Culturally Responsive Teaching Fall 23-Spring 24

Course number: BIO 103: Plants and Civilization

Relevant / Flexible / Success

Reflection on Instructional Change:

I structured my grading approach so that student had multiple and alternative ways to demonstrate their learning, with opportunities for revision. This approach combined elements I had used before, but not together, and not with an explicit awareness of why they would be helpful for equity. Re-testing for mastery of concepts and allowing revisions for projects reduced pressure to perform and normalized the feedback-revision cycle that helps us learn and grow.

I implemented the structure in Spring 2024, and found that it offered flexibility and “safety nets” for students. For example, if a student missed an exam or did poorly on it, there were two more opportunities to re-test for all five topics except the last one (the final exam will be the only re-test option for that one. If a student had test anxiety, each of the five topics had an alternative way students could demonstrate their learning. This approach allowed me to have high expectations for all students, while giving the ample time and flexibility to meet those expectations.

A second practice I implemented was the 4-point grading scale. This was a recommendation from Joe Feldman’s “Grading for Equity” book, and the rationale is that it takes away the outsized penalty for missing work. I am not sure I would have liked it as much without the other changes, but they have worked synergistically.

My difficulty with the 4-point scale is that I often would like a finer grain in my scale to more accurately match points to the quality of work. But because students could re-test and revise, I could avoid the agony of “in-between” cases and just err on the lower side on first drafts and the higher side at the end. In addition, rubrics with just 4 levels made grading faster, which allowed me to keep up with the added load with re-takes and revisions.

**Evidence of Instructional Change**
Image 1: Excerpt from course syllabus describing the five learning demonstrations, with flexible options.	Image 2: Excerpt from course syllabus with grading scale (the "1" category was missing here but was on rubrics for
	assignments).

Course Syllabus

(Note: this was a new class for me, so I do not have a previous syllabus to post)

**Faculty Bio**
	When I graduated from college with a chemistry and biology double major, I wanted to be a high school chemistry teacher as a career. I went to graduate school for a masters degree in soil science, thinking it would be good to know about some practical applications of chemistry so I could make it more interesting for students. Long story short, I ended up getting my Ph.D. in soil science which has allowed me to teach a wide variety of courses at the college level (including physics at UC Davis and environmental science classes at Sac State). I also do science education research and am working to help faculty incorporate real research and project design into their courses at Sacramento State (SIRIUS II and Project-ACE), the Los Rios Community Colleges (SIRIUS II), and Chico State (CEMUR). I have two teenagers and a husband who teach me a lot about how different the learning process can look for different people!

This work was supported by:
	Grant funding from Sacramento State Division of Inclusive Excellence *Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of Sacramento State.