Student Work

A few disjointed thoughts from Tuesday’s institute day regarding our examination of student work:

  • Courtney and I met with second grade teachers.  We thought teacher participation and discussion was very good.   A teacher from Piper, Joe Schueller, student’s paper was selected, and he handled our analysis of his student’s response very well;  he offered insightful information about the student – what the student knows and can do and where he needs more help.  Our group was able to offer him what we thought his student knew as well as what misconceptions his student may have.  I’m not sure we took it to the next level – which would be “What would Joe could do next to help his student?”  “What feedback does his student need?” “What questions might Joe ask the student?”
  • Overall the examination of student work is much more worthwhile than some institute day offerings.  Looking at student work is much more meaningful than Power School,  it is the work you are doing in your classroom on a daily basis, and it makes me think that not only institute days, but staff meetings – the vast majority of our meetings  need to follow such practice.
  • The practice of examining student work offers teachers the opportunity to reflect on what they are assigning students to do.  “Is the assignment aligned to the standards? And how successful was the assignment in getting necessary information about what a given student knows?”
  • The days of solitary teaching are behind us – Collaboration with other teachers will help all of us become better teachers – add more to our fuel tanks in terms of planning, direct instruction, assessment  - the big guns of teaching.
  • As grade level teams, we are stronger together than alone; the group wisdom especially around the examination of student work will help us to focus on such important questions as - what needs to be taught, was it taught, did it need to be taught, do I need to reteach it to all or to some,  do I need to use a different approach?
  • Tuesday’s session gave me firsthand experience of the examination of student work, and I liked what I experienced. I believe it offers promise as one of the most concrete and meaningful ways for us to grow as teachers.  A special shout out to our fourth grade teachers – the principal from Emerson called me later on Tuesday to say that she was impressed with Irving’s fourth grade teachers and your many contributions.  You do us proud!  All of you do really!
 

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