Module 3

I frequently have students evaluate their own work in our learning environment. Beyond evaluating our physical work, students are consistently reflecting and learning how to properly interact with learning goals, each other, and learning materials. In order to be reflective of individual learning goals, students in my class utilize a daily schedule which encompasses their agenda, daily routines and tasks, as well as reflection pages that are sent home daily. I create this daily work to allow students additional opportunities to build executive functions through writing and goal setting. It has been challenging for our students to evaluate their own work in a traditional practice for the students in my class are functioning greatly below grade level (1-2 grades below grade level).

While rubrics are often seen as a thing of the past, when working towards major checkpoints in our reading and writing, students in second grade use various checklists to ensure student success and promote responsibility greater than evaluation.  Something that has changed for the effectiveness of student evaluation is our lack of one to one devices. This year our students grade two and lower classes were reduced to 1:6. While I supported the reduction of student devices, it has caused many challenges when supplying adequate support for students with additional needs. In the past when we were one to one, student checklists and means of evaluation were done via technology. As students were reflecting on their work, and evaluating their success towards our objectives and essential questions, students could access flipcharts reading each check point, and displaying additional examples and models.

While I believe that screen time is a major issues surrounding our 21 century learners, technology when accessed properly is a wonderful tool to supply students with immediate feedback. While immediate feedback supplies means for students to practice perfect, students evaluation of their work supplies time for students to build responsibility for their action, and creates a second lesson from the same work. As students are guided through correcting and dissecting their work, they are reliving the learning task, and cross referencing their work with what they have learned previously. I have found that when explored appropriately, students are often harder on themselves than we would be. They know what they are capable of and want to do their best. In my current classroom, this must be a guided experience for completion independently would not lead to the same learning and would prove ineffective.