My teaching philosophy is that competence in an academic subject, such as in language 'acquisition' and literacy development--cannot be fairly measured using standardized testing methods. I believe competence in a specific language and literacy skill can be more fairly measured through sustainable practice and repeated experience, and more importantly by asking the learner to pause and reflect on their strengths and limitations in a specific area of learning. I believe it takes a lifetime to master any skill, therefore, the focus in my class will not be on acquiring 'points'--the focus in my class will be on students' self-awareness to demonstrate their learning, and thus, in my class you will be formally assessed using portfolio assessment where you show how you learned to read, write, and research. 

• Summative Assessment: To demonstrate your learning in reading, vocabulary fluency, and academic writing, at the end of the semester you will submit a digital portfolio, that shows your learning process. Throughout the semester, we will work on developing your digital portfolio using google sites, and at the end of the term you will present your portfolio as your course final, in conjunction with your final results from your research and interview, which is also apart of your final. However, to set you up for success, and to ensure you are building confidence in your literacy abilities, you must participate intentionally in all literacy assignments. My hope is that by the end of the semester, your learning artifact (google sites portfolio) empowers you to show how you progressed in academic literacy from week 1 to week 16 to show your strengths and weaknesses, allowing you to take ownership of your learning.  

• Formative Assessment: all literacy assignments will have a prompt and a rubric, clear information that states how the student can receive a 'complete' to earn full credit. If I mark the student's work as 'incomplete', or if during peer review a student identifies an area that needs further development, in order to earn a 'complete', the student will revise (redo) the assignment with clear feedback based on the rubric criteria. Research shows, this is how learners, learn. Learners need opportunities for self-reflection to monitor their growth and development. It is important that students become aware of their strengths and limitations in reading and writing, to improve their literacy skills over time. This is my teaching philosophy.  

What kinds of formative assessment assignments will my teacher assign?

1. Vocabulary Log and Reading Annotations (In-Class) You will need to have a notebook where you keep track of new vocabulary words from our readings. In this notebook you will write annotations about the texts you will read. For example, an annotation is stopping to write down a question about the text you read, or writing down important information like main ideas of the text, or supporting details about the text. Sometimes, I will ask you to write down a quote that stood out to you during the reading that you think is important, and I will ask you to share why you think that quote is important, because I value your voice and perspective. You will use this information (what you write in your notebook) to develop your own personal writing responses for online discussions and for Journal paragraph responses too. 

2. Post-Reading Reflection Discussions (will be posted on Canvas) You will engage in one or two post-reading discussions or pre-writing discussions every week for each unit that will allow you to discuss some of the main ideas and themes of the reading topic and relate it to your personal life experience. In addition, you will practice using the vocabulary from the readings in your post-reading reflection discussion to practice vocabulary fluency. These post-reading reflections will also be prewriting strategies to help prepare you for your controlled (attention to form) paragraph writing assignment tasks, and essay's.

3. Literacy Journal Reflection (will be posted on Canvas) Building from your post-reading discussion responses, you will be assigned to write a paragraph about the unit reading topic and use the vocabulary from the unit reading in your writing to show your understanding and use of the vocabulary, and more importantly share your perspective about the reading topic. The writing tasks will also allow you to practice using different sentence structures and allow you to practice summary, analysis, and synthesis writing. 

4.  Sentence Skills & Vocabulary Fluency Exercises (In class) To help you develop sentence skills, and vocabulary fluency you will engage in low-stakes sentence skills exercises such as, sentence editing and vocab quizzes once a week--these quizzes will not affect your grade they are meant for practice to accelerate your fluency. This will allow you to identify your learning strengths and weaknesses and allow you to catch mistakes before you write your end of the unit paragraph or short essay.

5. Peer Review and Instructor Guided Workshops (In-class) For your major writing assignments, such as essays, I will provide a teacher guided peer review for you and your classmates. The purpose of peer review is to get helpful feedback about how to make your writing better, and clearer for your readers. It is also an opportunity for you to read your classmates' ideas and perspectives about the readings, to enrich your learning experiences in reading and writing collaboratively. 

6. Summative Assessment: The Final Literacy Portfolio & Research Project All your formative assignments (assignments above that show you're reading and writing process) will be showcased in your final summative assessment (a google sites portfolio) which I will instruct you on how to create to demonstrate your academic literacy skills. In addition to the final creative research project, which will also be housed in your google sites portfolio, which we will talk more about towards the end of the end of the semester. I will hold guided workshops to develop your literacy portfolio and to develop your critical reading and researching practices--sometimes in class, and sometimes in guided how to recorded videos online. During our final, you will present your final portfolio and show your research and talk about what you learned so that your classmates can learn from you, too! :)

• Participation & Attendance 

What is Participation?
To get the full benefits of learning in this class, it is important for the student to take part in all in-class and online class activities by engaging with the instructor, asking questions, and contributing effort in group work, and online canvas discussions. Participation means you interact with the instructor and peers to help support your learning and our collective learning of certain reading and writing topics. To learn more about attendance policy please see Course Policies (Rules) tab.