Teaching About Expectations - Learning About Them Too

Slice of Life Tuesday can be enjoyed at Two Writing Writers

      It’s an exciting time at my school right now, and teachers are using different methods to help students understand the attributes of satisfactory final products.  In written assignments, all of us give the expectations of an assignment, yet seeing examples of real products are important too.  The week of Valentine’s Day also happens to hold another important day at my school, an event we call Expo, where every child in the school creates a display of their unit of study learning so far this school year.

     As I’ve explained before, each student in my school, kindergarten through eighth grade, studies a specific unit topic of their choice around which the curriculum is built.  The nearest I can describe to you about Expo is that it’s similar to a science fair, except there are no prizes and no best of show.  Everyone creates a display of the work they have accomplished during the year, the learning they have achieved.  There are three-way boards filled with reports and illustrations, artistic 3-D depictions of things as diverse as the Globe Theater, the Golden Gate Bridge and life-sized dolphin.  Also, there might be dioramas of survival shelters, posters of advertisements that use stereotypes to sell, sketches of famous people that have been researched and so on, and so on.  In recent years, more computer screens are in use, showing Powerpoints and Prezis, videos and artistic slides.  Some students offer hands on activities that connect to their topics.  There are many displays to view during the day and evening of Expo.  In the evening, students sit and/or stand with their work to greet visitors and answer questions about the topic.

        During these weeks since the holidays, students have been organizing their already researched work, and at the same time, developing and finishing new products to add to the displays.  Since many students have experienced Expo, all but new students know what to expect on the day, but teachers still discuss the attributes of good final products as they have all year.

    One of the good practices that all teachers do during the year and up to the time of Expo is to take students to see other student work.  For example, if a student has decided to make a poster of the information he has discovered about the environmental issues of polar bears, he will need to understand the attributes of a good-to-see poster.  His teacher might take him to view posters already displayed in the halls to take notes in his journal about what he sees that he might incorporate into his own work.   Or if a student is planning a diorama of a working farm, it will be helpful to visit another student’s diorama to try to notice all the good things about it.  With the youngest students, they might just need to view a diorama in order to understand what it is first, then to examine all its parts.

     Even if it doesn’t work to have other classes to visit, it is good practice to show visuals of the product you are asking students to create.  Sometimes, I would make the product myself first, and have the class evaluate it.  What looks right?  What could be improved?  How would you change it to improve it?  It’s the same as writing with students.  If you can show even an approximation of the assignment’s expectation, it will show more than just giving the assignment orally or in writing.

    One additional good thing about viewing other work is that students see additional possibilities of how to communicate their learning.  They might be looking for good examples of posters, but also notice that someone has created a book instead, or a timeline, or ?  School displays of student work can be used as a marvelous catalog of information for other teachers to use with their students.  I hear students walking by often during these days, and hear the teachers too.  “What do you see that appeals?”  “How could you record that in your journal?”  “What stands out for you?”  “What is a favorite on this bulletin board?  Why?”  “What colors look good together?”  “What are the colors you might choose?”

           

            It is such a great time during this part of the year at school, and anticipating visitors and celebrations of the learning is also a fun part of it.  We all look forward to Expo!