Handout: Examining Student Work Protocol Guide

The protocol provides:

  • A safe environment for teachers.
  • A process for providing and gathering feedback about alignment of curriculum and instruction to standards.
  • A way to avoid quick judgements about student work.
  • A way to focus on the essentials of teaching and learning, including alignment of curriculum and instruction to standards.

This is a collaborative effort. 

  • One teacher team presents a collection of student work from a unit.
  • Several teachers act as the panel for review of student work.
  • One teacher facilitates the process.

Norms

  • Professional Trust: What is said in the room stays in the room.
  • Professional Purpose: Provide useful information through examination of student work.
  • No teacher or student is evaluated in the process.
  • One voice at a time.

Role of the Facilitator

  • Maintain the protocol, keeping to the length of time for each step as much as possible.
  • Keep the panel on task, directing attention to the student work and standards/benchmarks as necessary.
  • Ask clarifying questions, summarize discussion and paraphrase comments to refine the group’s understanding of the evidence of learning.

Role of the Panel

  • Look at work through the lens of what descriptions are important and significant.
  • Focus on conversation/feedback that is descriptive rather than evaluative.
  • “Push” against the standards and benchmarks-- investigate alignment deeply.

Role of Presenting Teacher(s)

  • Listen to the discussion carefully and actively, not talking until the end. (Staying silent is critical so that the panel can focus on what evidence is actual present in the student work.)
  • Respond to panel observations at the end of the protocol. 

Facilitator Preparation for the Panel

  • Identify presenter(s) and panel members.
  • Ask presenting teacher(s) to:
    • bring all of the student work that resulted from a unit for one to three students
    • A separate list of all standards and benchmarks assessed in the unit.
  • Make enough copies of the following for use during the panel:
    • Presenting Teacher(s) Tool 
    • Panel Tool
    • List of assessed standards and benchmarks.

Examining Student Work Protocol

Guide for Facilitator and Panel Members

  1. Set up the panel 

(5 minutes)

  • Identify the presenting teacher(s) and display their student’s work. Presenting teacher(s) should state the grade level of the student and name the components of the sample (ex, artist statement, journal entry, etc.). Do not provide any more information at this time! Presenting teacher(s) listen silently until Step #6. 
  • Each panel review member should tell the presenting teacher(s) their name and grade level.
  • Review the protocol process and norms. 
  1. Describe Work

(10 minutes)

  1. Panel members observe the student work without discussion or comment and independently describe what they think is important and significant in the work on the “Examining Student Work: Panel Tool”. 
  2. Share observations: go around the group, sharing one descriptive element per panel member until everyone on the panel has finished.
  1. Questions/Speculate

(10 minutes)

  1. Panel members silently note questions they have, both about what the student was doing and what the teacher did.
  2. Panel members also silently speculate about student learning that resulted from the unit, based on what was noticed in the work. 
  3. The panel shares questions and speculates aloud about the learning (what the student knows and is able to do) they see in the collection. What learning is embodied in this student work? 
  1. Review and discuss the standard/benchmarks 

(10 minutes)

  1. Read the unpacked standards/benchmarks that teachers selected for this unit. Going line by line of the standards/benchmarks, panel members discuss and come to agreement about whether there is evidence of each benchmark in the student work. Consider both the verb(s) and the concept(s).
  1. Review descriptions and identify important “left-overs” 

(10 minutes)

  1. Each panel member returns to his/her description and speculations, and determines if there is an aspect of the student work that is “left-over”, or not discussed in the course of reviewing the work against the benchmarks. 
  1. Teacher Response

(10 minutes)

Listen and allow time for the presenting teacher(s) to process the discussion. They will be considering the following questions as they respond:

  • What is the relationship between what you planned and instructed and the learning evident in this sample of student work? What insights did you have while listening to the panel?
  • What do you appreciate more, now? What would you change? 
  • Identify next steps.

When they are done panel members can give their Looking at Student Work: Panel Tool to the presenting teacher(s).

Adapted from Queensland Australia Evaluation Protocol, Standards In Practice developed by Education Trust www.edtrust.org, and Perpich Center for Arts Education.

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