As part of our Renaissance Fair unit at school my students have been learning about witches in the module I have been teachings. As the teaching week came to a close the students were tasked with choosing a questions of interest to conduct a research project.
This brought with it an assessment opportunity. Each work day I had my students set a post-it-note goal for the day. Then I would walk around and check in with what the goal for the day was, where their ideas were going and to often just check in with each of the students. I kept a clipboard with an entire class list which allowed me to keep track of which students I had visited and which ones I had yet to speak too. This allowed me to be mindful of whom I had to visit and I was able to visit each and every student at least once per day and to answer questions, offer suggestions and provide feedback. Which was very valuable to the entire project. Furthermore, it allowed me to keep track of which students were doing well and to evaluate their work habits (a criteria for the overall mark for this unit).
At the end of the day, I was able to continually raise the level of concern for each student in a safe way by having them set their own goals. On one day I was even able to set an overall class goal that all note taking should be done, and then I was able to focus my time more efficiently towards the students who needed help while also making sure that the students who were on task and doing well also saw me and had interactions with me.
This is something I will definitely be continuing going forward, because I believe it teaches the students many things including, time management, goal setting and reflection on the process. While also allowing me to the time to keep an eye on each group and to have an understanding of where things need to be supplemented and supported. Overall, I feel that these two assessment methods were very valuable both for me and for my students.
The moral of this story: A sticky note goes a long way both for students and for teachers. I am having the students include their sticky notes with their final submission of their project with allows me to have a glimpse into their planning and the process goals they set along the way to complete the project.
