How do we move from a set of data to an action step in a classroom? (Student Writing as Data)

I believe it is very important for teachers to be regarded as intellectuals who can assess their students and respond to students’ needs effectively. I am passionate about teaching writing, and I want my students to appreciate the craft of writing and the liberation it provides to express oneself. To that end, one important source of formative assessment data is student writing.

Let me provide two examples of how I have used student writing as formative assessment data to inform classroom practice:

1) Responding to writing skills:

As an English teacher, reviewing student writing provides insights into their strengths and weaknesses with written expression. A recurring weakness that I have assessed with many students has been with the quality of body paragraphs when writing essays. Students often struggle with selecting relevant evidence to support their thesis, contextualizing the evidence properly, and analyzing the evidence in deep and meaningful ways. To address this, over the past couple of years, I have consulted with mentors, reviewed literature on the teaching of writing (especially Teaching for Joy and Justice), and continually reflected on my instruction. This process has led to the following exercise that I now work on with my students:

Making Your Writing Meaningful - Direct Quote Analysis

By practicing this process with students, we learn to how to access deep thoughts that all the students are capable of producing. Body paragraphs become more robust, and our problem becomes crafting and carefully selecting the best out of how much they have to say rather than not having much to say at all.

2) Responding to writing content:

An equally powerful way to use student writing as data to inform class instruction is by reading what they have to say about the course and the curriculum. In a critically engaged classroom, topics we cover can be controversial, and students need chances to express their thoughts on the content and have their perspectives heard. Towards the end of a unit, creating space for students to simply respond to the following prompts can elicit valuable data about how to adapt the curriculum moving forward:

• What part of the previous unit resonated with you the most? Why?
• What would you want to explain to others who have not had this course?
• What questions do you still have?

Recently, I asked these questions to my seniors in our Gender and Literature course. We had just spent the previous month discussing perspectives on gender around femininity, masculinity, and other gender identities. Any one of these topics could have merited an entire course. Nevertheless, introductions to these topics accompanied with selected Ted Talks provided a meaningful foundation for students to enhance their “Critical Gender Lens” when reading literature. (A “Critical Gender Lens” asks the question, “In what ways does this story reinforce, critique, or challenge existing definitions of masculinity, femininity, or androgyny?)

The responses I received from students revealed a variety of questions, anxieties, inspirations, and perspectives that are important for me to understand and navigate as we continue the course. I read the perspectives of deeply religious students who have a strict adherence to gender as binary; I read the perspectives of transgender students who wanted to learn more about gender ambiguous identities; I read perspectives of young women who saw the importance of men being part of the feminist movement; I read perspectives of young men who realized ways in which their emotional identities have been stunted.

All of this is invaluable information for me to continue the curriculum and manage the relationships in the classroom. To respond to their writing, a strategy I often use from the Philadelphia Writing Project is to select one sentence from each reflection to write out into a paragraph. I will present this paragraph to the students for them all to see the variety of perspectives in the classroom. I know that each student gets excited to hear their sentence when we read it aloud, and it lets them know that I value their voices in the classroom. Going forward, I know the types of topics and questions that would be highly engaging for the students to design lessons around, and I am looking into inviting experts on gender into the classroom to interact with the students.

How do we "Humanize" Data (An Eagles Super Bowl Reflection)

To "humanize" data, we must remember that in schools, we are ultimately working for humans: our students. As we organize our classrooms and schools to serve them, we know that our students carry all of the complexities, emotions, and backgrounds that life has to offer. Therefore, to understand how to support our students and help them grow, they must be more than a collection of literacy and a math scores. Of course, we all want them to be literate and numerate, and we do not need to separate that from their humanity and emotional health. In schools, all students need to feel valued, appreciated, and recognized as members of a community. When they feel valued as a member of the school community, they are more likely to work with us to perform at their best.

To draw a comparison with football in honor of the Eagles’ Super Bowl victory, I’d like to compare head coach Doug Pederson to the previous coach, Chip Kelly. Chip Kelly was known as a data-driven coach guided by “sports science.” He had players track the amount of sleep they had at night and submit urine samples, which ultimately led to personalized smoothies corresponding to this data input. All of this was for the players to perform better.

Now, all of this “personalized smoothie” business may in fact be beneficial. However, when the process of sports science (or any “data driven” initiative) overshadows the humanity of the players, performance will not advance. Chip was notorious for being detached and aloof. He did not have a positive relationship with his team.

In contrast, when Doug Pederson entered as head coach, he prioritized relationships and the building of a positive culture in the locker room. He created a team that wanted to play for each other and for him. Many players referenced the fact that he had been a journeyman player in the NFL and therefore knew what they go through as men in the league. He understood the pressure to perform and the many distractions players face. To that end, he would frequently treat the players to ice cream after film sessions. If you don’t believe me, just watch:

Now, I am not trying to suggest that Doug Pederson was somehow “anti-data.” As a coach, he was still deeply focused on data to develop game plans and offensive strategy. However, he balanced all of the attention to data, strategy, and hard work that is involved with coaching a team with his relationships with the players to promote a sense of community that was critical to the team’s success. He never lost sight of his team as a group of humans...who probably enjoy ice cream.

As teachers and administrators, the humanity of our students and the sense of community in our schools should never be displaced because of standardized testing data. It is important to note that this is not an “either-or” problem. We can strategically address the student achievement of our schools while we build community and validate our students’ humanity...perhaps, with some ice cream.