For those of you just now joining the conversation: I’m having students build a portfolio this year. It will make up 70% of their grade. I talked about the content-heavy portion of the portfolio here. Up next in the portfolio journey is the student self-evaluation section, which is what I want to talk about today.
The basis of this section of the portfolio comes from Cindy Reagan‘s blog here and listening to her Global Math Department webinar on reflection in math class. I highly recommend the talk. It is an amazing hour and overmuch worth your time. Listening to her GMD talk was the push I needed to get moving on this idea for a portfolio.
Here is the prompt I’ve given students in regards to the self evaluation portion of their portfolio:
Throughout the school year you will be asked to reflect on your learning in this section of your journal. Reflection is an important part of the learning process and I wanted to make sure that we structure time this year to check in on your learning and how you are feeling about the class. There will be two kinds of prompts for this reflection journal:
Weekly Reflection Prompt
We will complete on Tuesdays after you take your Standards Based Grading Assessment.
Think back about all of the math that you have experienced this week.
1. What is one problem or moment from our in-class discussions or practice that you are proud of? Tell me a little bit about why.
2. What is one problem or moment from our in-class discussions of practice that you are still feeling unsure about? Tell me a little bit more about the problem you are having. Feel free to upload a photo of the work you’ve done so far.
3. Optional: How are you feeling this week? Is there anything that you’d like to tell me that would help me better support you right now? Are there any comments or suggestions you’d like to give me about class? Remember, I’m new at this online thing too, so constructive feedback is helpful and welcome!
Monthly Self-Evaluation Prompt
We will complete on the last Tuesday of each month (Sept. 29, Oct. 27, Nov 17) in place of your weekly submission.
I’d like for you to take a few moments and reflect on your learning from the past month, then take a look at this rubric and give yourself a grade on the components listed. I’ll remind you that this is self-assessment, I am not grading it, but I think it is a good conversation starter for us. The grades/percentages listed are just to help you navigate the rubric.
| Cohort Group Contributions | |||
| A (100-90%) | B (89-80%) | C (79-70%) | D (69-60%) |
| You question your own work and the work of others. You practice active listening and are respectful of the ideas, comments and solutions of others. | Your questions are usually to clarify your own understanding of a concept. When confused, you might lose the ability to listen to others. | More often than not you are not listening and/or are not engaging in discussion with your classmates or teacher. You largely rely on other to make connections for you. | You rarely engage in class discussion in a productive way. |
| Learning Participation | |||
| A (100-90%) | B (89-80%) | C (79-70%) | D (69-60%) |
| You consistently watch the HW Video lessons prior to class and come to class prepared with questions or thoughts. Your portfolio entries are turned in on time and are complete. | In general, you watch the HW Video lessons prior to class. You sometimes come to class prepared with questions or thoughts. Most of your portfolio entries are turned in on time and they are complete. | You often are not watching the HW video lessons prior to class and/or frequently come to class not prepared with questions or thoughts. Your portfolio submissions are often turned in late and/or are incomplete. | You are not watching the HW video lesson prior to class and/or you do not come to class prepared with questions or thoughts. You are not completing portfolio submissions. |
| Capstone Journaling | |||
| A (100-90%) | B (89-80%) | C (79-70%) | D (69-60%) |
| Your capstone journal entries are well organized and contain accurate math. You show your revisions/expansions during the problem-solving process and are engaging in reflection of your learning. | Your capstone journal entries give a clear approach for solving the problem but sometimes you forget to write the entire mathematical process or have difficulty communicating your math. Your revisions/expansions while problem-solving are somewhat incomplete and/or you are not consistently engaging in reflection of your learning. | Your capstone journal entries are poorly organized and/or offer incomplete or inaccurate mathematical processes. More often than not you have difficulty communicating your math. Your revisions/expansions while problem-solving are largely incomplete and you are not thoughtfully engaging in reflection of your learning. | Your capstone journal entries are incomplete and do not communicate your mathematical thinking. You do not offer any revisions/expansions on your problem-solving and do not provide any reflection on your learning. |
| Advocacy | |||
| A (100-90%) | B (89-80%) | C (79-70%) | D (69-60%) |
| You are an active advocate for your learning and often advocate on behalf of your peers. | You are an advocate for your own personal learning. You have difficulty helping others with their learning but you make an effort to aid your peers in their understanding. | You find yourself resistant to advocating for your own personal learning and tend to find excuses for not reaching out for help. You do not actively assist your peers in their understanding. | You do not engage in any advocacy for your learning or for the learning of your peers. |
Once you have given yourself a score on the above rubric, I’d like to hear your thoughts on the following prompts:
1. The area I’ve experiences the most growth is…
2. The area that I feel I am the weakest is…because…
3. My plan for improving in my area of weakness is…
4. What I want Mrs. White to know right now…
Right now I plan to grade these on completion, but I may change my mind on that. I really just want these to work as check ins with students and as launch points for remediation conversations. I don’t want a repeat of Spring 2020 when I had kids spiraling and didn’t have enough checkpoints with them to aid in a timely fashion.
Mathing Out Loud 