DBQ News: Online Support Series

You know you are a teacher, when you bring your bag home each night full of papers to grade, fall asleep and never get to it, and then do the same thing the next night. It's a daunting challenge that all teachers of writing face. Having students write means having to score/grade that writing. This month's DBQ Online support newsletter addresses those concerns. We hope this is helpful in speeding up the grading process and taking some of the fears away.

Rainbow highlighting is a color-coded system that gives the writer a way to check their work for errors. It is a strategy designed to help students identify the elements of a proficient essay in their essays, each other’s essays, or sample essays. Students are to highlight each element of a proficient essay in a different color. Students can rainbow highlight their own papers in order to see what revisions need to take place. This strategy can also be done during a peer editing session. Highlighted papers also allow the teacher to draw their attention directly to what is being scored, what the student is interpreting as an element of a proficient essay, and cuts the grading time in half.

Rubrics and scoring guides provide students with a clear understanding of what is expected of them. Students have concrete directions about what makes a good science project, a good persuasive writing piece, etc... Many studies have proven that rubrics improve students' end products and thus increase the students' overall learning. Rubrics and scoring guides provide students with valuable information about the degree to which a specific learning outcome has been achieved. They provide students with concrete feedback that displays areas of strength and areas in need of improvement. Students can use this feedback as a tool to further develop their abilities.

DBQ Online contains the four main rubrics and scoring guides that are featured in the Teacher Toolkit section of the DBQ binders. The two rubrics include a comprehensive and a holistic rubric. The two scoring guides include a self-check guide and a one-point scoring guide. Both scoring guides provide opportunities for students to self-score before the teacher scores. Mollie does a great job going over each rubric and scoring guide in this screencast.

One of the new features added this past summer with DBQ Online is the ability for teachers and administrators to customize rubrics. Teachers and administrators will be able to create customized rubrics to score student work directly on the platform. Click HERE to view a short video of the features included in this summer's DBQ Online update. The video below explains how to use customized rubrics in the DBQ Online platform.

Did you know that you can save and apply frequently made comments using our Custom Comment feature? We have preloaded some comments, but you can edit and add to the list to address your students’ specific needs. Using a comment bank can be a HUGE time saver, and still allows you to provide meaningful feedback to your students. Watch the video below to get an idea of just how much time it can save you.

DBQ101 is a self-paced professional development course that familiarizes teachers with The DBQ Project Method and teaches them how to make the process engaging and powerful for students. It is designed to replicate our full-day introductory workshops. Participants will work through the steps of The DBQ Project Method at their own pace, pausing to reflect and practice along the way. Teachers will first experience a DBQ from the student perspective, learning what it is like to learn with a DBQ, before transitioning to the teacher perspective to learn how to build a unit and support their students. Two fall windows are open for registration at no cost to online subscribers. Courses will launch on November 8 and December 13. Each course window will remain open for one month to complete.

"Helping ALL students read smart, think straight, and write clearly"

Email: info@dbqproject.com
Website: www.dbqproject.com
Location: 1234 Sherman Avenue, Evanston, IL, USA
Phone: 8474754007
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