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:
Well, Why Read?
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:
The GAP Process
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
Ongoing Discussion: Delayed Gratification
Ongoing Discussion: Grain through the Body of a Bird
Ongoing Discussion: Herd Immunity
Ongoing Discussion: Grade Abatement Profiles
Here is an overview of what to expect in each discussion:
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
