Today’s ETC class was all about growing our expectations for the quality of work we are producing on the blogs. Blog posts in ETC are an incredible way for students to document their process, learning, and thinking. The idea is that this type of thinking and learning will carry into their other classes. 

While we do not expect your children to be perfect, we do expect them to put forth their best effort on all assignments and to show growth through feedback and experience. Today we passed out a variety of samples of student work. We asked the students to evaluate the work- was it meeting expectations, approaching or not yet? Not surprisingly, the students were spot on with their observations and feedback. They recognized the characteristics of work that was meeting expectations and just as important, they were able to recognize what was missing from the “not yet” work. 

We shared a blog expectation checklist with the students that, moving forward, should be referenced by all students before publishing work. This checklist will eventually expand and possibly grow into a rubric. We explained that at this point we are looking for growth. We understand that the type of thinking we are asking them to do and document is new and complex. We will continue to provide feedback and also have opportunities for peer feedback. The expectation is that the quality of their work will slowly increase to meet fifth and sixth grade expectations. 

As always, please feel free to leave comments and feedback on your child’s posts. We hope you’ll start to see a shift in the quality of their work as we move forward! 

Gev. Kimmel, Gev. McAdams & Gev. Noorlander