From “The Enigma of Amigara Fault”
Q1 GAP Reports
For all students, the protocol of assigning a GAP score is the same:
[pdfjs-viewer url=”http%3A%2F%2Fsisypheanhigh.com%2Fmalachite%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2F2016%2F11%2FGAPProtocolv3.1.pdf” viewer_width=100% viewer_height=1360px fullscreen=true download=true print=true]
The process, however, should be individualized. Grade abatement stresses individual learning, and it would undermine our philosophy to treat the end of each quarter as a high-stakes event. It would turn us back toward the warping pressure of the old model of learning, and none of us — teacher absolutely included — benefits from the wearying push through 140 essays, reports, or conferences.
Instead, you are required only to read the embedded document above (here is the up-to-date Google version), and then to complete this Google Form:
A copy of it has been assigned to you through Google Classroom, which is where you can also submit further evidence, if that helps. Note, however, that how you submit evidence — if you submit evidence — is up to you. The next steps of this process are, to a significant extent, yours to take.
Ask questions in the usual places, and take this opportunity to teach each other what you learn. Fight the predictable, learned helplessness that comes with a difficult task. Focus on the universal feedback in this essay:
The end of a quarter should be a validation and a celebration, and then it should pass quickly. If you have struggled, it should be a moment of reflection that spurs greater effort and focus — and then it should pass quickly.
One more note: Included with this assignment is an evidentiary matrix of sorts. Here is an embedded image of it:
I realized far too late that giving students this kind of document immediately overrides everything else. You rush to fill it in, to “complete” it, and neglect the context. But at the bottom of the printed and Google versions of this thing, it tells you how it should be used:
This is not a mathematical chart, which you might guess from the emojis creeping across the top. (I blame/thank former students for that contribution.) It can’t be used to generate a GAP score. Instead, it is designed to help you to think about the quantity, quality, and category of what you’ve done in class. You might mark more than one circle in each row, for instance, depending on the kind of evidence you’ve generated.
The guide is important. The many branching links in that guide are important. What we’ve done for the past quarter is important. This emoji-laden handout is about as ancillary as it gets.