My department is doing a collaborative inquiry focusing on student reflection. Our students, like most students I have taught, struggle to reflect. They get an essay or piece of writing back, they quickly flip to the grade, and then have an intense emotional reaction that hijacks all thinking.

We’ve been doing something cool as a department this year where they get back only their writing, with all the in-line margin comments, but with no rubric or grade. They have to read all the comments and feedback. Then they have to reflect on their portfolio about what went well, what needed improvement. They predict their score and only then can they see my rubric and grade.

That has been amazing, and probably deserves its own post. But something else enlightening came out of that process. When students were asked to write about what went well, they were struggling. They’d call me over and ask for help. I was shocked! In my mind, I had clearly marked all the good things in their pieces.

When I looked closer, I realized I would underline and put a check mark next to good things, but weakness were labeled with at least a few words. They were right! It was less clear what went well. I was focusing all my time and energy on the deficits and quickly checking off the strengths.

Today I am grading analytical paragraphs about an excerpt from Act 2 of Romeo and Juliet. Rather than just putting a check mark next to a quote that is woven into the sentence well, I’m writing, “Nice weave in.” When the quote is correctly formatted and parenthetically cited, I’m writing just a few words to convey that, rather than just a check mark. See below some real examples:

I hand this work back next week, and I’ll be giving them a quick one or two question survey to see if they are noticing what I am doing and if it is helping. My hope is that it helps kids to see the good, not just the bad.

I’ll report back!