Report Cards for Teachers: Gaining Authentic Feedback from Students

As teachers, we constantly search for ways to improve our instructional practice. We do this so that learning experiences are more engaging and rigorous for students. As a social studies teacher, you probably have some goals related to instruction. Establishing goals is part of a continual growth process, and it's important to consider student perspectives in your growth  (since we make changes for the benefit of student learning). You might gain this feedback through a paper survey or you could create a survey in Google Forms.

Below, you'll find some sample statements that might be included in your survey about instructional practice within social studies.  Students might respond with:
1. Completely agree
2. Agree
3. Disagree
4. Completely disagree

• As a class, we use Learning Targets effectively as a tool to evaluate the success of our thinking and work.
• Because we do not concentrate on memorizing facts, I want to make sure you know the skill, process or conceptual goals in our tasks. 
• As a student, I know when I am simply gathering and organizing factual information that will be used in different tasks. 
• As a student, I know when I am being evaluated based on my ability to use facts when answering one of our inquiry questions.
• As a student, I know when I am being evaluated on my ability to apply a skill or thinking process that is unique to a historian, geographer, economist, or citizen.
• As a student, I feel that the teacher effectively models what thinking looks like or what work looks like. 
• As a student, I feel that we are given enough opportunities to talk with other students about our learning. This might happen in partner conversations, small group conversations, or class conversations.
• As a student, I feel the we are given enough opportunities to use writing as we learn. I also feel that we are given enough opportunities to write about our learning. 
• As a student, I feel that our "classroom expectations for conversation" are helpful. We regularly refer to these expectations so we are successful. 
• As a student, I feel that our "classroom expectations for using writing in all content areas" is helpful. We regularly refer to these expectations so we are successful.

PLEASE NOTE the following key ideas shared by teachers who ask students to do such evaluations...

1. Students must be familiar with the language in this evaluation. If you are not using this language in your instruction, students might not know what you are talking about when you ask them to evaluate you.
2. Students must understand that you plan to take this feedback seriously. Just as you do report cards in a way that is about honesty, you hope students provide honest feedback to you.
3. Go over the data results with students. Talk with students about how you plan to use the feedback. Encourage students to use their report cards in the same way...to set new goals and improve as students.

Establishing Routines and Strategies for Collaboration and Conversation

Image is copyright free from Morguefile.com  (http://mrg.bz/zvdkwH)

These shoes work well together. You can see the difference in each pair while recognizing that they seem to complement each other. To me, THIS is collaboration - unique, diverse students who complement each other with thinking... and students who are able to work well together.

As part of best practice, teachers develop routines and structures within the classroom, including those that support effective collaboration. When these routines and structures are established, students are given daily opportunities to interact verbally, share ideas, collaborate, and think "out loud". It's critical that students have opportunities to talk with peers about their learning. Why? Consider research connected to: 

• students as social learners,
• the need for students to engage in "oral rehearsal", and 
• the need for students to formulate thinking. 

These conversational experiences lead to deeper understanding and greater clarity in student thinking and understanding. In the end, students might also find themselves transferring ideas from conversations into writing (experiences we connect with writing-to-learn). To support students in their development as collaborators, we might provide opportunities for them to evaluate themselves (self-evaluation) and consider possibilities for change.

Establishing routines for students to talk about their learning supports the 21st Century Skills of Collaboration and Critical Thinking and Reasoning. As you establish these routines, expectations, and strategies, consider these additional tools:

• Video - Think Time and Collaboration (2:19) from the Teaching Channel
• Strategy - Using Partner Talk to Strengthen Student Collaboration and Understanding from ReadWriteThink
• Video (Strategy) - Organizing Desks into "Four Corners" (1:18) from the Teaching Channel
• Video (Strategy) - The Four Tribes: Agreements for Learning Together (2:31) from the Teaching Channel
• Blog Post with Strategies - How to Foster Collaboration and Team Spirit from MindShift
• Blog Post with Strategies - Nurturing Collaboration: 5 Strategies from Edutopia
• Best Practices - 20 Collaborative Learning Tips and Strategies from Global Digital Citizen
• Strategy for Using Academic Language with ALL Learners - Discussion Chips (example is in math)

Critical Thinking and the Development of Disciplined Minds

One of the most difficult things is escaping tradition.  In education, we have strong traditions influenced by our past...one of those involves memorizing information to regurgitate it on a test.  While developing factual content knowledge is still a significant component of student learning, there is SOOOOOO much more to a 21st century education.

In the 2008 ASCD edition of Educational Leadership, this notion is challenged in an article on Disciplining the Mind.  

Students need more than a large information base to understand their ever-changing world. They need to master disciplinary thinking. 

(Source: Boix Mansilla, Veronica, and Howard Gardner. "Disciplining the Mind." Educational Leadership. 65.5 (2008): 14-19. Print. <http://www.ascd.org/publications/educational-leadership/feb08/vol65/num05/Disciplining-the-Mind.asp&xgt)

But, what is disciplinary thinking? Disciplinary thinking is directly connected to the fundamental shift in how we look at our role as educators in the 21st century. Shift happens...and shift MUST happen if we are to prepare students for their future (and NOT our past).

• We don't teach students writing, we teach them to be writers.
• We don't teach students reading, we teach them to be readers.
• We don't teach students art, we teach them to be artists.
• We don't teach students music, we teach them to be musicians.
• We don't teach students science, we teach them to be scientists (biologists, physicists, chemists).  
• We don't teach students social studies, we teach them to be social scientists (historians, geographers, economists, and informed/engaged citizens).

As educators, when we embrace this shift, then we start to utilize instructional practice that teaches students to have disciplined, engaged minds. This is precisely what it means for students to practice the 21st century skill of CRITICAL THINKING and REASONING.

The first part of developing the disciplined mind involves incorporating the most common cross-content critical thinking skills and strategies in EVERY content area.  While our tradition might involve learning and practicing these skills and strategies as part of reading instruction, they are crucial to the thinking that takes place as students engage with information and resources in EVERY content area.  Students must transfer and reapply these skills all the time. (To remind yourself about cross-content critical thinking skills and strategies, take a gander at this list.) The image you see shows thinking skills at the top and shows how those skills are transferred and reapplied every day in every content area.

The second part of developing a disciplined mind involves looking at skills, or what students should be able to do.  Today, teachers are engaging with planning documents that consistently call out skills, or what students should be able to do.  As educators, we must challenge ourselves to look at these goals and ask ourselves, "How do these skills ask students to think like the practitioners of these disciplines?"  To build your thinking about disciplinary thinking, check out this collection of quotes that I gathered. In the image below, you see how cross-content skills are transferred and reapplied in every content area. It also shows how students apply discipline-specific thinking. This is the type of thinking that takes place within a particular content. For example, how does a geographer think? How does an economist think? How does an astronomer think? If we are to bring education into the 21st century, we must USE knowledge and resources to help students THINK like PRACTITiONERS of a DISCIPLINE.

It's easy to hold on to traditions, especially the tradition of knowing as much information as possible. I challenge you to let go of that tradition, and embrace instruction that highlights THINKING.  When you do, you'll begin to see the thinking minds of students like never before.  When we (as educators) open our minds to new ways of thinking and new ways of approaching our work, our students and the larger society are the ones who benefit.  WE ALL BENEFIT!