Start Here: Your First Week
Video coming soon.
Walkthrough
The dashboard has three sections you'll work in:
- Assignments — where the work is created and managed.
- Rubrics — your library of grading criteria.
- Feedback Templates — where the structure and tone of feedback are set.
Those three pieces work together: rubric, template, assignment.
Choose your first assignment carefully. Pick something familiar — an assignment you've taught before, where the standards are clear and you already know where students typically struggle. Lower-stakes is better than high-stakes. A formative essay, a practice response, a short analytical paragraph. Not the final exam.
Have three things ready:
- A rubric you already use.
- A clear sense of how you usually give feedback (tone, style, priorities).
- Student work to run through the system. If there are no submissions yet, sample assignments are available for practice.
The order matters. Start with the rubric and make sure it's clear enough for consistent feedback. Then build a feedback template that sounds right for the students and the assignment. Then run the first assignment and review what comes back.
The first run does not need to be perfect. Rubrics get sharper over time. Templates improve as you test and adjust. The goal of week one is a first experience that makes the workflow clear and useful — not mastery in one sitting.
What to read or watch next
Once your first assignment is on its way, Why Your Rubric Is the Foundation is the gentlest way to start Layer 3's deeper PD work.