The Portrait of a Classroom
My vision for expanding student's voices.
WHY I believe students' work should be showcased:
HOW and WHAT I want to showcase:
My vision is to create a classroom portfolio that is simple and easy to navigate, one where students' exemplary work will be showcased. Since building community in my classroom is extremely important, two of the main assignments I would display are students' Personal Narratives and Digital Poems. These assignments offer a great way for students to be creative, grow in their appreciation of literature, and learn about how they can use literature to share their stories and their voices. As I suggested above, student showcases would be available for students, parents, administrators, and community members. My ideal would be to include students' first names with their work, but whether this is possible and whether pictures of the students would be displayed or not would depend on the schools privacy policy. Along with the students' work, I would include a brief description of the lesson plan and objectives to add clarity to the assignment. Finally, I think adding a link to the grading rubric would be a great resource for students (and parents) to become familiar with teacher expectations and to see examples of those expectations through students' work.
- Student Motivation - Displaying students' work sends a message to them that their hard work and creativity are valuable and interesting. It has been my experience that when students know their work is going to be seen by more than just the teacher, it can be a great incentive for them to produce quality work (especially when those students have a competitive nature!). Students' work can then be used to motivate future students in the upcoming school year and as a guide for teacher's expectations as to what is considered exemplary.
- Parent Involvement - Too often, parents are absent in the audience of their child's work and even if they do see it, they are unaware of the assignment details, or how their child's work fares with the work of others in the same grade. I think parents would be more prepared to give feedback of encouragement or help to their children if they can see the students' work displayed in this way.
- Community Awareness - Just like it takes a village to raise a child, I think it takes a whole community to help in the education of a child, especially when the education of that child will give back to the quality and development of the community. I feel that one way to get the community involved is to make it aware of what students are doing and learning in the school. Displaying students' work and opening it up for community viewing and feedback is a great way to open this door.
HOW and WHAT I want to showcase:
My vision is to create a classroom portfolio that is simple and easy to navigate, one where students' exemplary work will be showcased. Since building community in my classroom is extremely important, two of the main assignments I would display are students' Personal Narratives and Digital Poems. These assignments offer a great way for students to be creative, grow in their appreciation of literature, and learn about how they can use literature to share their stories and their voices. As I suggested above, student showcases would be available for students, parents, administrators, and community members. My ideal would be to include students' first names with their work, but whether this is possible and whether pictures of the students would be displayed or not would depend on the schools privacy policy. Along with the students' work, I would include a brief description of the lesson plan and objectives to add clarity to the assignment. Finally, I think adding a link to the grading rubric would be a great resource for students (and parents) to become familiar with teacher expectations and to see examples of those expectations through students' work.