn details the damaging effects of assessment via grades on students. He claims that assessment creates a classroom environment conducive to cheating, promotes feelings of anxiety (even with "high-performing" students), "diminish[es] student interest," "create[s] a preference for the easiest possible task," and "tend[s] to reduce the quality of [student] thinking." Kohn also stresses that grading in itself is problematic because it forces students to rely on extrinsic motivation (external rewards or goals- e.g. a high grade on a paper) rather than intrinsic motivation (internal rewards or goals- e.g. enjoying writing or producing writing they are proud of). Assessment also interferes with student sense of achievement; essentially, grading causes students to be more concerned with how well they are performing rather than how well they are learning and applying the concepts taught in class. Finally, assessment is only effective insofar as the curriculum is effective; Kohn mentions that when teachers align their assessments with their curriculum or learning objectives, they tend to be inaccurate in that they simply measure the degree to which students master, but never question, a certain group of data, facts, and skill sets.

Finally, Kohn clarifies what a revised approach to assessment does not include: replacing letters or numbers with vague labels, informing students of specific expectations in advance, adding narrative/reflective analyses to every assignment, using "standards-based grading" methods (elaborate formulas, rubrics), or grading on a curve.

The likelihood of me getting a position any time soon at an institution that supports non-traditional approaches to student assessment is pretty slim. However, I thought of a few ways that I can negotiate between Kohn's wise points about the pitfalls of grading/assessment and the harsh reality that most institutions will require some form of numerical grading for quite some time.

• At the beginning of the semester, I assign the following freewrite prompt: What are your strengths in writing (in both the process of writing and your final papers)? What are your weaknesses in writing? What causes you the most anxiety in an English course? Then, I have them read over the expected outcomes for their section of composition, summarize them as best they can, and indicate both what assignments/expectations they are confident about (and why) and what assignments/expectations they are worried about (and why). I take these up and hold on to them until the end of the semester. I have the students answer the same questions on the back without looking at their original answers. These freewrites inform much of our conversation in end-of-semester conferences. Ultimately, this acts as an informal method of self-assessment and keeps the students aware of the outcomes and focused on their own development.
• I assign a lot of peer review and group work. These are structured activities. For example, the class before a peer-review session is spent compiling a checklist of higher-order concerns and lower-order concerns that peers should focus on when reading over their partner's paper. During group work, I make sure to visit each group and take note of who is participating and engaging in the activity (in case I need to make group adjustments). 
• During presentations, both individual and group, I have each student rate their own presentation and participation within the group, as well as their peers presentation quality and level of participation within the group. 
• I am considering adopting a portfolio approach into my composition class in which students are able to experiment with different genres. I am still working this method out. Kohn emphasizes the importance of the portfolio replacing the grade rather than yielding it, but I'm not sure how I can manage that in a conventional, assessment-driven institution. 
• If I am ever lucky enough to teach smaller sections, perhaps a specialized literature course, I would like to try having the students grade each other's participation.This was suggested recently in my British Romantix class and it seems like it's worth a try.

My Teaching Self: Me, with Slightly Less Profanity

The distinction between a "teaching self" and a plain old "self self" never really occurred to me. Having spent years in leadership positions throughout elementary, middle, and high school, being "in charge" of a group of learners felt natural; I never took the time to analyze how I transitioned from a standard junior in high school to Drum Major in the blink of an eye every weekday afternoon. What changed, what stayed the same, how were my personal relationships different when I was just Emma versus when I was Drum Major Emma Briscoe?

The notion of "teaching self" never became relevant to me until I started instructing at the college level. While I am older for a graduate student, many of my students aren't that far behind me in age. And I don't have a band director behind me giving unruly students the stink eye when they step out of line. I have to be both the source of wisdom AND the stink eye. And, unlike high school marching band, apparently it's frowned upon to dole out physical punishments (sit ups and push ups) to college students. Who knew?

Seriously though, I started to notice how uncomfortable I was at the front of the classroom, practically crouched behind my podium, during my first class, English 1106. And it wasn't even the day that I accidentally wore a GWAR shirt with a cigarette hole in it, ripped acid wash jeans, and combat boots. Though that day still resonates in the "NEVER, EVER AGAIN" compartment of my brain. I started to realize that there had to be some kind of distinction.

So I overcompensated. I wore vests. VESTS. I cracked down on attendance, grammar, and vocal participation. I became annoyingly attentive to detail and lapsed into almost condescending, patronizing conventional lectures where I was the guru and my students were my faithful followers. And it wasn't working.

The following approaches worked for me and got me away from vests and being the Miss Bitters of Virginia Tech's Graduate faculty. These approaches got me where I am today; still making mistakes, but owning them and using them to inform the version of myself that walks into the next class.

1)You don't have to be funny; the internet is funny.

Memes- use them. And if you can't find them, make them. Websites like Meme Generator are free to use and they reach students. Just make sure you're using the meme correctly! These work across disciplines. Just don't overload slides with memes or overuse them. I like to randomly put zingers into my lecture slides to catch attention, but they also give students something memorable to attach a certain concept or lesson to.

Videos- use these when appropriate. Don't just do a Youtube search on the subject matter you're teaching for a given day and assume that the video will work. And always find a way to push the students to engage with a video- tell them what they're looking for, encourage them to take notes, or have questions listed on the board while they watch the video.

Give yourself time to think deeply about certain lessons and the kinds of video content you can use. I used this video to teach my students how to write an effective personal narrative, how to transition fluidly between topics, and how to find a writing voice. I recently used Jim Gaffigan clips ("Camping" and "Holiday Traditions") to teach students how to connect two seemingly unrelated or distantly related topics and had them thoroughly analyze via group discussion how Gaffigan manages to move through such vastly different topics in such a short time. We talked about our favorite comedians, what makes them our favorite comedians, and how that ties into writing.

Just make sure to watch the videos all the way through and avoid anything that could offend or insult a student. Keep religion, culture, gender identity, sexual orientation, and class in mind when selecting video content. The last thing you want to do is alienate anyone (or make yourself look insensitive and unapproachable).


Jokes, Sarcasm, and Dry Humor- I am a twisted, twisted individual. I am able to see humor in just about everything. I was able to crack jokes at my own mother's funeral, something she would no doubt be proud of. Subsequently, I am able to crack jokes in almost every class I teach. Do not assume that dry humor and sarcasm is over the head of all of your students. Some, maybe only the extremely bright ones, will pick up on it. Don't allow sarcasm to confuse students during a lecture, but if you see an opportunity to crack an appropriate, subject-related joke, go for it. The worst thing you can do is crash and burn and look like a complete and total idiot in front of your students and then wind up curling up in the shower with all your clothes on and crying yourself to sleep that night.

It won't be that bad. Don't be afraid to try to be funny. Michael Cera made an entire career out of trying to be funny and failing. That could be you.

2)Explain grading and pedagogical practices to students. Allow them to weigh in on it.

Students won't spend group activities rolling their eyes and checking their newfangled cell phones if you explain to them why you're using the approach you're using. Well, some still will. But pulling back the veils of mystery that grey some learning processes motivates students to try harder and work harder toward the goal you made them aware of. Group work, individual work, out of class assignments- each of these should have an obvious purpose that is bolstered by your explanation of what makes the given work necessary or effective.

At the end of an activity or assignment, ask the students if they found it effective in specific terms. If they answer no, get specific feedback on why they found it lacking and what would make it better. Allow them a few minutes to write down their responses or create a poll on Scholar. Student feedback can be invaluable information.

Also, be sure to explain your grading process to students. For example, I use rubrics when I grade freshman composition papers. The rubrics have very specific expectations and they are loaded with detailed descriptions of what the student needs to demonstrate in order to successfully communicate an idea via academic essay. I go over the rubrics on Peer Review day and explain why each category lists the criteria it lists and why those criteria (for the most part) delineate successful writing. They are also posted on the class Scholar page and accessible during the drafting phase of each major assignment.

3)Ask students for feedback before the end of the semester and actually use that feedback. Demonstrate to them how their feedback affected your approach to teaching.

Roughly halfway through the semester, I have my students do a freewrite exercise in which they list the topics they are confident about, topics they need more work on (or were communicated in a confusing way), and what they liked and disliked about the class in terms of instruction. I then make diagrams of their answers and incorporate those diagrams into a quick discussion at the beginning of the next class. Feedback often indicates that students want more video content, would like to listen to music during writing exercises, and enjoy doing group work. I then tailor the remaining lectures as best I can to suit their desires. Letting students know that you care about what they want out of class makes them eager to be there. When you encounter something that you added or changed because of their feedback, vocalize it; say, "Hey guys, I know you enjoy Youtube videos, so I found this one on bad presentation skills."

4)Talk to them like adults.

This shouldn't need much explanation. I do have a bad habit of referring to my students as "my kids," but I make sure not to do it to their faces. Make a conscious effort to not patronize or condescend your students. Don't humiliate them because your teachers always humiliated you. They aren't kids, they're adults. They may not realize it yet, but they are. And speaking to them like children will only ensure a hostile environment wherein you are the babysitter and they are your charges.

5)Be malleable.

Be flexible and don't whine about having to be flexible. Understand that plans won't always go your way; group projects will fall apart, computer malfunctions will happen, participation will wane, attendance will ebb and flow. Be willing to structure lessons in different ways and be obliged to help students who are struggling. Above all of this, maintain your cool while being malleable. Allow your circumstances to shape your approach, not beat it to death. Don't sweat change; embrace it.

6)Be yourself, own yourself.

My favorite show is Downton Abbey. My dog, Mr. Bates, is named after the best character on that show. I love Medieval Literature. I hate driving in the snow. I'm a gym enthusiast who smokes half a pack a day. I am sometimes insecure about my ability to write. And guess what....my students know all of that. Because I am myself in class. Everyday is Truth Day (to a certain degree).

Correction: I am myself, I just try to curse less.

I don't have a ton of confidence. People think I do because I'm loud and I have a sometimes zany approach to fashion and hair, but I question myself constantly. My students do not know this. I appear as confident as possible; the last thing a room of students needs is some unsure, timid, quivering, self-loathing Professor Quirrell-esque graduate student haphazardly tripping through a lesson, baring their shattered sense of self all along the way. Students feed off of your confidence and experience positive growth, but they can also feed off your weaknesses and backslide.

Sarah E. Deel admits this in Finding My Teaching Voice when she admits that she is "uncool." She owns being uncool and makes it part of her teaching self.

If I had to describe my teaching self with a random list of adjectives, it would go something like: loud, energetic, (occasionally) profane, funny, approachable, and nerdy. The nerdiness can be off putting, but because I own it and proudly make it part of who I am, I am ultimately more approachable.

7)Make lectures personal
It is possible to make lectures personal without making them weird.

For example, I use student names in example sentences when teaching various grammar lessons. When students see their names on the lecture slides, they pay closer attention and the likelihood that they are a) paying attention and b) going to remember the lesson increases.

I also use an unorthodox method of taking attendance; rather than having students answer "present" or "here," I pose a question and their answer indicates their presence. I'll ask them who their celebrity crush is, what their favorite dessert is, where they'd rather be, who their most hated celebrity is, and the list goes on. I make sure to answer the question myself at the end; this tricks my human students into thinking that I, too, am human.

8)Let students know it's okay to be anxious or lack confidence

This is another point at which you can employ the freewrite approach. Ensure students that it is normal to feel anxious about learning a new subject (or a subject they dislike or have performed poorly in in the past) and have them jot down their fears/insecurities/doubts at the beginning of the semester. At the end, give them this paper back and have them write down what they conquered as well as what areas still need attention (encourage them to be specific). Making the subject approachable is equally as important as constructing an approachable teaching self.

9)See students as individuals

Avoid looking at your roster as a list of student numbers or a list of papers to grade. Instead, realize that each student comes from a unique cultural, political, spiritual, etc... background and that background shapes who they are in the classroom.

Take the time to learn your student's names. If my undergraduate Chemistry professor can do it in a class of almost 500 students, you can do it.

A great way of learning student names- make your first assignment a five to seven slide Power Point that has their name and a clear picture of their face. They can include slides that detail their hobbies, their family, their friends, their favorite books/movies/video games/instruments, their pets, etc...This assignment makes them aware that you want to know who they are as individuals and it also gives you extra details to associate with the name and face before you. Just make sure to emphasize that pictures must be appropriate (no gym shots, no beach vacation pictures, no illegal stuff).

You can be both respected at the library and praised effusively at the bar, but obsessing over your teaching self in those terms will only lead you down a road of constant and obsessive self revision. Be the teacher that both librarians and vagrant barflies can appreciate; be you.

Ninja Status- Stealth Learning through GBL

I can't remember not wanting to be a teacher.

I can't remember not having some weird awareness that I am capable of leading discussions and transferring information effectively.

From third grade to sixth grade, I taught kids my age, some older, how to read. From fourth grade on, was the leader of NEED, the National Energy Education Development team; we took turns instructing classes once a week on conservation, recycling, and renewable resources. This pattern continued through high school and brought me here, to a GTA position at Virginia Tech where I instruct English 1105 and 1106.

Through all these years, one habit remained constant; it wasn't homework.

I was six years old when my Dad brought our first console home: the glorious original Nintendo, complete with painfully rectangular controllers and that one weird cable you had to practically hammer into the back of the TV. We all played together and spent countless hours solving puzzles, mapping out dungeons, finding secret quests, strategically destroying secret bosses; we spent hours collaborating with each other to reach a goal. And when we met that goal, we moved on to the next game and faced a completely new set of challenges. 21 years later, I'm still gaming as hard as graduate school allows (which, admittedly, isn't very much these days).

Though I've listened attentively to numerous conference presentations demonstrating game based learning methods with various dramatic productions, I've never been able to fully buy into the idea of using games to teach students. The closest I've come to it in my own career (all three whopping semesters of it) is allowing my students to rhetorically analyze speeches from games and constructing debates and argumentative essay prompts around popular game- related topics; in both of these instances, the learning isn't game based. The game is an artifact, like some dusty old tome from Special Collections. It wasn't until I watched Digital Media- New Learners of the 21st Century that I actually understood how it was possible to combine these two seemingly distinct facets of my life. More importantly, this documentary lead me to have one of those famous "Aha!" lightbulb moments; roughly twelve minutes in,  Al Doyle, GBL advocate and educator, calls Game Based Learning "stealth learning" and offers that the students are "still learning, but they're having fun doing it." Students learn willingly when the lessons aren't being shoved down their throats via traditional lecture; they can learn without even realizing they're learning. They can learn without the negative connotations that they have likely attached to that verb since college started (or maybe even before).

I wanted to use this space to share a few different resources for Game-Based Learning that I have tried or am considering trying in my classroom.

1) Grammar Jeopardy!
    I know that doesn't sound exciting. Even with the exclamation point that *I* added for fun. It may not be much to look at, but you'd be surprised at the level of engagement that occurs with this kind of grammar lesson. Granted, it's more of an overall review approach after a unit on grammar (or perhaps even an entire semester of mini grammar labs), but you can make custom versions of this game for the specific lesson. Sure, the competition between teams plays a role in the level of student engagement and enthusiasm, but to see students excited to answer a grammar question, disappointed when they get it wrong (which indicates that they care), and asking why (yes! please ask me why!) they got it wrong so they can get it right next time--indescribable.
    I've used this in all of the classes I've taught so far and I've noticed considerable sentence-level grammatical, mechanical, and syntactical improvements. The greatest side effect- they don't shiver and curl up in the fetal position when they hear the word "grammar" anymore. This may seem insignificant, but grammar anxiety (think "the opposite of math anxiety") inhibits student writing more than anything else (except possibly procrastination). When they shed their anxiety and fear of grammar, their writing improves drastically.
     I think it would be easy to customize something like this for a STEM class. Again, it would likely function as a fun, engaging review activity.

2) MinecraftEdu
     Minecraft, a sandbox construction game, came out in 2011 and by last fall, it was the bestselling PC game of all time. At my secondary job, I've sold this game to kids as young as three and adults as old as eighty- eight. I've never seen a game foster creativity, exploration, collaboration, critical thinking and problem solving like this one. The link provided above, however, is not a link to the standard PC version of the game. MinecraftEdu is officially supported by Mojang, the developer behind Minecraft, and offers instructors in all disciplines a "school ready remix" of the game that is "made by teachers and fine tuned for the classroom." They also offer the "Library of Lesson Worlds": a collection of sample lessons and activities that real instructors used across disciplines.

3) Beta The Game & Hack 'n Slash
     I found these a few months ago while compiling ideas for an online Arthurian Literature course and fell in love with the idea. This would take a little more customizing for me to use, but computer science and any discipline the requires students to learn coding languages could benefit from trying this approach.
     Beta the Game is a platformer that requires the player to input code in a custom built language (codePOP) to alter the environment. Hack 'n Slash is similar, but it has a Legend of Zelda feel to it. Tanner Higgin, Senior Manager of Education Content at Common Sense Media, offers that these "games...represent and expose a key quality of play that’s often lost in stuffy, overly-scaffolded learning games — subversion. While code might be all about rules and procedure, play isn’t. Games are the things that harness play through rules, but play — and players — can never quite be tamed. Play is too big and too slippery, ever redefining itself and evolving. Yet code — and in some sense games — are defined by stability. How can the two be reconciled? By letting games be games — finicky and structured — and players be players — risky and inventive. This offers an appealing counterpoint to the dominant and perhaps tired code literacy rhetoric: stop ‘learning to code’ and start messing with it."
     My idea is a simpler version of this game (that doesn't require any scary coding or being able to reconcile that I live in a world where math exists) that requires players to enter certain text from Arthurian tales, re-enact quests and recite lines from legends and poems to progress through the game. Students would have required reading that would equip them with the necessary knowledge to move to the next level of the game until that certain story was complete. Even if this was a really simplistic interactive fiction game, I think it would be more engaging than simply rehashing the high points of the plot via Power Point and conventional lecture.

I know that I have a long way to go until I'm able to offer an Arthurian Literature GBL course. So, for now, I'm searching for new ways to employ Game-Based Learning in freshman composition courses. While it may be easier to make a dizzying Prezi and transfer information from the podium, thinking critically about how to change composition instruction is the only promising way to address major shortcomings in our field. GBL could transform required English courses into fun, exciting, engaging courses that don't feel like work.

Mindfulness: Keeping a Teaching Journal

Mindfulness is exactly what it sounds like: a state of being aware or conscious. Mindlessness, then, refers to a state of being unaware or distracted. I've noticed myself slipping more and more into the latter state as graduate school presses on. Thanks to multi-tasking and a to-do list that could choke an elephant, I am the person that mindlessly puts the car keys in the freezer or mixes up the concepts of mirrors and windows. While finding my car keys in the freezer can be somewhat humorous (depending on how late I am to class because of lost car keys), mental block, the state of being unaware of my present surroundings, can negatively affect my development as a teacher.

In order to approach teaching mindfully, I regularly maintain a teaching journal. When class is over for the day, I allow myself fifteen minutes to write down how I planned my lesson, what I had to change about my plan, what problems arose, how I fixed those problems, what unexpected things occurred, how the students reacted to certain examples/lectures/group activities/assignments, ways I could have handled something differently, and anything else that comes to mind.

I randomly read over these entries throughout the semester, but I make time to re-read the entire journal when I am constructing a new syllabus or reconfiguring an old one. Keeping a current teaching journal also makes me more aware of the quality and efficacy of my teaching strategies and my in-class persona. Essentially, because I'm constantly critically reflecting and analyzing my pedagogical approaches via written journal, I remain in this mindful mode and make a greater effort at improving my teaching methods.

Advice for teaching journals can be found at the following sources:

Linda Shalaway- Keep a Teaching Journal
Julie Platt- Keeping a Teaching Journal
Improving Your Teaching Practice Through Reflective Journal Writing