About the Author Touro Spring Graduation 2025
Some background: I have been teaching middle school Language Arts for 22 years. I started my career opening Harvest Middle School and worked there for 19 years before the school was closed due to declining enrollment in our town of Napa. The school was known for its dual-immersion Spanish program, AVID, and International Baccalaureate Program. I served as the IB Coordinator for 8 years and through the work and learning involved in the role, I completely shifted and transformed my approach to teaching. I went from being a very traditional educator to one who began to look at learning through inquiry, concepts, transferable skills, interdisciplinary teaching, global connections, and formative/summative assessments using rubric aligned feedback. Being an IB educator completely changed my pedagogy.
When Harvest closed, I chose to work at another school just opening its doors--Unidos Middle School. I was attracted to this school because it offers the dual immersion program, AVID school-wide, and integrates artful learning in all subject areas. The school also promotes assessment practices similar to what IB offered. The school aligns with my main interests and methods as an educator. Which brings me to my questions involving determining a "passion question." I tossed out ideas at our first class regarding newer aspects of my overhauled pedagogical shift like assessment practices tied to rubrics or authentic learning experiences. For my research, I finally decided to study the strategic use of rubrics paired with exemplars and how the combined approach impacts learning outcomes and self-assessment accuracy. |
Putting Kids in the Driver's Seat
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Reflections on My Journey
I am always trying to learn and grow as an educator. I am the type of teacher who is not afraid to dip my toes and see if a new digital tool will support the learning outcomes, but if some of my more pen-to-paper methods work just as well, I may choose that route.
Why? Sometimes I feel that students have a bit of technology overload in the course of their middle school day. So, I always try to mix things up and add a little old school to new school methods so that kids get the balance of both worlds. This means I may have them create a concept map on poster paper with their team, or maybe within a different unit, they use Canva or Google Drawing. Or, I may have them start class answering grammar questions on the Freerice website one day and the next one begins with a team discussion on “would you rather” topics using class vocabulary terms. I think either type of approach can be valid. They both teach skills that get students ready for the future in relationship to collaborating or critical thinking. I think it is the balance of methods that is key to 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–since, as Darling Hammond states, “..we need to keep in mind that we are "educating kids for a future that we are not yet familiar with."
Lasting Learning from the Innovative Learning Program
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 Lipnevich’s work about how important meaningful feedback is during the learning process. She pointed out that feedback can vary a lot from teacher to teacher or based on how students learn best. That’s why 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.
I am always trying to learn and grow as an educator. I am the type of teacher who is not afraid to dip my toes and see if a new digital tool will support the learning outcomes, but if some of my more pen-to-paper methods work just as well, I may choose that route.
Why? Sometimes I feel that students have a bit of technology overload in the course of their middle school day. So, I always try to mix things up and add a little old school to new school methods so that kids get the balance of both worlds. This means I may have them create a concept map on poster paper with their team, or maybe within a different unit, they use Canva or Google Drawing. Or, I may have them start class answering grammar questions on the Freerice website one day and the next one begins with a team discussion on “would you rather” topics using class vocabulary terms. I think either type of approach can be valid. They both teach skills that get students ready for the future in relationship to collaborating or critical thinking. I think it is the balance of methods that is key to 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–since, as Darling Hammond states, “..we need to keep in mind that we are "educating kids for a future that we are not yet familiar with."
Lasting Learning from the Innovative Learning Program
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 Lipnevich’s work about how important meaningful feedback is during the learning process. She pointed out that feedback can vary a lot from teacher to teacher or based on how students learn best. That’s why 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.