English Teachers

NCTE 2009 conference handouts and PP's.

visit the NCTE convention sessions virtually--here's presentation handouts and PP's

positive features of blogging

[DOC] Instructions for Classroom Dynamic Criteria Mapping

Instructions for Classroom Dynamic Criteria Mapping

© 2005 Bob Broad



Dynamic Criteria Mapping (DCM) is a process by which you and your students can discover what you, the instructor, value in student work. DCM yields a more empirically grounded, more detailed, and more useful account of your values than traditional rubrics can. The process is a streamlined form of grounded theory (as summarized by Strauss and Corbin in Basics of Qualitative Research, Sage 1998).



Here is a brief set of instructions by which you can try classroom DCM.



Read What We Really Value: Beyond Rubrics in Teaching and Assessing Writing by Bob Broad (Utah State University Press, 2003). The book offers historical and theoretical background on DCM, a detailed example of DCM in action, and more specific instructions on how to undertake the process at both the classroom and programmatic levels.

Collect data. Once you have handed back to your students two or three substantial sets of responses to their work, ask your students to gather together those responses and bring them to class on the appointed day. Ask students to prepare by noting specific comments you made, in response to specific aspects of their work, that show something(s) you value. Note: you show what you value both in those qualities whose presence you praise and in those qualities whose absence you lament.

On the appointed day, ask students to work together to generate a long list of qualities, features, or elements of their work that you have shown you value. Ask for illustrations or quotations that demonstrate each value they identify. Ask for passages or excerpts from their work that demonstrate those values.

Analyze the data. After you and your students have created a large "pile" of evaluative statements and indicators, it is time to analyze the data to create a representation ("map") of your values. The key is not to rush this

The problem with 40 students is that there is no way to read (much less comment upon) every post if every student is posting every week. I am toying then with a rotation model (inspired by Randy Bass), in which students are divided into five groups of eight students, cycling through these five roles:

* Role 1 - Students are "first readers," posting initial questions and insights about the reading to the class blog by Monday morning
* Role 2 - Students are "respondents," building upon, disagreeing with, or clarifying the first readers' posts by class time on Tuesday
* Role 3 - Students are "synthesizers," mediating and synthesizing the dialogue between first readers and respondents by Thursday
* Role 4 - Students are responsible for the week's class notes (see next section on Wikis)
* Role 5 - Students have this week "off" in terms of blogging and the wiki

I like the rotation model because each group of students is reading for and reacting to something different. The shifting positionality affords them greater traction, offers greater variety, and guarantees a dialogue without comments from myself.

research on the value of a social networking environmental-action tool on Facebook on civic engagement

Lots of ideas, articles, stories, resources. All kids professional development on writing.

tools for online publishing

literature summaries

Solid handout on... "Avoiding Plagiarism and Properly Documenting Sources.doc"

Production of Romeo & Juliet at the Globe Theater

Create your own radio broadcast show for free on BlogTalkRadio

standards for assessment of reading and writing that include a focus on digital literacies

online users vote on their opinions on current issues or questions

Larry Ferlazzo's list of some outstanding ways to give students authentic audiences for writing.

sites for writing for "authentic audiences"

In honor of the 250th anniversary of Robert Burns' birth, some of Scotland's biggest names have recorded 254 (and counting) of Robert Burns' works.

Thanks for this. I would have missed it.

Police blotter for Shakespeare (includes R&J, Hamlet, Macbeth, MND, Winter's Tale, The Tempest, King Lear, Othello).

Famous authors narrate the funny pages.

Instead of discussion forum, talkgroups