A significant amount of the reading you must do for this class is in the form of instructional essays and posts. These are longer by design. Think of them as transcribed lectures or chapters in a textbook, both of which would require more time than a simple set of directions or a photocopied handout. They would also all require a different kind of reading. The following post details exactly why this matters:
That is a thorough explanation of how we balance traditional reading with hypertextual reading, or reading that is online and dependent upon hyperlinks. It’s an important concept, and not just in this class; it’s how you will be expected to read in college and on the job.
Included with every instructional post is an opportunity to ask questions and get answers using that comment feature. It is a way of interacting with the teacher the same way you would check in on a social media account — an ongoing conversation that exists outside of the normal school day. That means that instruction exists outside of the school day. So does feedback.
The number of comments on any foundational post should be significant. Think of every question you ask in class, and imagine those questions written down where others can benefit from the answers. That expands the learning environment. It’s crucial for real collegiality. It even builds your writing ability, especially in the critical arena of commenting online.
As a catalyst for future use of this interactive resource, I am creating much shorter posts that center on one or two ideas related to grade abatement. That’s because the most recent update and overview to the grade abatement process is rather long:
You can — and definitely should — ask questions in the comment section of that post. You can jump to the comment section with the click of an icon, so it’s not as if you need to scroll through a few thousand words of instruction every time to ask questions, see answers, interact with the teacher, etc.; it’s true, however, that there is a visual barrier in a long post. Shorter is sometimes better, especially for discussions.
Ongoing Discussions
With that in mind, here are your ongoing discussion hubs. There are five. Each one concerns a different central idea in grade abatement, which really means that each one concerns a different central idea in the learning process. Scroll past the embedded posts for a brief rundown of each one.
Ongoing Discussion: Dunning-Kruger Effects and Imposter Syndromes
Here is an overview of what to expect in each discussion:
Ongoing Discussion: Dunning-Kruger Effects and Imposter Syndromes
After watching the two videos, think about your own experiences with the Dunning-Kruger effect and imposter syndrome. Ask questions about how we work on the skills and traits linked to these concepts. Start a discussion with me and your peers, online and in writing, about how accurately you are able to assess yourselves.
This is critical to all GAP scoring, because you need to be honest and accurate about yourself to avoid confusion — and, unfortunately, frustration.
Ongoing Discussion: Delayed Gratification
The second post for discussion is about delayed gratification. It, too, has a video to watch. Consider what the longer post on grade abatement argues about delayed and immediate gratification, watch the video on the marshmallow test, and then think about your own motivations. Start a discussion with me and your peers, online and in writing, about what it means to delay rewards or punishments, how that affects your learning, and what we can do to adjust.
This is critical to all GAP scoring, because you are not being rewarded or punished after every choice you make, and certainly not after every assignment you complete. You must delay gratification, sometimes for several weeks, with a clear sense of the ultimate payoff.
Ongoing Discussion: Grain through the Body of a Bird
This post quotes the first guide to grade abatement in order to start a conversation about the penalty, for lack of a better word, for not doing your job as a student. It’s a question of habits of mind: how you focus, how you maintain that focus, how you meet deadlines and requirements, and so on. Start a discussion with me and your peers, online and in writing, about what kind of you you are building.
This is critical to all GAP scoring, because you are always at the mercy of akrasia, a concept explored in this unit. We are almost certainly going to complete that unit every year, because conquering procrastination and distraction are the keys to future success.
Ongoing Discussion: Herd Immunity
The focus here is an essay on how to work together to protect yourselves from “low-information sepsis,” or the illness that comes from being uninformed about what’s going on. Read that essay, and then think about your relationship to your friends, peers, etc., in all your classes. Start a discussion with me and your peers, online and in writing, about this kind of collegiality — and what we can do to combat the plague of ignorance.
This is critical to all GAP scoring, because a lack of information is always at the heart of confusion, frustration, and disengagement. This is as information-rich an environment as you will ever see; everything is exhaustively documented, archived, explained, flipped, etc., so that the learning environment is almost 100% transparent.
Ongoing Discussion: Grade Abatement Profiles
Lastly, you have a discussion hub for the grade abatement profiles themselves. This is probably where you should spend most of your time when a GAP score is impending. The post is dedicated entirely to unpacking the profiles, their implicit and explicit criteria, and the skills and traits that connect everything we do.
As a conversation starter, that post embeds a handout with the profiles and scores on one side and the complete, categorized list of universal skills and traits on the other. This can be printed easily for annotations and discussion in class. Copies are available throughout the classroom, too.
This is critical to all GAP scoring, because it’s obviously critical to all GAP scoring. This is the assessment model. Your understanding of this one handout is more important to your success, now and in the future, than anything else.
A Quick Note on Why This Matters
These discussion hubs matter for all the reasons listed above, but there are two main motivators for you to get involved:
- Done properly, this is the fastest way for you to get feedback on the things that matter beyond this classroom.
- Done properly, this is one of the best ways to generate evidence of collegiality, critical thinking, close reading, etc., for the GAP scores themselves.
That’s if “done properly,” of course. Done properly, these online discussions provide us a ton of evidence of your learning while actually improving that learning.
Remember that this is an interstitial classroom. You always have time in class to ask questions and get feedback, but many of you are in classes with 30 other students. You can read about feedback here, and the “better form of feedback” we use does solve some of the problems of access and time. But the best solution is to take responsibility through these interstitial hubs. You have a way to get help from your teacher at any time of day. You can get feedback permanently and in writing. That helps everyone.
Go ask questions. Have conversations in the comments sections of those posts. Even if you’re doing it because you know it will look good, you’re still helping someone by asking questions. You’re still giving me an opportunity to explain something that will help others. Faking it until you make it in here is absolutely an option — scroll down to Section 10 of this essay, if you want proof.
You will get an announcement on Google Classroom that links directly to these ongoing discussions. They will be organized under an “Ongoing Discussion” category there. You should have a reason to revisit them many times throughout the year, so I would encourage you to bookmark them. When you have a question, go ask it; I’ll draw attention to it in class, especially at first, to encourage others to follow your lead.
In almost all other aspects of us students’ lives and classes, a developed structure is put into our days. What do you think the benefit to us working independently with one another without a strict class structure or authoritative figure is?
You have a calendar for the entire year that structures scoring and project-based work. Google Classroom structures your units around firm deadlines and strict requirements, at least in terms of what you write and when you submit it. Your class periods are required to be structured, either by me or you, so that you pursue and meet a specific goal. And you have posts like this to tell you repeatedly that all of this revolves around feedback from the expert — the teacher — delivered in a much more flexible and efficient manner: A Better Form of Feedback. The most recent example of that expert feedback is here: For AP Students: Sufficient vs. Insufficient Work. It’s not accurate to describe the course as lacking structure, and it’s even less accurate to describe it as lacking an authoritative voice.
When you feel as if there is no structure, you’ve missed something critical. I will help you find it. And if the question is what the benefits are to this sort of makerspace, I’ll direct you here: Sisyphean High: Testimonials. You don’t have to trust me that this works. You can read about it. What you have to trust is that I will help you figure out how to get it to work for you.
The ongoing discussion on delayed gratification is what interests me the most, and I what I can relate the most to. I agree that people, because of human nature, like to get what they want when they want it and would rather choose what is bets for them right now rather than what they want in the future. If someone was told that they needed to have 5 writing assignments done by Friday and if they don’t it will bring down their grade, would they get them done faster than if it was an “optional” assignment? Yes. But having a sense of the future is imprtant As a teacher, is it hard to teach that lesson? Is it easier because there’s nothing really to “grade?” Is it hard to be objective when someone is telling you what they, themselves think they have done to do their work with no gratification? How do you analyze someone’s ability to deal with delyaed gratification, and how do you work to improve that? I’ve never thought about grades as a gratification thing, and its interesting to see that now in our lives, that we have to wait for something that has always been just given to us for our entire school lives.
Copy and paste this into that specific post, please, and I’ll reply to it there. Your insights are worth discussing.
Good point grace! Please share the response with me.
Discussion Hubs don’t always seem to grab a person’s attention but the reasons why it matters so much is because with communication people get feedback and that can improve someone’s thinking to do a better work and an excellent way of critical thinking.
That’s exactly it. You have to train yourself to check in here for feedback and opportunities to discuss different ideas. Those opportunities will always be there in real life — online and in person — and the more you are curious enough to take advantage of them, the better off you’ll be.
The article “Grain Through of the Body of the Bird” presents some interesting points on the numerical association of grades and the direct relation to the motivation to do said assignments. Basically, if a student knows an assignment is not going to be graded, then they will be less likely to do it. However, once it is given a number to be entered into the gradebook, students will rush to complete it. This relates back to the Akrasia effect, as we know that doing the optional assignment will most likely benefit us, yet we choose to refrain from doing it. If we know that assignments will only make us better readers or writers, yet the Akrasia effect subconsciously limits this and drives humans to stray away from doing optional work, the question that must be asked is how does one gain the motivation and skills to be able to disregard the numerical value, and just do it anyways? Is there a specific way that someone can train their mind, or does it take just sheer willpower/
Move this comment over to the post (“Grain Through the Body of a Bird”), and I can reply to it. Just copy and paste it; I’ll come back and clean up this discussion hub comment section and close it afterward. Your points are good ones worth exploring, and your questions do have answers.
Am I considered a bad student if I take a break a couple times in class?
Not at all. The key is to advocate for that break. Ask for it, or schedule it ahead of time. The more self-aware you are, the better.
Usually I think of questions to ask while I’m writing my response so I put the questions in a paragraph as part of my response. Would you rather I copy and paste them into the comment section of the instructional post I’m responding to?
This idea of an ongoing discussion is important for a class like this. What do you think the benefit of sharing all our comments is? Do you think that by making students read and respond to others’ comments improves collaboration in class and online? This is one of the only classes where commenting has been so important.
My reasoning is that the world runs online now. People interact in bursts through Twitter, Facebook, and the comment sections of articles and other posts. You’ll benefit from practicing now if you have a class later that runs online, sure, but the real benefit is in the future.
It’s also critical to put our thinking in writing as often as possible. It freezes our thoughts and forces us to take more care with them. That is also valuable.
Do you believe that work online is extremely beneficial for us overall as students for the future? I don’t understand how it will prepare us for more then just college. In the post it says it’s to prepare for college as well as our future jobs. Aren’t job for the most part more hands on rather then over the internet? Personally I don’t see the benefits of online feedback besides if you have a question and you aren’t in class. I don’t believe it is going to be as beneficial as some teachers push for it to be.
It’s less about the online portion — although that is clearly the direction the world is moving in — and more about the skills and traits that you’ll need. In fact, I’m constantly telling you all that in-class feedback is the most important kind of feedback. Most of the online solutions are to help us navigate the system, which is why this post is so important for you all to keep reading: A Better Form of Feedback. Nothing is going to replace the face-to-face interaction’s efficacy, but that isn’t always available.
I’m making the connection between this course and the future in most instructional posts, so you’d get a clearer sense of it just by reading a lot. One of the articles that comes up is this one: Top 10 Skills You Need at Work That Have Nothing to Do with Your Job. Since that sources its claims, it covers a lot of ground.
You can also go here to see students and other stakeholders actively talking about the connections: Sisyphean High – Testimonials. I’d strongly recommend that. The more you buy into the longterm benefits, the earlier those benefits will find you.
For me and for many other students I have spoken with this is the first class with the new process of Grade abatement. All throughout our lives, we have always received specific scores on assignments and because of situations like that we have become accustomed to immediate gratification. On the post titled “Ongoing Discussion: Delayed Gratification,” there is a video attached showing the marshmallow test. ( handing kids a marshmallow and giving them the choice to eat it right now or wait to eat it and get a second one. The kids struggled to wait and in the end, most decided to eat the marshmallow right away.) It is just another example of how we all became dependent on immediate gratification. When we don’t receive feedback right away it seems to build up tension and vulnerability, making us feel as though we have done something wrong. Personally, I wonder what our work ethic and focus would be like if all of our courses were based on grade abatement, would we be better off or would it make us too nonchalant when it comes to assignments?
I think any nonchalance would fade as you begin to make the connection between each decision and that delayed grade. When feedback shifts — please keep reading this and working to implement it — you take a more active role in it. It becomes ongoing, which is different from being immediate.
What I’d like to talk about, though, is this: “When we don’t receive feedback right away it seems to build up tension and vulnerability, making us feel as though we have done something wrong.” That’s a great observation — heartbreaking, but insightful. It speaks to a culture of deficit-oriented feedback. You wait to find out what you did wrong, not what you did right. We have to change that.
I feel as though these discussion hubs can be extremely useful for students. Having a place where students can voice themselves and ask questions can be extremely engaging for students, especially when most of us can barely formulate a proper email.
That’s one of the chief reasons to push this kind of online writing: You need practice with professional online communication. This is your digital footprint.
This video (video about the kid with the marshmallow) is what happens to us on the daily but on a smaller scale. It seems trivial and easy to us to resist something for such a sort period of time, especially when the reward is something as stupid as marshmallow but replace the marshmallow with a good grade and the waiting with writing an essay and all of sudden it’s extremely applicable to our lives. Just goes to show how things generally don’t change as we get older it’s just different in more specific ways.
The idea of ongoing discussions is important. Going back often to revisit things that we utilize daily is very helpful.