A lesson from Stacey. (evaluating students' work)

One 6th grader's confusion led to the creation of a new way to evaluate student work that lets the students set the standards.

During my first year teaching 6th grade, Stacey taught me a lesson I will never forget. She came to me after class and said, "I don't understand why I got this grade." I glanced at the paper, and two responses came to mind--she hadn't written very much, and her responses weren't as complete as those of some of the other students. But I realized that those answers weren't very helpful. Stacey needed to understand exactly why she'd gotten the grade, or she would have no idea how to do better next time. As a teacher, I was repeating a pattern I had experienced as a student: guess what the teacher wants and if you guess right, you'll get a good grade.

I promised myself I would be a lot clearer with my class about what I expected, but Stacey's question was pushed aside until I was faced with grading a stack of …