BFTP: Self-assessment - getting students to practice a critical skill

Happy people evaluate themselves; unhappy people evaluate others.

  William Glasser

In addition to their regular projects, I often required the graduate students in my library management classes to create an assessment by which those projects could be evaluated - a checklist or other tool conisting of quality criteria. I then asked that the students themselves complete their own evaluation, applying it to their own projects. And I gave them the grades they gave themselves. I found students to be more critical of their own work than I was.

 

For example, one of the assignments was to create a floor plan for a new school library. So not only did the students submit an original floor plan, they needed to submit something like:

The floor plan:

• Accommodates a sufficient number of students
• Has a traffic pattern that allows high and low activity areas
• Includes areas for large, small, and individual work
• Is easy to supervise by a single adult
• Includes computer productivity areas...

You get the point.

Other projects included a library manual, sample policy statements, short and long term plans, etc. Invariably, students found creating the assessment more difficult than completing the project.

My students hated the requirement, finding creating an assessment more challenging than doing the project itself.

My objective, of course, in giving this as a part of the assignment was to enforce the idea that we as professionals must continuously be self-evaluators, not dependent on our supervisors to tell us how well we've done. As an increasing number of workers become self-employed, entrepreneurial/interprendurial, or just plain treated like trusted professionals, effective self-evaluation becomes a critical skill.

Why do we not ask all our students to be more self-evaluative? Justifying why a solution works, why an answer is correct, or why an interpretation is sufficiently supported is just a foundational ability any independent worker has to have.

Especially writers.

Original post 1/14/15

BFTP: 4 Es of educational technology workshops

There is an old story told about the King of Mars who sent a scout in his flying saucer to find out about American schools. When the scout returned, he reported that these "schools" were the strangest places. It was where young people gathered to watch old people work.

I gave workshops at conference for over 20 years. So I thought a lot about what separates those that motivate, inspire, and give participant practical value from those that don't. Some of my reflections are in this old article: Top Ten Secrets for a Successful Workshop Library Media Connection, October 2006. And I stand by all 10 of my "secrets."

I am not a big fan of conference sessions that show "the top 50 sites/apps/devices in 50 minutes." I know they are popular but so are beer and potato chips. I am not terribly sure they are very good for the professional. What I find is that most teachers* would prefer to learn a few simple tools and actually have time to learn to practice with them and discuss how they might be used in the classroom. My recipe is in the graphic below:
 

In my creativity workshop, I always ask the participants to do a simple activity (make a poster, an Animoto movie, etc.) which shows creativity. I place the activity at the beginning of the workshop instead of at the end. That way we have a recent frame of reference when discussing the challenges for both the student and the teacher when it comes to being creative - especially evaluation.

The only downside I see is that as a product of an education in which I as the student usually watched the teacher work, I feel incredibly lazy during participant work time. Yes, I circulate, answer questions, do technical trouble-shooting, etc., but I can't help wonder if I am actually earning my money. I'll do my best to get over it.

*For some reason I tend lose old guys and administrators at break when there is a lot of hands on time.

Original post 12/12/14

Why grammer and speling is impotent

I basically agree with the message above. Not exactly nuanced, profound, or detailed, but it summarizes sentiments I am sure many Americans share, regardless of political affiliation.

What jumped out at me, however, was how poorly proof-read the message was. There was a spelling, grammar, sentence structure, usage, or capitalization error in nearly every line. While you will find no shortage of typos and other goofs in my writing, I don't believe it reaches the level that errors distract from the primary message.

I taught secondary language arts for seven years to often rather reluctant would-be grammarians. (Long before the days of spell and grammar checker.) Even before Simon Simek admonished us to "start with why," I continually reminded my learners that good spelling and grammar would be important to them - even outside the classroom. Error-laded communications unintentionally convey two negative messages:

• The writer is careless.
• The writer is unintelligent or uneducated.

Rarely do poor writing mechanics make a piece actually confusing or difficult to read, but subliminally they can make a message difficult to believe. See photo below: