Student Assessment Tool: Student Work

Student assessment is vital to…

…student success. Assessment can be defined as “gathering information about someone or something for a purpose.” Collecting student work is one tool for assessing student growth, understanding, and application of learning. By collecting student work over a period of time, students and their teachers can review what has been learned and discuss stories of student growth. Teachers who discuss student work with each student are developing two of the most authentic skills students need in the real world: self-assessment and goal-setting. Focusing on the process of learning, and not solely on the products of learning, enhances student learning. This allows students of all learning styles a way to demonstrate their learning, even if standardized test scores indicate otherwise.

Students can be taught to…

…collect, select, and reflect. Collect student work in two folders:

a working folder for documenting the process of learning through the inclusion of all work, and
a portfolio folder for selected samples of work that have been carefully chosen.

Periodically, assign students to review their working folder and select samples for their portfolio. For each sample they choose for their portfolio, assign a reflection. For example, they might be asked to consider: What would I like to reread or share with my parents or a friend? What might be a good example of work that shows how I applied something I learned in my real life?

“Research has found that students in classes that emphasize improvement, progress, effort and the process of learning rather than grades and normative performance are more likely to use a variety of learning strategies and have a more positive attitude toward learning. Yet in education we have shortchanged the process of learning in favor of the products of learning. Students are not regularly asked to examine how they succeeded or failed or improved on a task or to set goals for future work; the final product and evaluation of it receives the bulk of the attention in many classrooms.” http://jfmueller.faculty.noctrl.edu/toolbox/portfolios.htm#are

Puberty: The Wonder Years offers Student Workbooks for…

use as working folders that contain all the students’ work during the puberty lessons. These Student Workbooks include all the student worksheets, rubrics, and family engagement resources that are needed to implement the lessons. Family pages are perforated to make it easy for students to detach and take home. Student pages are bound inside a colorful cover to aid student organization.

Sure, you have the option of making your own copies and chatting it up at the copy machine, but is that really how you want to spend your time?

Benefits of using Puberty: The Wonder Years Student Workbooks

Family Partnership Flyers are more likely to be sent home to parents and other family members when they are already prepared for students to take home.
Using the Student Workbooks increases the likelihood that the family discussion questions get sent home to trigger those vital conversations between students and their parents and/or other trusted adults.
Students take some pride and ownership of having their own Student Workbook with their name on the front and all their work collected inside.
Student Workbooks provide plenty of white space to allow students to write self-reflections or describe how they apply their new knowledge and skills.
Teachers can collect Student Workbooks to review student work and provide feedback.
Student-teacher conferences can use the Student Workbook to help students focus on assessing their learning and applying it to goal setting.
Students will have all their work to take home as a reference when they have questions in the future, as is typical during adolescence.
Students can take their Student Workbooks home at the end of the course to share with their parents and/or other trusted adults. This can keep conversations alive long after the lessons have ended.

Order your Puberty: The Wonder Years Student Workbooks now for use in the coming school year. They are available in sets of 30. Don’t worry; you’ll find other things to fill the time you saved by not making copies.