You will be graded this semester based on your progress on developing your action research. In this semester you will be expected to do the following:
You will receive a letter grade for the rest of the Action Research sequence. The grade will depend in the richness of your experience as you develop your action research ideas, your understanding of the action research process and your fulfillment of the requirements. This will be more of a portfolio evaluation and we will ask you to participate by evaluating your own progress toward your goals. If you want a "midterm" review, you can request it any time during the session following these instructions.
As you can 30% of your grade comes from your collaborative work with peers. This is where you demonstrate your understanding of distributed learning, your ability to build knowledge in a collaborative setting, and you ability to lead change through constructive feedback. The lit review makes up 50% of the grade. Your journals and planning make up the other 20%. Using this you should be able to compute your own grade.
Go to Sakai and collect the messages you have written to both the class in 651 and to your learner circle. Compare them to someone you think is doing a really good job in the course. Read through your blogs, are you keeping regular snapshots of your thinking processes? Can you see what you were thinking and worrying about at different points? Can you see your insights develop? Does you lit review have an overall structure? Does it start with a introduction giving the reader a roadmap? Does it end by giving us a quick summary of what we learned from taking the journey with you? Do the paragraphs start with claims, support the claim with evidence followed by what sense you make of it... your inferences?
So you don't really need me to grade you. I am sure that most of you can go through your work and figure out your grade. My goal is for all of you to reach "A" level work. If not this semester, then next semester.
Method of Evaluation
On student evaluations you often score me lowest on the statement that "instructor clearly defines methods of evalution"... so maybe what I have written there is not enough. I will try a bit more.
I want to see you are thinking with us. I look at the messages you have authored in the forum. Some forums, I use the grade option and look for your best entry and give it a grade. I also look at the number and length of messages you have contributed. A larger number of one line messages don't count as much as a thoughtful message with links and examples.
Then I read the blogs using a rubric. It has three coding- frequency of posting, length of posting and quality of reflection. I am looking at your ability to reflect in a deep way on at least some occasions.
As you turn in assignments, like lit reviews, we make an assessemt based on this rubic..
A Grade: impressive draft - Academic voice, APA is used appropriately, good overall structure and paragraph development. lit is connected to the problem. Data are used effectively to help provide strong evidence for claims.There is a range of types of evidence well presented for claims. The argument is well structured and reads in a logical clear way. Quotes follow the guidelines I have set for using them. The author is ready for dissertation writing.
A- Grade: Has the idea of a lit review but not completely executed, some trouble with voice, APA or organizational structure. But overall solid graduate work at the master level. There are claims supported by data and the overall arguement of the paper flows from section to section.
B+ Grade The writing is casual, the citations or quotes are used in problematic ways. The transitions are rough and the overall structure is difficult to follow. Feels more like a list of studies then supported statements helping to develop a position or argument. This is average master level graduate work.
B Grade: not much skill with academic writing and lots of problems with both paragraph and overall structure. The reader feels lost with respect to the purpose of each part of the lit review. This is acceptable graduate work.
B- Grade The writing is weak, the organization is challenged, lots of APA errors, not much development, not effective use of evidence. Needs lots of help or is so short that not it lacks depth. This is not acceptable graduate level work.
C(+, -) Not the level of work that will lead to successful completion of the program.
Then at the end of the term, we grade again but this time less comments and more on how much you have changed from version 1 to the ending version. We use the final grade but we might adjust upward for lots of growth.
Finally we look to see what is the quality of the help you give to others. This is your leadership potential assessment. Did you help others to improve their ideas? Do you do this in a way that is well received by others in your circle? Finally we try to factor in anything else that might be special about the learner and the learning situation. This together helps us see if you are learning.
This is your life....you can't fail.