Finished the presentations today. Nothing I saw changed my thoughts from my initial opinion. Which reminded me of a pedagogical principle: if you need to ‘grade’ or assess a piece of work, you need to read every student’s work. If you just want to know what to teach next, you only need about five samples from the class. That will probably tell you everything you need to know to plan the next lesson or learning.
I knew what I needed to do next after six presentations. Did we really need to see all the rest? What effect would it have had on the class if I had just said ‘stop?’ Would they have been put off? I’m not sure, but it was an interesting reflection. I’m reading a stack of 9th grader’s writing right now, and I knew what I needed to re-teach within the first five.
So choose wisely, and know WHY you are looking at student work- if you just need to know what to do next, you probably don’t need to read them all.
