re-cov-er-y the regaining or possibility of regaining something lost or taken away
(dictionary.com)
This Monday I had the opportunity to witness Wilson conducting learning recovery for your students. Allowing students time to go back and regain lost learning speaks volumes about what you value in your school. I thought you might be interested in this short video clip that talks about the importance of allowing kids to re-do, or re-take assignments. View this and see what you think.
You may notice that this is Part 2 of the video series. Part 1 can be found on the district grading blog found here.
While I enjoyed my morning at Wilson, I asked Mrs. K if I could come back and see all of you on a normal day, so I will be back in April. I look forward to witnessing all of your efforts on implementing formative assessments in your classrooms. Have a great March.
I 100% agree with this video! The idea of "redoing" something is something that we are always welcoming in our classroom. Like all classrooms, learning an instrument is a spiral way of learning - you can't learn the next step typically without mastering the previous learning. Therefore, students must redo the activities and master them before they can be successful for the next step. Even if it takes a student a week, a month, or a year, it's so much more rewarding to see the student finally understand the topic instead of failing the assignment or not completing it.
ReplyDeleteI know there were times in my student life where I may have had a test or assignment I was unhappy with the grade. I knew I could be successful at the information, but just messed up. Having the opportunity to redo the quiz or assignment would not only help my grade, but to make sure I really did know the information (or relearn it if I was confused!).
I agree. Interesting how we more easily accept relearning or see learning as a process for learning an instrument or in sports and yet, not so much in more traditional school subjects. I also agree with this idea of "banking"... requiring students to only relearn what they haven't learned yet and retake the portion of the assessment that matches that relearning. So simple, so logical, yet so controversial?
ReplyDeleteI agree with the idea of being able to redo an assignment or rework a project. I think that we all as teachers and professionals have been able to do that at least once during our educational experiences. I understand that a child might not be ready or have enough information to understand the information or outside circumstances or events get in the way of testing or completing a project. The whole idea of this is to make sure that they fully learn and understand the information, and even get more practice. While the idea of mastering content through relearning is wonderful, what about things like the Iowa Assessment? There is no retake on that, extenuating circumstances or not. Is there a situation where the student gets “too comfortable” with the idea that they can redo a test or assignment? Does this practice truly prepare them for higher education after high school?
ReplyDeleteI definitely agree with the idea of allowing students to complete work for a better grade, but especially at teacher discretion with a study plan in place. It requires self-motivation on the students' part, which is a great way to hold students accountable and it's not on the teacher's part to just print off multiple tests for the same student to guess several times. It also really helps prepare the students for learning in high school (self-motivation). Therefore, I think it's really important to frame and pre-teach the policies for learning recovery so students see it as a benefit to master the learning, rather than just an opportunity to give it another try. This is especially important in a lot of subject areas that are comprehensive, where one unit builds on another, so that students can be successful throughout the entire quarter, trimester, or year.
ReplyDeleteWith the Iowa Assessments, I think it is important that students are aware that some tests just cannot be redone. But if teachers teach the importance of working hard to master curriculum, and students take those opportunities to be more successful (by redoing a project or assignment or retaking a test in the content area with a study plan in place), I actually think that it will help them perform better on the Iowa Assessment, because they will have (hopefully) worked hard to master the content and acquired the study and test-taking skills to do so.
Very well said, Senora Dennis. This is such a controversial issue, but I agree that there is much value in allowing students the opportunity to improve. I also believe that it needs to be stressed that the option is not always there, and we need to ensure that our students are prepared for those situations as well.
ReplyDeleteHis thoughts on the effort it takes for a child receiving lower scores is greater than a child receiving higher ones, really resonated with me. If a child is willing to put in the effort then he's right, we shouldn't stand in their way. I know I have had the thought about how un-motivating and unfair that is for other students to see, but that's beside the point. All are welcome to make improvements. I thought it was great, too, that he gave the teachers some ownership in decision making and that we need to keep our needs, as well as the students in mind when giving students clear options from the onset.
ReplyDeleteI loved the idea of "At Teacher Discretion." I know that I have had students who have not done their best work, due to a variety of reasons. Either because they didn't try their hardest, or had other things going on in their life that became a distraction. Those students who seemed upset and really wanted to try again to show me they were capable (proficient), are rarely students that abuse the privilege of retaking a test. The idea of at teacher discretion, to me, does not mean choosing which students should and shouldn't be allowed to retake/redo work. At teacher discretion means allowing students to retake the parts of the test that they weren't proficient on. Why should they retake something that they have already proven they know? I have also had students redo some of the homework before they have retaken a test to ensure that they are ready for the retake this time. It makes sense to allow student to prove/show us their best.
ReplyDeleteWhen we are working on drawings in Design and Modeling or machines in Automation and Robotics we are constantly redoing things until the drawing represents the idea properly or the machine works. If one gear is supposed to turn another gear in a certain way it is important for the students to fix what they have done or not done to make the machine function correctly.
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