I have the rare opportunity of encountering a wide variety of teenage students from around the entire county with different backgrounds, abilities, values and school cultures all in one classroom. If I were to categorize them I could say that I have every student from the Cheerleader, the Goth, the Gay Dram Queen to the Urban Princess, but what’s interesting is those labels no longer define them once they enter our school and my class. They get a free pass to start over and realize they are all at BOCES with a common interest, fashion design (the freedom to express your true self). That is what we do, what we talk about, what we create, and what we are. And what I have learned from this (past 4 years) is removing the label, looking past stereotypes, and seeing the individual student for whom they uniquely and complexly are allows them to succeed. You might be thinking, EXPLAIN. Well, this allows me to be flexible, give room to breath, allow extra time, accept different outcomes, etc, allowing students to be creative. I can give options and alternatives, As Luna suggest, “sketch pictures, build sculptures, create videos, write songs and musical scores, and make quilts and wall hangings… Stretch the seams of our disciplines to include different types of learners” (603). This allows students to be successful. This begins the question of, what is success? What is learning? What is understanding?
After reflecting on Carini and Luna’s readings I thought about what constitutes as learning in MY classroom? How do I define it? And, How do I assess it? And, what I realized is what I define as success is when EVERY, I mean EVERY student participates and completes an assignment. When do I see that? I see that when AUTHENTIC learning is taking place and the students are motivated beyond just a letter grade, because the assignment has VALUE to them. Then, how do I give a grade to something that has more value to them then the grade? I grade on standards, our classes personal standards that we have created in the classroom. I grade on self-reflection in which students share their learning process with me. I grade on reflection of student and personal growth over long periods of time (I have students for two-years). Doing as Carini suggest, focusing on progression not snap shots. As I reflect, I realize that the times I don’t have success in the classroom are the times in which narrow standards are put in place that restrict students true learning potential. This is when you see the greatest gap in class between the students with cultural capital that know how to, “do school”, and the students who don’t fit into the culture of power usually just don’t finish, partially complete, don’t turn in, or even participate because the flexibility is not in place for them to succeed. Either side that you look; the students is being limited. They are not learning – they are either disengaging from the process, or they are just going through the motions. As, Ken Robinson suggest in Killing Creativity, we have compartmentalized schooling down to one side of the brain and de-valued all other aspects of the human body to be able to contribute or have value in education. We are limiting students potential to learn? “There is that in learning and educating which is immeasurable,” Carini persists, “When you or I or anyone else applies rulers, or their equivalent, to the immeasurable, we have to change what is immeasurable to fit the measuring stick”. Which makes the issue of schooling confusing because I grew up thinking that school was a place for learning, but what we are really seeing is it is a place for accountability. Carini views assessment in two ways, “the first purposes has to do with evaluation, which has the ostensible aim of benefiting the learner. The second has to do with accountability and the regulation of schools and public education”. How can we steer evaluation in a direction to benefit the learner and away from educational accountability?
Learning is the process of investigation and exploration that pushes a student past their comfort zone and their personal realm of understanding of a subject. Learning questions one’s current perceptions and broadens their horizons. It challenges, frustrates and rewards them. Learning is hard work that engages the learner to keep going forward despite challenges, and when the end goal is accomplished the learner feels proud, and has grown on multiple levels. This is learning, not regurgitating what a teacher reads to you and you memorize over and over to pass a test. Learning engages and excites the soul of a being.
I did a fashion closet makeover of assessment- out with old in with the new:
-Enjoy
THROW AWAY:
Stop categorizing students, “I use the term learning disabilities to refer to the socially constructed category indicating mismatches between diverse learners’ abilities and specific academic demands” (Luna,597).
Let go of the miss-match and as Luna suggest, “shift the blame of failure off of the students’ bodies, and their families, and onto the miss-match itself”.
Dispose of the current hierarchy values pyramid of school: English and Math, Science and humanity, art and music (Ken Robinson, “Killing Creativity”).
Destroy assessment for accountability, Rockefeller foundation findings (Regents review panel report, 2001) stop lowering standards and playing with numbers in order to meet AYP. Fordham Foundation found, only five states have test that are in “solid” alignment with the state standards.
Eliminate test bias
Replace rigidity and the standardization of schooling.
Stop educating students out of creativity (Ken Robinson, “Killing Creativity”).
Discontinue scaring students out of being wrong (Ken Robinson, “Killing Creativity”).
NEW ADDITIONS:
Consider Individuality: We cannot assume or interpret ourselves onto a student.
Value reflection: create student constructed rubrics, student reflections, and student goals
Stretch the boundaries…. Grading with flexibility towards students weakness’ and highlight students strengths.
Create a two-way conversation- listen to your students especially LD learners.
Be accommodating
Embrace creativity to be as important as literacy, (Ken Robinson, “Killing Creativity”).
Value the class as a whole: Learning in a group – we all perceive things different- expand horizons through group discussion. Student and teacher are equal as educator and learner.
Remember to observe the process and progress not just the outcome.
Try harder to understand than to explain (Carini, 169).
Embrace the idea of ‘Manyness’, (Carini).
Aligning class curriculum with student interest.
There is no one size fits all (as we know not to be true with t-shirts too!)
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