School is a puzzle

Today in our weekly meetings, we were discussing assessment. Assessment is such a big topic and there are many pieces to it. On one hand it is big, but on the other it is just another piece to the puzzle that we call school.

I looked at the plethora of rubrics and detail teachers had put into their assessments, it must have taken them ages! One part of me likes this, grades are clear and we can depict one student from another and it can look beautiful and colour coded! We have all been there! Having said that why do we have to really define so meticulously and put students into a box? Yes students want feedback and to know where they are heading, but does that grade really define everything they do? Do we want students in nice neat boxes?

I had an interesting lesson directly after, where I asked my students where they thought they were in terms of grade level. I don't often do this as I feel like they get a lot of verbal feedback from myself and their peers which is enough to enable them to keep learning and improving but I went for it anyway (I used to do this in the UK all the time "What level are you? How do you improve?" and if I didn't, it would be picked up on and I could be penalised in a formal observation. Crazy!).

So, sure enough, they all rated themselves in a category (some were 0.5 or 'ish') and gave their thoughts on what it may look like for Lacrosse, but what really set them apart was the fact that they weren't really justifying what they could do, but how they got there.

I have been using some simple 'how we learn' magnets on the board and I refer back to them as much as possible in class. All of them said that to be a '7' you had to do all of the tasks on the magnets in order to build and improve but you could also just do some in order to start the learning process.

Their feedback was also interesting 'I need more time' or 'I am not there yet but I could be' was different instead of 'I am rubbish' or 'I am not good, I need to do more.' In all honesty, they only had 6 lessons and I am glad they came to the realisation that Lacrosse is hard, but it is not impossible and if they focus on HOW they learn, they will instantly find ways to improve and challenge each other in ways they didn't really think about.

This was particularly relevant for my one student who was actually the most able at this particular sport (including myself here). He kept on mentioning that the game wasn't challenging enough for him as everyone else was not as confident or proficient yet. I asked him 'How can you change this?' and he wasn't so sure at first. Once the six lessons were over, he realised that in order to be challenged, it doesn't have to be in playing the sport itself to begin with, but helping others reach a level that will challenge him mentally (by teaching) and in the end hopefully physically (as they improve their proficiency).

I am slowly but surely getting my students to have fun, be engaged and exposed to different sports, but ultimately to learn HOW they operate, work together and manage the journey that is learning and most importantly LIFE.