Using Rubrics in Google Drive

So have you ever wanted to use a rubric with student work in Google Drive?  Sure you have.  You can create a rubric and then link it into Google Drive and have it connect to a Google Drive spreadsheet so that you can have the grades recorded and the students can see their rubric.  Above is the how to tutorial.  You can find more easy scripting on youpd

Become an AP Grader

I have been grading different AP exams for well over a decade and have found it one of the most rewarding experiences of my professional life.  Yes it does get hard the fourth and fifth day of grading the same exam over and over (well some subjects like US train you in two), but the rewards are many.  I have a national network of friends whose collective brains I pick throughout the year, learn how to master an AP rubric and generally enjoy the places where we grade (San Antonio, Salt Lake City, Lincoln, Daytona Beach).  Perhaps the best thing, and the reason I go is so I can help my students "beat" the AP exam.  I must also say I am very efficient in grading throughout the year as being a grader has greatly improved my speed and the ability to find the exact mistakes the kids are making (which unlike the real AP exam I mark).

If you are interested, apply here by the end of September.  If you decide to go and they generally look for people in their third year - but last year government took people who had taught fewer - you will have your plane, hotel and food paid for the week and you will get an "honorarium." You will spend your first day learning the rubric, the grade for five full days and part of the a sixth one.  You work from 8 to 5 with two 15 minute breaks and an hour lunch.  Even if you think it would be miserable, I think you owe it to your students to try it once. 

Flipping WITHOUT Video

Jeff Utecht, who writes "The Thinking Stick.com" argues persuasively in this excellent post that the flipped history classroom does not have to involve video. "In fact every time I have helped a teacher flip their classroom in the high school it has never involved videos. Instead it involves students actively finding information, making sense of it, and then coming to class ready to discuss with the teacher what they have learned, what questions they have and, what it is they still don’t know/understand."

In this essay, he outlines a history lesson on Thailand and Southeast Asia. He explains the process of coming up with an essential question and then sub questions to focus research. He posted the entire lesson and offers some feedback from students and parents who push back because they expect the teacher to tell them the answer in a lecture or power point. You can see the entire lesson and rubric when you scroll down to the bottom of the page. You can even copy his blog rubric in Google docs as I did here.

Rubric Maker

When I first became a teacher one of the hardest things I found was how to grade essays and presentations.  Well if you go here, all you need to do is fill in a few parameters and gives you a rubric for literally anything you need (essays, debate, play, brochure, letter and lots more).

Become an AP Grader

While we are at it, I have gotten to know the aforementioned Dan Larsen at the AP Government reading.  When I tell people that I grade exams their first reaction is to say that grading is the worst part of their job, so why would anyone want to go.  Well 1) I am a much better teacher because of the work I have done as an AP grader in two different subjects.  After all if I know how to grade an exam, then I know how to better prepare students for future essays.  2) The people I met give me both great friendships, but also colleagues near and far to exchange ideas and assignments.  3) You get to go to great places.  This year I will be in Salt Lake City and even though, yes, you do work 8-5 (with lunch and AM/PM break) we did have time to go hiking one day, go to the Great Salt Lake, on another and see the Mormon Tabernacle Choir practice in their 20,000 person arena and usually we catch a baseball game.  4)  I am so much more a proficient grader and can very accurately whip through lots of free response questions - which means I can assign more and better prepare my students (who this year wrote 12 for grades and another 3-4 for practice in my class).

Basically it works like this.  Day 1 - fly to AP grading site  Day 2 - learn the rubric.  They give you all the answers and truthfully most of my AP students could grade given the training.  By the end of the day you will be very accurately grading exams and giving them the identical grade to everyone at your table Day 3-7 - grade all day in 4 quadrants and yes it can get hard at times Day 8 - Finish the grading which means you only get about 50-75.  Only once have I ever graded beyond noon on this day and then you get the rest of the day to do things like do real sightseeing. Day 9 Fly Home.

So if you are interested, here is the place to sign up. 

Flipping the Classroom and Free Response Questions

As you know, if you teach AP Government, all students need to complete four free response questions.  I usually devote a day to teach the basics (that Frank has done above) and then I actually pick a question and have the students answer it and then grade several of  the questions using a rubric.  This is exactly what we do at the AP reading as my goal each year is to make them prepared to be as good as the actual readers (graders).  By the way, if you are interested in grading AP Government, we are grading this year in Salt Lake City which has lots of great outdoor activities to do once the grading day is done at 5 pm. 

@apgovhelp is here!

From the same students who brought you @apushhelp, now you can follow @apgovhelp.  Expect 20 or more tweets a week with AP Government related information for the students.  Also, if your students have questions, tell them to send in a tweet and it will be answered within 24 hours (or your money back).

Pass the word around to your AP Government friends.  Right now @apushhelp has 829 followers.  @apgovhelp is in its first week, but we expect the numbers to grow.

For questions on rubric or one way to use twitter in the classroom, email smcampbell1@fcps.edu.  Here is a teachinghistory.org blog post from last summer.
http://teachinghistory.org/nhec-blog/25686

Cybrary Man has an amazing number of lists that can help you, but one that is going to be a super help to you is the list of rubrics.  My favorite is Rubistar which allows you to enter information about your project and then spits a rubric back at you which you can use with your students.  Both of these are featured in my "interactives" section of my book Deeper Learning Through Technology: Using the Cloud to Individualize Instruction.

Legislative Branch Board Game Project

View more documents from Lina Trullinger.

Legislative Assignment
Lina Trullinger is an occasional contributor to this blog and has posted a great assignment in Slideshare (see above) that makes the kids go over the basic structure of Congress. Here is the rubric to grade it.

Lesson on Writing a FRQ in AP Government

My students are watching this video over the weekend as a precursor for learning how to write for AP free response questions.  I will do an informal quiz to make they know the key words and then we will read an actual FRQ that my students can partially answer with the knowledge they now have. Then I will show them the rubric and they will have to grade each one.  In true AP grader style I will make them tell the class what they have chosen for each FRQ and then we will discuss why it received the grade it did.

During the year I have the kids "grade" their DBQs as they go along, meaning if it is six point response they have to show me where each of the points go.  Then, on the right side I put my points (with a 1 for the first point, 2 for the second, etc.)  So that means if they have a ID and an explain and only get the first 1.  If the second part has an ID and an explain and they got both points, I would give them 1, 3 and 4 for a total of 3 points as in (1+1+1=3).  So each point has a specific meaning.  This also saves in writing explanations since we go over it in class and they have to correct their mistakes.