Self-assessing your feedback practices will help you to protect students’ right to their own language. Ask yourself the questions below.

1. What proportion of your course learning goals are devoted to language use in writing? Why?
2. How do you or your department or program describe language use in course objectives? Do these descriptions encourage students’ linguistic agency, assimilation, or something else [link to other sections]?
3. What do you decide to comment on when reading student papers? Why?
4. What proportion of your comments on student papers are devoted to language? Why? How does this proportion compare with that of course learning goals?
5. How do you describe language in your comments on student papers? Do these descriptions encourage students’ linguistic agency, assimilation, or something else?
6. How do you describe African American English patterns and styles [link to features sections] in your comments? Why?
7. Are there any changes you could make to your comments to grant students the right to their own language [link to feedback examples]?
8. How do you decide what counts as an A paper? A B, C, or D paper? A failing paper? What is your rationale for these distinctions?
9. What proportion of a student’s grade on a paper is related to their language use in the paper? Why?
10. What role do patterns and styles of African American English [link to features sections] have in your grading? Why?
11. Do students ever fail a paper due to their language use? If so, how and why?
12. Are there changes you could make to your grading to grant students the right to their own language [link to graded feedback examples]?
13. If you use rubrics or other grading guides, how do you describe students’ language use in these documents? Do these descriptions encourage students’ linguistic agency, assimilation, or something else? Rubric with clear inclusion of AAVE/BVE  – Literacy Narrative Rubric 
14. Are there changes you could make to your rubrics or other documents to grant students the right to their own language? Rubric with clear inclusion of AAVE/BVE  – Literacy Narrative Rubric 

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