EdSteps

[|EdSteps]

 * Strengths **
 * Access to all Students, Parents & Educators, FREE
 * Improves students' work through assessment (rating) of students in the classroom and throughout the U.S.
 * Win prizes for your school: bimonthly drawings of $150 - each submission earns one chance
 * Allows students to see ratings of their work defined by skill level and see the next level to improve writing
 * Work is rated by comparison - two submissions are judged according to certain criteria - so the more submissions, the better
 * Anonymity of work samples
 * Research based assessement process
 * Authentic student writing samples by grade-level ranging from kindergarten to graduate students


 * Weaknesses **
 * ==Students might feel awkward about sharing work at first==


 * Opportunities **
 * Ability to monitor student progress over time
 * Ability to compare writing to others, globally, as well as in class
 * Being part of a global community
 * Allowing students to feel affirmed as contributors to a social network
 * Increase parent participation and communicationby sharing their child's work and progress via EdSteps


 * <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 20.8px;">Threats **
 * ===Parents may not like their child's work being rated and accessed===


 * <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 20.8px;">Classroom Ideas **
 * <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 20.8px;">Teachers can set up accounts to submit their students' work to create excitement and inspire quality work ("This will be published")
 * <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 20.8px;">Teachers can earn opportunities to win $300 a month
 * <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 20.8px;">Students can compete with peers - teachers can set up a class point system to encourage & reward participation
 * <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 20.8px;">Students can review others' work (globally & locally) to improve their writing abilities
 * <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 20.8px;">Students can “grade” other student’s online work and thus get a better feel for what teachers are looking for when they grade assignments- this could be especially helpful in preparing for national exams (the written essay portion of AP tests for high school students comes to mind)