“Uncertainty is the foundation for inquiry and research”, Peter Johnston- This is the quotation that begins this chapter. We are living with great uncertainty right now, but it has also been a very creative time as well, and the future is now. This chapter makes us think about the future, the future of education, the future of how we think about technology and the uses of it for our students, and the future of grading and assessment. What happens to those portfolios when students leave the schools? This is the first big question that is asked. What happens when digital portfolios become the norm? What happens when students are given more choice and voice when it comes to their learning?
Our schools have already gone beyond traditional grading practices. We have been using standards based assessment practices for over five years now, and it has been an easy transition for visual and performing arts teachers and students. I and many of my colleagues have always had difficulty with traditional grading practices when it came to students in the performing arts. The type of feedback that the author talks about in this last chapter connects with the ways we have always worked with students in music classes. Summarize, Explain, Redirect and Resubmit are perfect words to describe how we work with students on artistic projects. If you take a choral group working on a piece of music, for example, you summarize what they did, you explain what they did well and what they could have done better, you help them with how to make it better, and then they try it again. Constant, positive, worthwhile and effective feedback is the way for students to learn and get better at any skill. If you have consistent, timely, specific and thoughtful feedback you do not need grades, students can simply move forward from one standard to the next, and it also gives them license to work at their own paces as well.
Our school has figured out how to showcase student learning and have students take ownership of their learning on a regular basis. We always have student led conferences, where students create a portfolio of work that shows progress, process and performance, depending on the subject and where they are in their accomplishments. It is not totally digital as of yet, but a lot of it is, and after the last twelve weeks of distance learning, all of our work will be available in a digital form for choosing and creating a portfolio for each student. We don’t know what will happen this fall, but we are prepared to teach all of our curriculum using google classroom, and we are prepared to have classes using videoconferencing to meet with students. Students have grown accustomed to working on projects asynchronously, and then asking questions via email, messaging or video conferencing. Students have found more choice and voice just in the ways that we have been forced to teach the groups the last several weeks. It has not been ideal, but I have seen certain gifted students soar, push themselves and find ways to learn without the distractions of others in a classroom.
This takes us to the idea of the Genius Hour that the author describes in this chapter. Our school has an area known as the “Maker Space” which includes several computers, lots of creative materials like recycled materials, beads, feathers, and also a big white board for collaboration with other students. It has become a safe and creative space for many students when they have targeted learning time and want to work on their own projects, or when a teacher has a project time and wants to use that space and materials for their work. I love the idea of Genius Hour because it really makes the creative process accessible for students inside the school day. We have many opportunities for students after school for creative problem solving and the arts, such as Odyssey of the Mind, or drama club, or jazz band or Interact Club, but this is a great place for students to have voice and choice in their learning within school time.
Distance learning keeps coming back to me as I read this book and learn about digital portfolios. We have taken learning to a different place because of the pandemic, and it has offered us many opportunities around independent learning, choice boards, and the idea of students being in charge of their own schedule. Assessment is the big question in our meetings for the end of this school year, as we are not accustomed to assessing students within this format. We have also lost many students for as many reasons as there may be: resources, time, taking care of siblings while parents have to work, just to name a few, so assessing them in a final comment bank and standards assessment seems unfair, unacceptable and inappropriate. We are assessing them until the point at which we were no longer at school, and those who have continued to complete standards earn feedback specific to their needs. We will have to deal with the consequences of all these decisions upon our return in the fall, and uncertainty is the final word, as we will not know if we are going to be in school or online or a combination of both until late in the summer. Do no harm, I will continue our mantra, and think about how to implement continuous digital portfolios in any platform, in school or online, into the future.
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