One approach to learning to design learning experiences is to be "a critical friend". What does this look like when students are collecting and giving peer feedback? In a nutshell, students should focus on:
One Positive
One Constructive
One Suggestion
We've also used Developing, Meets, and Exceeds, but some students (especially ELL) can get tangled up in the jargon. If we are teaching with intention, it should follow that students are learning with intention, and in the process of collaborating with intention, students need a guide.
Think/Pair/Share is not as intentional as being a "critical friend".
At the end of the day, we need to teach Approaches to Learning in order to reach the highest level. Every child has access to information. It's what they do with it, do something more, get to the so what. Then we've arrived to a point at which a student can talk about their learning and move it further. What are we learning? How is it authentic?
"There's no competitive advantage today in knowing more than the person next to you. The world does not care about what you know. What the world cares about is what you can do with what you know." Tony Wagner
So we've gotten over the hurdle of peer feedback. Students understand they need to have enough information on their sites to be worthy of peer feedback, and this alone has created a motivation more powerful than any grade. At this point:
Check out Ken Robinson's inspirational and informative visual document on the state of education today.
One Positive
One Constructive
One Suggestion
We've also used Developing, Meets, and Exceeds, but some students (especially ELL) can get tangled up in the jargon. If we are teaching with intention, it should follow that students are learning with intention, and in the process of collaborating with intention, students need a guide.
Think/Pair/Share is not as intentional as being a "critical friend".
At the end of the day, we need to teach Approaches to Learning in order to reach the highest level. Every child has access to information. It's what they do with it, do something more, get to the so what. Then we've arrived to a point at which a student can talk about their learning and move it further. What are we learning? How is it authentic?
"There's no competitive advantage today in knowing more than the person next to you. The world does not care about what you know. What the world cares about is what you can do with what you know." Tony Wagner
So we've gotten over the hurdle of peer feedback. Students understand they need to have enough information on their sites to be worthy of peer feedback, and this alone has created a motivation more powerful than any grade. At this point:
- Each and every student has opened up a website.
- Each and every student has chosen 3 themes and topics of interest to go along with those themes.
- Each and every student has provided meaningful peer feedback to a classmate.
- Each and every student knows what it means to be "a critical friend".
Check out Ken Robinson's inspirational and informative visual document on the state of education today.