Guidelines for Looking at Student Work

    The following guidelines were provided to help teacher teams get started with a process of inquiry. These guidelines were informed by the work of a variety of education organizations and practitioners.*

    1. Gather a team, or small group, of teachers together.
    2. Select a piece of student work. The sample should demonstrate a rich variety of student learning. It can be a work-in-progress, a final piece, or a document of a performance. Also collect the scoring guide or rubric used to assess that piece. Make copies for team members, if possible.
    3. If someone in the group is not familiar with your unit of study, take a few minutes to introduce its overall purpose, the activities that have been conducted, and the work that has been generated.
    4. Discuss and write down one standard from the Philadelphia Curriculum Frameworks that you expected students to address in this activity. What did you expect the students to know and be able to do?
    5. Next, take a few minutes to look at the work as a group. Either read it aloud, or let each person take a turn looking at it.
    6. Write down the group's observations about the work. Then write down comments and questions. You might allow each team member to do this first individually and then share in turn.
    7. Next, use your scoring guide or rubric to assess the piece of work. If you do not yet have a scoring guide, reread the standard you have identified and assess the work based on its criteria. (You might put together an informal rubric by doing this.)
    8. Take a few minutes to discuss as a team the following questions: What can you see from your observations, comments, and questions that will help you assess student learning? How might these observations determine your next steps as a teacher? Do these observations tell you anything new about your unit of study or classroom activities?

    * Influences include, but are not limited to, Pat Carini's Descriptive Review Process, various Tuning Protocols as developed by the Coalition of Essential Schools and the Annenberg Institute for School Reform, New Standards documentation of student work, and information gathered from the Education Trust's Standards in Practice project.

    Documenting Your Observations

    While observation and discussion are important components in this process, documentation is vital for recording insights and ideas. Mini-Grant recipients were asked to share their inquiry into a piece of student work generated during their Unit of Study by answering the following questions on their final report:

    • What should students know and be able to do?
      Select one standard that is most directly related to the activity from which the student work was created. Please write out the entire standard.
    • What were students asked to do?
      Clearly outline the activity or performance that students were asked to conduct. Use concrete examples.
    • What story does the work tell?
      Take some time and look deeply at the student work. For your own use, record your observations, comments, and questions. Look specifically for evidence that your selected standard has been addressed. Analyze the student work using your standard to assess student learning. Using your observations as evidence, discuss how one can tell that the student has understood and synthesized the knowledge, skills, and concepts addressed in the standard.
    • How good is good enough?
      Use your scoring rubric or other assessment tools to assess your sample of student work. Describe how the student has exceeded, met, or failed to meet the expectations set forth by the scoring rubric. Include a copy of the rubric if possible.
    • How can your inquiry guide further instruction?
      Discuss what your inquiry into the sample of student work tells you about student learning, classroom instruction, and the assignment given. How might you do things differently in the future?