To support the anti-racist assessment system in my course, I am using Weekly Work Logs, where students track the work that they have done. The idea for these logs as they are used in anti-racist assessment comes from Asao Inoue’s explanations of contract grading and anti-racist assessment. Inoue (2014) calls these logs labor journals<\/em>, describing them as<\/p>\n weekly journals that document time spent on activities, and the level of intensity of that work. Each journal entry may: (1)document how much time was spent on an assignment; (2) describe the intensity of the work; or (3) reflect upon the writing produced by that session’s time and intensity, connecting the labor to the expectations identified on the writer’s rubric. (p. 81)<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n My logs work similarly, asking students to track the time, intensity, and kind of work. They also include a description and reflection for each task they complete. <\/p>\n I have used various digital tools for these logs include spreadsheets that track the entire term and word processor documents that students create for each week of the term. This summer in my Technical Writing course, I am trying the Class Notebook feature in OneNote. <\/p>\n The student notebooks in OneNote’s Class Notebook appear to provide the benefits of both word processor documents and spreadsheets. Each week students complete a separate page in their student notebooks, similar to a separate word processor document. Because these pages are all collected in a single notebook, they function like a spreadsheet by allowing me to look back to previous entries to see how their work strategies are evolving in the course.<\/p>\n The general instructions that I gave students ask them to go to the notebook in OneNote and then record the work that they have done for the week:<\/p>\n Elsewhere in the course documents, I explain the ways that students will use the logs in the course. Specifically, students will use their entries to complete weekly self-assessments where they claim the points that they have earned for the week. At the end of the term, students will use the Weekly Work Log entries to write an overall performance review that summarizes and reflects on the work that they have done throughout the term. <\/p>\n These are the instructions that I have included in OneNote for students:<\/p>\n This information explains how to fill out your log entries each week. You will log your work, noting what you do, how long you work, and how hard you worked. <\/p>\n Submitting your weekly labor log does two things:<\/p>\n At the end of the term, you can use your logs to write a performance review (your final exam) that explains what you have accomplished overall and provides a self-evaluation of your work in the course. <\/p>\n You are graded on the work you do, so this log is critical to doing well because it tells me what work you do each week. I look for strong details and reflections on the various tasks you complete each week. <\/p>\n For all the work that you complete, add a line to your log with specific information about the work that you did. The log pages for each week include the headings shown below: <\/p>\n Date<\/p>\n<\/td>\n Time Spent<\/p>\n<\/td>\n Intensity<\/p>\n<\/td>\n Kind of Work (Reading, Writing, Feedback, Tracking, Other) <\/p>\n<\/td>\n Description & Reflection<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n <\/p>\n<\/td>\n <\/p>\n<\/td>\n <\/p>\n<\/td>\n <\/p>\n<\/td>\n <\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/table><\/div>\n Under each of these headings, I expect to find the following information: <\/p>\n Note that you can also break those tasks out info separate lines in your log. In other words, “Jotted out the details I wanted to cover. Rearranged the details into an informal outline.” could be one entry in the log, and you might add a reflection comment on why you adopted this strategy <\/p>\n At the end of the week, review all of the entries that you have recorded, and write a summary that synthesizes the work you have done during the week. Once you have your summary written, reflect on what you have accomplished. You can consider questions like these to get started: <\/p>\n You don’t need to answer every question in your reflection. Just put in your best effort and answer the questions that make sense for this week.<\/p>\n Use these details on the different kinds of work in the class to categorize the work you do under the “Kind of Work” column in your log.<\/p>\n Reading<\/strong><\/p>\n The reading work in this course is much like that in any other course you take. Examples of the things you will read in this course include the following: <\/p>\n Writing<\/strong> <\/p>\n The writing work in this course relates to both the projects and class activities that you work on and to the class communication and general class discussions. Examples of the writing you will do in the projects for this course include the following:<\/p>\n Giving, Discussing, and Responding to Feedback<\/strong><\/p>\n The feedback work in this course consists of the feedback that you receive and the feedback that you give to others. Examples of feedback activities include the following: <\/p>\n Tracking & Reflecting<\/strong><\/p>\n The tracking and reflecting work in this course focuses on the process of recording the various kinds of work that you do in your Weekly Work Log and your Weekly Self-Assessments. Examples of the tracking and reflecting you will do include the following:<\/p>\n If you are interested in learning more about anti-racist assessment and how this kind of weekly log works, check out Asao Inoue\u2019s Labor-Based Grading Contracts: Building Equity And Inclusion In The Compassionate Writing Classroom<\/a><\/em> (2019), which you can download for free from the WAC Clearinghouse. <\/p>\n\n
General How-To<\/h3>\n
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Student Instructions for Log Entries<\/h3>\n
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Instructions, Start Here<\/h4>\n
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Log of Your Weekly Work<\/h4>\n
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\n That is probably accurate, but it doesn’t show the work that went into what you did.<\/li>\nSummary Comments & Reflections on the Week<\/h4>\n
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Kinds of Work in the Course<\/h4>\n
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Read More<\/h3>\n
References<\/h3>\n