 792 ~ Session 6 With my research completed, I have learned a lot about the purpose and best practices for using rubrics and exemplars to clarify and motivate learning progress. These tools, when implemented properly, put kids in the driver’s seat to understand, judge, and improve their work. I have been using rubrics pretty regularly for major formatives and all summative assessments for the last several years, but I using exemplar student/teacher models with less intention. The research I collected proved how helpful students find the tools, but also how some might opt for one tool over the other depending on where they are in the process. I now have a better sense of student needs and learning preferences. From what I found in this research, most students really do take advantage of rubrics and exemplars. They use rubrics to figure out the differences between score levels, and they like how exemplars give them a visual of what a successful assignment can actually look like. When used together, rubrics and exemplars help students better understand the goals, expectations, and outcomes of Language Arts summative assessments. Teachers need to create detailed rubrics, gather or make strong examples that show what the rubric is asking for, and then make time to teach students how to use these tools to reflect on their work throughout the unit—not just at the end. Looking ahead, I'd like to keep exploring this by expanding the research into other subject areas, seeing how other teachers use these tools, and collecting data across grade levels and demographics to spot any trends or best practices. What I discovered lines up with my research about how important meaningful feedback is during the learning process. The quality and clarity of rubrics and exemplars matter so much. They have to be well thought out and used intentionally. I plan to keep using and refining these tools in my own classroom. My goal is to help students better understand what’s expected of them, become more confident in their abilities, and be able to accurately reflect on their progress as they grow as learners. 
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 703 ~ Session 6 Extending Human Capacity via Transliteracy–just the title of our class sounds awe-inspiring. I wasn’t sure what to expect from this class ahead of time. I knew we would be creating a webpage and other display versions of our action research, but I didn’t realize all the work that would entail to use multiple modes of communication techniques. I enjoyed the creative aspect of this class that forced me to imagine my work visually. I believe this additional processing took my understanding of my project to a deeper level. Making the video and webpage was my favorite and the most difficult parts about this course. I am super detail oriented, so making all the itty-bitty details as perfect as possible was addicting, but also agonizing. I needed to let go of certain things, and accept outcomes that might not be perfect, but do the job satisfactorily. My biggest takeaway from this course is rethinking how I might approach how students display their learning in my class. I like the ideas of sketchnoting, offering more choices, and requiring visual components in final work. I definitely want to show students the new functions I learned using Adobe Express and try a video presentation assignment. All this learning connects to the TPACK model and how I will work more intentionally to integrate technology to enhance student learning. I’m excited to see where this evolution of my teaching toolkit takes me and my future students.   792 ~ Session 5 For my research, I decided to study the strategic use of rubrics paired with exemplars and how the combined approach impacts learning outcomes and self-assessment accuracy. I am always trying to learn and grow as an educator. The key is leading students down the path of mastering transferable, future-ready skills. And while I want to prepare my students for whatever lies ahead, I know that means I need to keep learning, too. I need to model taking risks in my instructional practices and be open to new ideas so that I’m future-ready as well. From what I found in this research, most students really do take advantage of rubrics and exemplars. They use rubrics to figure out the differences between score levels, and they like how exemplars give them a visual of what a successful assignment can actually look like. When used together, rubrics and exemplars help students better understand the goals, expectations, and outcomes of Language Arts summative assessments. Teachers need to create detailed rubrics, gather or make strong examples that show what the rubric is asking for, and then make time to teach students how to use these tools to reflect on their work throughout the unit—not just at the end. Looking ahead, I'd like to keep exploring this by expanding the research into other subject areas, seeing how other teachers use these tools, and collecting data across grade levels and demographics to spot any trends or best practices. The quality and clarity of rubrics and exemplars matter so much. They have to be well thought out and used intentionally. I plan to keep using and refining these tools in my own classroom. My goal is to help students better understand what’s expected of them, become more confident in their abilities, and be able to accurately reflect on their progress as they grow as learners.   703 ~ Session 5 I feel like the work I put in at the beginning of summer break to get ahead has served me well. I’m on track with all five assignments and now can focus on edits and adjustments as needed. I know myself and my need for summer relaxation mode, so I’ve made it a priority to get as much as I can done ahead of time so that I can enjoy this precious time off. In my classroom, I am always talking with kids about managing their life and avoiding procrastination. I expect (gently force?) students to write in our school planner to practice the skill of organization. I literally walk around and stamp kids planners to encourage this. I tell them that kids who write in and actually use their planners have better final grades than kids who don't. And, believe it or not, 8th graders love a good stamp. I set soft “deadlines” for different portions of a project so that everything is not all due at once. These formatively scored checkpoints provide reality checks for kids. These quick status checks also give me time to offer feedback as needed so that the final project is as best as it can be. I provide a lot of time in class for kids to work on assignments, so that they can get immediate support and ask questions along the way. It is not a perfect system because not every kid uses this time wisely, but the majority reflect on how this approach means they have no excuse to not get work done in a timely manner or claim that they didn’t know what to do. Setting aside time for whole group process checks allow my classes to reflect. They let me know what is working or not. For example, if my timing expectations are unreasonable they can voice concerns and suggest compromises. I want them to feel like they have a say in their education which usually increases engagement and personal responsibility with the process.   792 ~ Session 4 In my 8th-grade Language Arts classroom, I often wondered: Do my students actually know how well they’re doing? Too often, I can tell that learning feels like a mystery to them. They might complete an assignment because it is required, but they aren’t always sure of their level or work, what made it successful, or how to make it better next time. I knew that kind of self-reflection needs to be intentionally taught. This wonder planted the seed of an idea for the beginning of my action research project. I had used rubrics and exemplars before as self-assessment tools, but I knew I could be more purposeful in how I could make learning more visible and meaningful for kids. There was still a lot out there that I could learn about this topic, and I knew it could have a high impact on helping students be more metacognitive, not just about work in our class but out in the real world. So, I investigated how using rubrics and exemplars—both separately and together—affect how students reflect on their learning and improve their work. I hoped that if students better understand expectations and know what “good” looks like, then they would be able to evaluate themselves more accurately, and they just might become more confident, independent learners. This project has inspired me to deliberately incorporate these tools into each of my future units of study because, based on my research, one or both of the tools were perceived as useful and helped improve student understanding and outcomes. I am excited to see how the learning from this project will continue to impact and effect me, my colleagues, and my future students.   703 ~ Session 4 I am happy to be done with all the filming and editing portion of my capstone project journey. I don’t mind being in front of the camera, but it’s not my favorite task. I don’t feel very natural on film and later watching shots back I’m picking a part how I look or sound. But, if I need to make a video for a class or my students, even though it makes me feel slightly uncomfortable, I’ll do it. I don’t mind making mistakes or being awkward in front of my students because it shows my vulnerability and the fact that I’m okay with being me. Students know that if I can let my guard down, hopefully they can feel a bit safer taking learning risks in our class. As far as this class goes, I’m not feeling too far in the learning pit. I feel appropriately challenged, and I can see the end in sight. This whole master’s degree process has required me to step outside of my comfort zone being in a small Zoom class, embracing the unknown until I can figure it out, and, of course, staying open to learning.   792 ~ Session 3 Napa Valley Unified School District’s mission statement advocates learning experiences that challenge students, connect learning to the real world, and develop skills and competencies that will help students be successful and caring adults. This mission statement marginally references the essential 6 C’s to some degree by stating “career-ready skills,” but nothing too specific. On the Technology Department website, it is clear that there are systemwide platforms and digital tools in use. There appears to be support in place for families to receive additional training on how to use these tools and get affordable wifi services. There is a board advisory committee that focuses on Facilities and Technology. This committee met four times this past year, and looking at the agendas, the focus for our district has been on the facilities aspect, especially with the recent passage of the Measure B School Bond. The agendas include structure plans, but very little related to tech improvements this past school year. The board policy on technology (last updated in 2019) mentions 21st-century skills and technology literacy, and equitable access in its philosophy description multiple times. In other parts of the board policy related to student use (updated in 2024), it states that “effective use of technology is integral to the education and development of students” and encourages digital citizenship, including the proper use of AI. It was interesting to spend a little time investigating NVUSD’s stance on technology and 21st-century learning. There seems to be a promising foundation, but there is room for improvement especially around aligning more closely to the 6 C’s and forward-thinking, updated tech integration and equipment. Evolving, especially at the speed of tech innovations, is a difficult yet necessary step to ensure students acquire the future-ready skills promoted in our mission statement.   703 ~ Session 3 I spent time this past week getting ahead with my homework for both 703 & 792. Summer break has allowed me extra time to push forward. I have zero desire to procrastinate because I don’t want all assignments to get in the way of summer relaxation mode. I'm also missing Tuesday's class next week, so I want to stay on top of everything. I watched the sample capstone videos, and felt like with their inspiration, I knew what to do. I wanted to keep it simple, but engaging, and briefly summarize key points from my master’s journey. I hadn’t worked with video production in Adobe Express, but I had time to play around and I found it pretty user friendly. So far, I haven’t run into any major challenges. My son helped me with video taping and though the sound quality isn’t the same throughout the entire production piece and I have a few tiny edits that aren’t perfectly smooth throughout…I think it works and tells the story of my project well. I haven’t gotten final feedback on my updated logo and infographic, but I went ahead and used what I recently revised. I included all the B-footage and pictures that I had squirreled away at the end of the school year, and although I wish I had more, it balances out with the A-footage and audio voice over. I attached the video that I’ve made so far below. :)  792 ~ Session 3 One of the capstone websites that immediately caught my attention was created by Ann Dearborn, a colleague of mine at Unidos Middle School. When I saw her name and her logo featuring students diving into tech, I knew I had to explore it further. Her research focused on how technology tools can support early literacy development. Specifically, she studied the impact of reading blogs on student enthusiasm, engagement, and learning. Her intended audience seems to be elementary school teachers, along with instructional coaches and other educators on special assignment. Each page on her site is thoughtfully designed, with a clean, professional format and consistent tone. Ann communicates in a warm, helpful manner, sharing her new insights while drawing on years of experience. The result is a trustworthy and highly relevant resource. As I explored her website and reflected on my own, I realized that my capstone is more geared toward middle school Language Arts teachers. My topic centers around my content area, and I believe that’s the audience my work will best serve.   703 ~ Session 2 Logo making software is a powerful and creative process. I had some sketch ideas that tried to incorporate the "Rubrics + Exemplars" title symbolically. I tried the Logomaker and Logomakr websites using the AI features. The ones AI created were okay–something was always a little off. The icons didn’t quite match my vision or were too cluttered. However, I tried several versions using different search terms to see what AI might develop. See some of the options below:  I didn’t care for the results, but now I was starting to see that I wanted to simplify. My next step was to test out Adobe Express. I attempted the beta Logo Maker, but it didn’t pan out for me. The results weren’t translating well. For example, I really wanted a pencil in the design–but the AI generated image always included a pencil with two sharpened ends, and no eraser. It was a bit bizarre. Finally, I chose to use a logo template and edit to my liking. I discovered a pretty simple set-up and modified the icon to a basic thumbs up and arrow. I also had fun playing with the options to better match my infographic color and design features. I’m not sure I will stick with this logo, but for now, it was the best I could manufacture at this point. I'm curious to see how this creative logo design process will end up after feedback and reflection.  |
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8th Grade Language Arts Teacher Unidos Middle School ~ Napa, CA A Dual Immersion & Artful Learning Academy ArchivesCategoriesDiigo library |
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