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This can grow social emotional learning while incorporating skills they will need to use outside of the classroom.

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With careful planning, teachers can use the election to foster social and emotional learning and connect math, literacy, and social studies lessons.

Bob Daemmrich / Alamy Stock Photo

On November 9, 2016, I walked into my math and science classroom and met students who were experiencing a wide range of emotions regarding the outcome of the election. I opted to teach that day by not only analyzing votes and electoral data but also asking students to write about their understanding of the election. In doing so, I was able to teach the election through a cross-curricular lens and create a safe space to help students understand and process it.

I've reflected on how I taught past elections in my classroom, and now, as I work with teachers as a mentor, I'm encouraging them to not only use the election as a jumping-off point for content but develop lesson plans focused on their students' social and emotional needs around the outcome. That way, teachers are prepared to handle and even leverage the complexities that characterize this remarkable moment.

Creating a Safe Space for Discussion

As we approach Election Day, our role as educators is to empower our students to understand the inner workings of our democratic process and the historic moment we are living through. We need to create safe spaces to address the social and emotional needs of our students so they can focus on learning, while empowering them with the tools they need to think critically about the world around them.

One way to address students' social and emotional needs is to use community circles to establish a classroom norm of talking, tolerance, and empathy. Effective community circles have clear, co-constructed norms and procedures that ensure that students can share their thoughts and opinions, and listen to and respect one another. Social justice standards from Teaching Tolerance provide a strong framework to help teachers build lessons centered on respect and empathy; that approach can help students learn how to respect others who have different viewpoints and how to express disagreements in a constructive manner. Another option is to develop discussion norms in collaboration with students.

Many teachers also find themselves wondering how to answer student questions, manage their discomfort discussing the election in a Zoom classroom, and address disagreements or polarizing political rhetoric from students. The Civically Engaged Classroom outlines a plethora of activities teachers can use to address these concerns. Other sites-like Rock the Vote, Facing History, iCivics, and the Center for Civic Education -provide nonpartisan resources around civic engagement and voting for educators. Nearpod has many curated lessons about the electoral process, voting, and government.

Cross-Curricular Approaches

It's important that discussion about politics and the 2020 election not occur in silos or only in social science classes, but across content areas. A clear teaching plan, no matter what subject you teach, is key to creating a safe learning space for students.

Math: Political pundits suggest that we may not know the outcome of the election on election night. Use this opportunity, both before and after November 3, to track both the popular vote and electors in the Electoral College, and consider making use of FiveThirtyEight, a website that uses a wide array of polling and forecast data to project election outcomes (including in some local races) or the University of Virginia's Center for Politics, which also offers data and analysis.

Consider teaching students how to apply mathematical concepts to the total votes earned by each candidate and analyze local election data on propositions and ballot measures. Alternatively, teachers can host a mock election using Zoom polls or Google Forms, analyze classroom votes, and compare them to actual election results.

Reading graphs and charts is key to understanding elections, and is a skill that can be utilized in many content areas. Demonstrate how to create line, graph, and pie charts. Students can then create their own graphics using election and polling data to make predictions or analyze outcomes. Examine election forecast models from different news outlets and ask for observations about what each one analyzes.

Reading and writing: Help students analyze media sources as part of media literacy. Students can evaluate multiple sources, look for objective evidence or biases, and discuss the power of persuasion as well as the perspectives offered by diverse news outlets.

In terms of writing, prompts like "Twenty years from now, I hope my future children will describe this country as..." or "One thing I wish adults who voted knew is..." allow students to share and process their understanding of the election and the democratic process. Students can also write persuasive essays centered on their beliefs and opinions, while simultaneously learning how to use evidence to back up their opinions.

Social studies: Discuss the role of the Electoral College and its purpose, dive into the Constitution, and examine the process by which power is transferred from one president to another. You could also analyze the evolution of voting rights over time, compare and contrast similar moments in history to our current election, or study the branches of government and their role in a presidential election.

Elections present a powerful learning opportunity for students. While it might be a challenge to teach around the 2020 election, when instruction is framed in an unbiased, respectful way, we can advance our students' understanding of politics, history, and other academic subject matter, while supporting them socially and emotionally. Together, we can educate and empower our next generation of voters.

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With careful planning, teachers can use the election to foster social and emotional learning and connect math, literacy, and social studies lessons. Bob Daemmrich / Alamy Stock Photo On November 9, 2016, I walked into my math and science classroom and met students who were experiencing a wide range of emotions regarding the outcome of the election.

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Letting students create a project like this will help them to understand the topic while using story telling skills 

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Letting students create a project like this will help them to understand the topic while using story telling skills 

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Letting students establish a museum exhibit with everyday items offers an opportunity to sharpen their storytelling skills.

Jenn Smith / The Berkshire Eagle

The standard school field trip often includes an outing to a museum, but a new resource provides guidance on how to bring a museum into the classroom. As part of the Mobile Museum Project, the Royal Holloway, University of London, and the Kew Royal Botanic Gardens teamed up to create a Curating a school museum: Teachers' handbook. The project, which can be used for any age group, turns the premise of a museum on its head: "The primary aim of object-based learning should be to learn from rather than about objects."

Asking questions such as, "What do you want people to learn and why?" and "Who are you hoping to attract and why?" helps students formulate the purpose of their exhibit. Collecting the objects for the museum is a learning process in and of itself: "culturally significant" objects, such as an item passed down through a family or an item from a student's home country, can prompt storytelling and help students build a sense of historical understanding and empathy. Make sure students document important information about each item; the curriculum suggests recording at least "the date it was collected, where it came from, and a brief description of the object."

Once gathered, students can practice thematic grouping by sorting the items into different categories, "scientific, thematic, or geographic," before organizing the collection for final display. Students might be asked to create an illustrative series to show the relationship between items. For example, a display description might trace the evolution of an object: "Cotton boll to spun cotton thread to t-shirt." Designing and writing labels provides another way to incorporate storytelling into the curation process.

Promoting and launching the student-created museum is fun and a great opportunity for parent and community engagement: "Museums often 'launch' their exhibitions by holding a special event (sometimes referred to as a 'private view') to which they invite various stakeholders and the media." Encourage students to think about ways visitors might interact with the exhibits. "Resist the temptation to have a series of speeches," the handbook cautions. "There are other ways of creating a sense of inclusion and you don't want to slow down the momentum of your event."

After the project's completion, be sure to solicit feedback. Did students learn new things from the items? Students can collaborate to explore "what worked and what didn't work, and what might be done differently next time." Reflecting on the successes and failures of the project gives students an opportunity to critically assess their own work.

The museum concept is a broad framework that can be used-and modified- to integrate different subjects.

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Creating a Student-Run Museum in Your Classroom

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Letting students establish a museum exhibit with everyday items offers an opportunity to sharpen their storytelling skills.

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combining these two makes students think about cause and effect and think more critically.

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One innovative way to foster critical thinking in STEM is to add a bit of history. STEM was born from the desire to emulate how life actually operates by merging four core disciplines: science, technology, engineering, and math. In the real world, these disciplines often work together seamlessly, and with little fanfare.

But if we want to prepare children to be future scientists, we need to inform them about the past. By doing so, we demystify scientific advancements by revealing their messy historical reality; we show students how science is actually conducted; and we have the opportunity to spotlight scientists who have been written out of history-and thus invite more students into the world of science.

The Power of Science Stories

One of the best ways to share science from a historical point of view is to tell great science stories. Stories are sticky: The research shows that humans are hardwired for them, and that scaffolding information-by bundling scientific discoveries with a compelling narrative, for example-helps the brain incorporate new concepts. In this way, stories act like conveyor belts, making lessons more exciting and carrying crucial information along with them.

But good stories can serve another purpose, too. By seeing how an invention of the past impacts life in the present, students learn to think holistically. For example, if they are shown how clocks accelerated life, or how computers changed how humans think, then they can see how technology shapes culture or even changes our sense of time. In this way, STEM expands beyond its typical limits and becomes interconnected in students' minds-not just to other technologies, but to all disciplines and fields of inquiry.

Uncovering the Unintended Consequences of Inventions

For over a decade, I looked for a book to provide both the historical and societal context of inventions-to tell the stories of science-but didn't have much luck. I felt so strongly about this missing approach to nurture critical thinkers that I decided to write The Alchemy of Us, which is a book about inventions and how they changed life and society. In it, the lives of a diverse cast of little-known inventors-from pastor Hannibal Goodwin to housewife Bessie Littleton-are unfolded, and the many ways in which those everyday inventions changed life are highlighted.

Sometimes the outcomes of these inventions were intended, and in many more cases they were not. For example, students will see that the telegraph used electricity to shuttle messages over long distances quickly. But they will also come to realize that the telegraph had a shortcoming: It could not handle many messages at a time. Customers at the telegraph office were encouraged to keep their messages brief. Soon, newspapers used telegraphs in their newsrooms, and editors told reporters to write succinctly. The use of short declarative sentences was a newspaper style that was embraced by one reporter who went on to write many famous books-his name was Ernest Hemingway.

Here, then, is a case of how a technology, the telegraph, altered language and led to one of the world's most celebrated literary styles-and this lesson of cascading and unpredictable outcomes can be extended to how Twitter and text messages are altering language now. When history is included in STEM, students learn science, but they also learn about the much broader impact of science.

Shaping the Future by Using the Past: An Exercise

One way that we can build critical thinking skills is to put technology under the microscope. Have students think about inventions, like their cell phones or Instagram or the internet, and consider how they make an impact on life more broadly. Students can create lists of all the changes-ask them to think about not only changes to the material world, but changes to less tangible ideas and concepts, like human psychology and belief systems-and break students into small groups to discuss and share out their findings. Alternatively, you can pose a counterfactual: Ask students to create a timeline of the invention's history, along with a second timeline as if that invention never happened. What happens if the cell phone was never invented?

Obviously, there are no right or wrong answers, but the tasks require your students to observe the world with more wonder-and more skepticism-and condition their minds to think about causes and effects.

To take a deeper look: Let's say you asked your students to examine the effect of the internet on modern life. The internet has certainly changed life significantly. For starters, we can listen to music, watch videos, access information, and contact each other easily. Have your students discuss life before and after the internet in groups and then create a drawing or write a short essay. They could answer questions like these: How did people get their news? How did they hear from each other? How did people listen to music? Where was information about different topics stored before the internet? The next step might be to look at the pros and cons of the internet, specifically social media. Does being more connected help or hurt us? Does the internet bring us together or divide us? Does the internet make it easier or harder to find the truth?

Once students are warmed up to thinking about technology in this way, you might have them try on the role of futurists. Ask them to consider thought-provoking questions like: If social media is based on "likes" and "follows," what kind of society will we be in the future? Will we listen to popular celebrities with millions of followers, or will we listen to experts with fewer followers? Will it be easier to spread false information? Students can then draw a picture, write an essay, or create a video reflecting on the societal impact of the internet and what life could be like in the future with or without their proposed solutions.

Engaging Future Citizens

While STEM skills are themselves increasingly important in our technologically rich world, STEM is also a pathway to engage students as critical thinkers, and even as future citizens. By placing science in the broader context of history and culture, we can remind students of how scientific inventions play a role in our evolving cultural and even moral belief systems. And by giving students the space to critique inventions, we give them the skills to shape the future.

To get kids asking hard questions, however, the key first step is to give them good science stories. Once students are more engaged with how STEM is part of a larger fabric, they will have the skills to see the world more clearly and the lens they need to start posing tough questions. This approach aligns with the wisdom of William Shakespeare, who said centuries ago, "What's past is prologue." He was absolutely right, because if we're attentive observers, the old stories provide us with a good map to what lies ahead.
Ainissa Ramirez is a materials scientist and the author of "The Alchemy of Us: How Humans and Matter Transformed One Another (MIT Press).

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Building Critical Thinkers by Combining STEM With History

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One innovative way to foster critical thinking in STEM is to add a bit of history. STEM was born from the desire to emulate how life actually operates by merging four core disciplines: science, technology, engineering, and math. In the real world, these disciplines often work together seamlessly, and with little fanfare.

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These examples will definitely be useful to any teacher to understand what their students are retaining. 

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These examples will definitely be useful to any teacher to understand what their students are retaining. 

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Formative assessment-discovering what students know while they're still in the process of learning it-can be tricky. Designing just the right assessment can feel high stakes-for teachers, not students-because we're using it to figure out what comes next. Are we ready to move on? Do our students need a different path into the concepts? Or, more likely, which students are ready to move on and which need a different path?

When it comes to figuring out what our students really know, we have to look at more than one kind of information. A single data point-no matter how well designed the quiz, presentation, or problem behind it-isn't enough information to help us plan the next step in our instruction.

Add to that the fact that different learning tasks are best measured in different ways, and we can see why we need a variety of formative assessment tools we can deploy quickly, seamlessly, and in a low-stakes way-all while not creating an unmanageable workload. That's why it's important to keep it simple: Formative assessments generally just need to be checked, not graded, as the point is to get a basic read on the progress of individuals, or the class as a whole.

7 Approaches to Formative Assessment

1. Entry and exit slips: Those marginal minutes at the beginning and end of class can provide some great opportunities to find out what kids remember. Start the class off with a quick question about the previous day's work while students are getting settled-you can ask differentiated questions written out on chart paper or projected on the board, for example.

A quick way to see the big picture if you use paper exit tickets is to sort the papers into three piles: Students got the point; they sort of got it; and they didn't get it. The size of the stacks is your clue about what to do next.

No matter the tool, the key to keeping students engaged in the process of just-walked-in or almost-out-the-door formative assessment is the questions. Ask students to write for one minute on the most meaningful thing they learned. You can try prompts like:

What are three things you learned, two things you're still curious about, and one thing you don't understand?

How would you have done things differently today, if you had the choice?

What I found interesting about this work was...

Right now I'm feeling...

Today was hard because...

Or skip the words completely and have students draw or circle emojis to represent their assessment of their understanding.

2. Low-stakes quizzes and polls: If you want to find out whether your students really know as much as you think they know, polls and quizzes created with Socrative or Quizlet or in-class games and tools like Quizalize, Kahoot, FlipQuiz, Gimkit, Plickers, and Flippity can help you get a better sense of how much they really understand. (Grading quizzes but assigning low point values is a great way to make sure students really try: The quizzes matter, but an individual low score can't kill a student's grade.) Kids in many classes are always logged in to these tools, so formative assessments can be done very quickly. Teachers can see each kid's response, and determine both individually and in aggregate how students are doing.

Because you can design the questions yourself, you determine the level of complexity. Ask questions at the bottom of Bloom's taxonomy and you'll get insight into what facts, vocabulary terms, or processes kids remember. Ask more complicated questions ("What advice do you think Katniss Everdeen would offer Scout Finch if the two of them were talking at the end of chapter 3?"), and you'll get more sophisticated insights.

3. Dipsticks: So-called alternative formative assessments are meant to be as easy and quick as checking the oil in your car, so they're sometimes referred to as dipsticks. These can be things like asking students to:

write a letter explaining a key idea to a friend,

draw a sketch to visually represent new knowledge, or

do a think, pair, share exercise with a partner.

Your own observations of students at work in class can provide valuable data as well, but they can be tricky to keep track of. Taking quick notes on a tablet or smartphone, or using a copy of your roster, is one approach. A focused observation form is more formal and can help you narrow your note-taking focus as you watch students work.

4. Interview assessments: If you want to dig a little deeper into students' understanding of content, try discussion-based assessment methods. Casual chats with students in the classroom can help them feel at ease even as you get a sense of what they know, and you may find that five-minute interview assessments work really well. Five minutes per student would take quite a bit of time, but you don't have to talk to every student about every project or lesson.

You can also shift some of this work to students using a peer-feedback process called TAG feedback (Tell your peer something they did well, Ask a thoughtful question, Give a positive suggestion). When you have students share the feedback they have for a peer, you gain insight into both students' learning.

For more introverted students-or for more private assessments-use Flipgrid, Explain Everything, or Seesaw to have students record their answers to prompts and demonstrate what they can do.

5. Methods that incorporate art: Consider using visual art or photography or videography as an assessment tool. Whether students draw, create a collage, or sculpt, you may find that the assessment helps them synthesize their learning. Or think beyond the visual and have kids act out their understanding of the content. They can create a dance to model cell mitosis or act out stories like Ernest Hemingway's "Hills Like White Elephants" to explore the subtext.

6. Misconceptions and errors: Sometimes it's helpful to see if students understand why something is incorrect or why a concept is hard. Ask students to explain the " muddiest point" in the lesson-the place where things got confusing or particularly difficult or where they still lack clarity. Or do a misconception check: Present students with a common misunderstanding and ask them to apply previous knowledge to correct the mistake, or ask them to decide if a statement contains any mistakes at all, and then discuss their answers.

You can use sticky notes to get a quick insight into what areas your kids think they need to work on. Ask them to pick their own trouble spot from three or four areas where you think the class as a whole needs work, and write those areas in separate columns on a whiteboard. Have you students answer on a sticky note and then put the note in the correct column-you can see the results at a glance.

Several self-assessments let the teacher see what every kid thinks very quickly. For example, you can use colored stacking cups that allow kids to flag that they're all set (green cup), working through some confusion (yellow), or really confused and in need of help (red).

Similar strategies involve using participation cards for discussions (each student has three cards-"I agree," "I disagree," and "I don't know how to respond") and thumbs-up responses (instead of raising a hand, students hold a fist at their belly and put their thumb up when they're ready to contribute). Students can instead use six hand gestures to silently signal that they agree, disagree, have something to add, and more. All of these strategies give teachers an unobtrusive way to see what students are thinking.

No matter which tools you select, make time to do your own reflection to ensure that you're only assessing the content and not getting lost in the assessment fog. If a tool is too complicated, is not reliable or accessible, or takes up a disproportionate amount of time, it's OK to put it aside and try something different.

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7 Smart, Fast Ways to Do Formative Assessment

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Within these methods you'll find close to 40 tools and tricks for finding out what your students know while they're still learning.

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recent studies suggest that some grading practices are not fair and that students should not fail if they are showing growth. 

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recent studies suggest that some grading practices are not fair and that students should not fail if they are showing growth. 

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Teachers can rethink their grading practices to make them more mathematically fair for students and allow for redemption for a missed assignment.

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This article says that students who have opportunities to reflect on learning are better prepared for the day.

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The value of mindfulness-related activities in schools is not new. Writer and scientist Jon Kabat-Zinn helped legitimize the concept through his research, but its early connection to meditation raised red flags for some and kept its recommended practices from catching on. Now, however, as the adverse impact of stress on learning is quite well understood and the pandemic, along with racial and economic disparities, has escalated stress levels in schools worldwide, mindfulness practices are enjoying a resurgence.

I have had the opportunity to see many mindfulness practices in action in schools and to speak to a number of master teachers of mindfulness. I have identified eight activities that are relatively easy to implement in classrooms and schools. With a little practice, these can be part of any educator's pedagogical toolbox.

Caring Openings

1. Silent 60: Start the class by having all students sit quietly for 60 seconds to get themselves ready for learning. You can add a focus on a particular sound in the room, an image you provide (e.g., a dot on a piece of paper, an abstract picture you put up on a screen), or their breathing. Start with 15 seconds for early elementary students and gradually increase. Begin with 20-30 seconds for upper elementary.

2. Powerful Listening: Ring a bell, use a wind chime, or employ another object that makes a long, trailing sound. Ask students to listen and raise their hands when they no longer can hear the sound. After all agree that the sound has stopped, set a timer for one minute, ask students to sit quietly, and then when time is up, ask them what they heard during that minute.

3. One Minute for Good: Start the class by having students reflect for a minute about something that has gone well or something that they are grateful for. This can be done in writing, pair shares, or small or large group discussions. Larger groups work best for early elementary.

4. Morning Classroom Conversations: Start the day with a quote that can stimulate short conversations to help middle and high school students begin to interact with classmates in supportive ways. Sample conversation prompts can be found here.

In the Moment

5. Three Breaths: Have students take three deep breaths at regular intervals, such as before class changes or whenever strong feelings of anxiety or tension arise. Teachers should instruct students on this breathing technique and create visual reminders and prompting signals for students to begin. This is a valuable practice for staff as well, as expert mindfulness teacher Danielle Nuhfer, who has compiled an array of marvelous techniques in The Path of the Mindful Teacher, shared with me:

"The great thing about Three Breaths is that if the teacher would like to share with students what he/she is doing, they can. I've been known to pause, put my hand on my chest/heart, tell my class that I need a moment, and take three breaths. This is something that is a great way to demonstrate our own emotional regulation. When students witness their teacher work through a stressful situation in a way that demonstrates awareness and presence, they may remember that themselves. Sometimes this kind of role modeling can be more impactful than even teaching a lesson to our students about emotional regulation."

6. Body Scan: Educators benefit from learning to focus on their bodies. Make sure you are feeling centered with both feet on the floor as you teach your classes or meet with students or colleagues. Notice when and where you are feeling tension or when your breathing is shallow or labored, and use Three Breaths (or more!) to help you feel some relief. Don't hesitate to let students or colleagues know that you are taking a few moments to gather yourself via breathing.

7. Speak Your Mantra: Develop a phrase that helps you keep focus and keep perspective. Repeat it often-when you encounter roadblocks and when things are going well. Put it in places where you will see it because when emotions run high, we can lose sight of our more cherished values. Some examples:

"I am preparing all of these children for an uncertain future."

"I want all students to enjoy well-being, happiness, and peace."

"My goal is to prepare students for the tests of life-not just a life of tests."

Ending the Day

8. Concluding Reflections: Many have extolled the value of reflection, from Sir John Templeton, founder of the character-focused foundation with his name, to the SEL exemplar Responsive Classroom. Mindfulness experts like Nuhfer have joined that group. Below are five of her favorites for closing the school day, plus two of my own:

Something I learned today...

I am curious about...

I am looking forward to tomorrow because...

Something I'll do (next, later today, this weekend, before the end of the week, etc.)...

A question I still have is...

I had the best feeling today when...

Something from today that I am grateful for/thankful for/appreciative of is...

Most teachers start off as teachers who use mindfulness; moving to become a "mindful teacher"-what Nuhfer describes as a teacher who "acts with awareness about what is happening in the moment," at every moment-takes practice with multiple techniques, reading the relevant literature, being aware of implicit biases, and being part of a community of like-minded educators who help each other improve.

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8 Activities for Students (and Teachers) to Create a Mindful Classroom

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Everyone in the classroom benefits when there are opportunities throughout the day to reflect and prepare for learning.

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Having students work together on projects or assignments helps them to gain skills that they will need outside of the classroom. 

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Having students work together on projects or assignments helps them to gain skills that they will need outside of the classroom. 

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How Cooperative Learning Can Benefit Students This Year

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Working on tasks that have been carefully designed to require collaboration helps students develop interpersonal skills.

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Students can be engaged in the lesson by doing something with their hands that they can keep but also displays knowledge.

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Having middle or high school students do historical research and show their learning on a 3D representation can spark deep interest.

As a high school history teacher, I often had difficulty getting my students immersed in and excited about our topics of study, but over time I developed a hands-on activity in which students created a learning product that they could keep and display. This was a simple yet powerful learning tool that my students loved working on.

Lecturing was not working well for me or my students-they needed to be more engaged in their learning. One day, as I was looking at the state social studies standards for World War II and wondering what I could do differently. I noticed that there were 12 topics or ideas listed. My first thought was to have my students make a hanging mobile using a hanger, yarn, and note cards, but when I had tried this before students just threw them in the trash as they left the room-they liked doing something different but didn't care for mobiles. Then I thought of trying a 3D geometric display to capture each of the 12 topics in the standards.

A dodecahedron has 12 sides, so I had my students cut out and build dodecahedrons. If you're doing a short unit or if 12 topics aren't needed, you can do this with pyramids or cubes using triangles or squares. For this exercise, each student will need 12 of these template sheets. Plain copy paper will work, but cardstock will make the dodecahedron sturdier and longer lasting. Additionally, students will need crayons and or markers, scissors, and tape or a stapler.

Beginning the Dodecahedron Project

Since I started this strategy decades ago, state standards have slightly changed and indicators are more detailed, so now, instead of assigning the 12 topics, I allow my students to choose 12 topics from an extensive list we develop as a class. When I taught high school, after I introduced a unit such as World War II, I would have students brainstorm related topics, ideas, and events. With my guidance, they might list topics such as the bombing of Pearl Harbor, the Axis and Allied powers, totalitarianism, isolationism, Japanese internment, battles, the Holocaust, victory gardens, etc., and I would write them on the board.

At the end of the brainstorming session, we might have up to 20 topics, ideas, or events listed. We would discuss them, and I would add any topics of importance in the state standards that we hadn't listed. Each student was then allowed to pick 12 topics they wanted to learn more about.

Depending on the amount of time you have for a unit, students can do the work in class or at home. My history units generally took one to two weeks, and for the most part my students would work on this project in class. Once they had their topics, I would give them each 12 template sheets, one for each topic.

With template sheets in hand, students would start researching their topics. To prepare for the research, I would ask the media specialist to pull World War II content books, materials, and encyclopedias and put them on a cart for a rolling library; you can also have students do research online, to help them learn how to vet materials.

To help students stay on track during independent research, I had them complete one information sheet for each topic. I didn't give a grade for completing this page, but I could walk around the room and quickly see what students were finding and learning. During this research time, students could sit on the floor, use a standing desk, or work at the classroom tables. Small freedoms like this, combined with the chance to make choices about their topics of study, helped make this experience enjoyable.

Once students had finished researching a topic and filling in the research information, they would get a template sheet and write a summary and illustrate the topic with a drawing. Because the writing space was limited, they weren't overwhelmed as they sometimes were when writing a long paper. Their summaries had to be concise but still include details and examples to demonstrate their comprehension of the topic. I emphasized writing with purpose and clarity.

After my students had completed all 12 sheets, it was time to assemble their dodecahedrons. First they cut out the circle of each template and then folded along the dotted lines and used tape or a stapler to attach each side. When each dodecahedron was assembled, it looked a bit like a soccer ball.

Presenting the Dodecahedrons

Next, I had students present their dodecahedrons to the class. I gave each student four minutes to explain and show four or five sides of their dodecahedron. After each presentation, the class had two minutes to ask questions for clarity. My grading was based on quality of summaries, artistic expression of topic through illustration, efficient use of research time, and clear communication during the presentation.

Following the presentations, I hung the dodecahedrons from the classroom ceiling for all to enjoy for a few weeks. After that, students took them home-and most of them told me that they hung them in their bedrooms.

If your students needed extra motivation or if you have classes that are highly competitive, you could make the project into a competition by asking faculty members to judge the dodecahedrons and presentations, and award a first, second, and third place for each class.

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A Crafting Project to Boost Engagement in History

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Having middle or high school students do historical research and show their learning on a 3D representation can spark deep interest. As a high school history teacher, I often had difficulty getting my students immersed in and excited about our topics of study, but over time I developed a hands-on activity in which students created a learning product that they could keep and display.

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This explains ways that students can feel more comfortable with peer reviewing. Adolescents are normally hypersensitive to criticism. 

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This explains ways that students can feel more comfortable with peer reviewing. Adolescents are normally hypersensitive to criticism. 

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Jamie Kobs knows the value of giving students timely and meaningful feedback, but she often struggled with the volume of incoming assignments. Then she discovered a solution: her students. Feedback didn't always need to come directly from her, the veteran high school English teacher realized. In fact, if she taught kids the skills to deliver constructive, focused feedback, it could be equally meaningful coming from fellow classmates.

"Besides relieving me of some of the pressure, creating a classroom culture where students give each other feedback has helped me increase engagement and build community," Kobs says. "Having more frequent interactions among students builds rapport and trust and disrupts the idea that I'm the only expert in the room."

A high-functioning feedback culture also frees up teachers to give more low-stakes assignments, creates more opportunities for students to practice, and democratizes the creative process-replacing the top-down dynamics of more typical classrooms and making kids an equal and accountable part of learning outcomes for everyone. Kids who frequently draw, create podcasts, or write fiction with the expectation that their peers will be consuming it, and who are themselves expected to provide useful feedback, are more likely to be attuned to the elements that make art or stories truly outstanding and "feel more seen, heard, valued, and, consequently, engaged in their work," according to Kobs.

But the middle and high school years can be a difficult time for students when it comes to peer evaluation-some initial reluctance is normal. Research shows that adolescents are hypersensitive to criticism, and when they feel judged, they can become self-conscious, stressed, or withdrawn. Other students may feel tentative or shy about giving feedback to peers they admire, and for English language learners, the process might feel especially daunting.

Developing a culture of feedback must therefore happen in tandem with creating a safe and supportive classroom. By scaffolding the feedback process in a classroom where kids feel valued and empowered-the effort requires "consistent modeling, repetition, and a commitment to sharing the feedback with students," says Kobs-even teens can become more comfortable with the act of giving and receiving peer feedback.

Here are six considerations for creating a culture of feedback in the classroom.

Encourage reflection, not correction: Consider limiting feedback cycles to work products that are not highly structured, or that require granular feedback related to syntax, grammar, and spelling. When students in Mark Gardner's high school English class provide feedback, he encourages them to focus on collectively reflecting, not correcting, each other's work. Very few incoming high school students have mastered the conventions of writing well enough to be reliable copy editors, he says. Rather than correcting syntax errors, Gardner wants his students to focus on providing feedback that outlines clear next steps that peers can take toward improvement.

"My students focus on idea development, clarity, and arrangement to make sense of the writer's text," he explains. He asks students to write full sentences in their observations like, "I am confused about who 'they' are in this sentence" or "I like how you repeated keywords from your hook here in your conclusion."

Assign feedback partners: To prevent students from worrying about evaluating friends, high school history and government teacher Benjamin Barbour recommends assigning partners instead of letting kids choose who to critique in the class. Once students are working in pairs, consider allowing them to share feedback with each other rather than with the whole class, making it a generally less stressful experience for kids.

Offer choices: Including an element of choice in the feedback process can build student agency and motivation, writes educator Dr. Catlin Tucker in her blog. A peer feedback choice board, for example, allows students to select prompts that provide direction and context for delivering feedback that's "specific, meaningful, and kind," Tucker notes.
Courtesy of Dr. Catlin Tucker
For English language learners, teachers can create choice boards "with sentence frames to provide students with additional support as they give each other focused feedback," Tucker writes. "For example, under the box labeled 'Greatest Strength,' teachers could rework that as a series of fill-in-the-blank statements. The strongest part of this draft was ______. I thought ______ was done well. I really liked ______."

Deliver feedback that is specific: Emphasize the idea that criticism must be both constructive and specific in nature in order to be helpful. English language arts specialist Katherine James says that students often leave general or vague feedback like "I really enjoyed your story."

Instead, encourage kids to be focused and specific with their feedback. "Give examples of what specific feedback sounds like-for example: I really liked your simile 'the rain hit the pavement like arrows' because it helped me visualize the setting," rather than the more general 'I liked your description,'" James says.

Specificity counts in oral feedback too, and scaffolding student responses is equally important. After Socratic seminars or academic discussions in her classroom, Kobs directs students to "give a specific example of something someone else said during this discussion that resonated with you," and "explain why it stuck with you."

Model feedback, and suggest sentence starters: During the brainstorming stage of a personal narrative assignment in her high school English classroom, Kobs's students pitch ideas via Flipgrid videos. Students then watch and respond to the pitches of two classmates with the help of sentence starters.

To ensure that the feedback cycle is targeted and productive, Kobs and her colleagues "model both the pitch and the response steps with videos of our own" and provide sentence starters to help kids focus on the most important aspects of the piece and clarify how to deliver their feedback. Sentence starters might prompt students to say, "I didn't get the part about...," pose questions or suggestions out of curiosity like "What happened next?" or "Maybe you can try...," or make connections: "Something similar happened to me when..."

Prompt deeper engagement: Consider trying an "I like, I wish, I wonder" framework as another way to help focus students on content rather than grammar and spelling errors. It encourages them to interact creatively with their peers' work, says James, and encourages critical thinking as students try to provide meaningful feedback.

"When reading each other's work and giving feedback, they must discuss one thing they liked about the other person's work, one thing they wished that person had done differently, and one thing they wondered about (for example, how a main character felt about or reacted to an event)," she explains.

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Teaching Kids to Give and Receive Quality Peer Feedback

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Building a classroom culture of feedback requires scaffolding and a safe, nurturing environment, but it's worth the effort, teachers say.

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Grading should be able to reward student growth and students should not have to fail when they are demonstrating growth and improvement

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Moving Away From Traditional Practices

1. Averaging scores over time: Most grade books average scores over time. We teach for a semester and evaluate students at different intervals. For a student who comes in with strong skills, this feels like a fine practice.

But think about this scenario: Marisa came to class with super-strong skills and aced the whole year. Jacob's performance was fine to start out, it improved over time, and he ended up at the same place as Marisa. Elias's and Taylor's journeys were more of a struggle, but they worked hard, and you did a fantastic job teaching them! If at the end of the semester all four students have the same level of understanding, shouldn't their grade reflect their current level of knowledge?

Everyone learns at a different pace. Should we penalize students who had a bad foundational experience, may have experienced some trauma that caused a temporary dip, or just take more time to learn something new? No. I think all four students deserve the same grade if they demonstrate the same level of understanding. Grade books communicate teacher values.

Over the past few years, teaching students a growth mindset has pervaded teacher blogs and ed speak. However, I think that the way teachers typically grade completely undermines the talk about a growth mindset. If our grading practices don't promote, encourage, and reward growth, then we don't value it. How do we show kids that their growth matters? We eliminate averaging scores over time and do something else instead.

This is how my practice has evolved: I consistently update old performance scores with new and more accurate ones. Students get unlimited retakes on assessments. I require them to continually practice essential content and demonstrate retention of that content. I tell students that learning doesn't stop after an assessment. An assessment isn't a final judgment, it's a progress marker. I believe that every student can succeed in my class.

I tell them, "I will not give up on you just because you don't know how to do something yet." I stick to that statement, and it's reflected in my grade book. If a student scores below proficient on a standard, mandatory retakes are assigned and completed during class time. Students are given individualized opportunities to practice and are reassessed after they've learned more. I only keep the most recent reports of demonstrated proficiency. This also requires retention of content knowledge, which has always been a problem in math classes.

2. Adding elements other than content understanding into grading: I've had students who passed my class, but I knew they had little content understanding. I've also had students who I knew understood the material pretty well but had a really low grade. How? Students with inflated grades might have tutors who do their homework, so they collect the "busywork" points, and they might copy work or use Photomath to complete assignments.

In reality, with a 60/40 split of assessments and classwork/homework, a student could fail every test (averaging 33 percent) but do all of the "work" and still pass. The student doesn't know the content, but they'll pass.

It's worrisome when grades don't accurately reflect that a student needs extra attention. Alternatively, a student with good content knowledge and a poor grade is likely in this predicament because they don't demonstrate good "studenting" behaviors. Instead of grades reflecting these behaviors, it's more accurate for them to focus on content knowledge.

I now base 100 percent of a student's grade on demonstrated proficiency of learning targets.

"They don't get points for their work?"

"Nope."

"Do they still do work?"

"Yeah."

"Do some kids have missing assignments?"

"Yup."

I report those work habits in the online gradebook to parents so they can support their kids, but those points don't affect the numerical grade (positively or negatively). There's no more point grabbing, and students do the work because we've built a culture of work that yields results.

I constantly talk about the correlation between practice and performance. Kids understand this connection thanks to sports, dance, video games, and other hobbies. Why wouldn't we lean into that connection with something as important as education?

3. Reporting opaque scores like "Quiz 4B: 71%": I'm extremely transparent with students and parents on what their grade is. I report on students' current level of understanding on specific learning targets that are based upon learning progressions designed with my colleagues. Using my professional judgment of student understanding, I score assessments on a proficiency scale:

4-Nearing Mastery (A)

3-Proficient (B)

2-Emerging (C)

1-Not Yet (D)

0-No Evidence of Learning (F)

If an assessment covers four learning targets, the assessment results in four separate scores in my grade book:

Target 1: 4 (A)

Target 2: 2 (C)

Target 3: 2 (C)

Target 4: 1 (D)

I have current data on each target for each student. Everyone transparently sees where this student is excelling and where they are struggling. If this is the only thing in the grade book, the student's overall grade would be a C (9 / 4 = 2.25). That feels accurate to me.

Alternatively, if I graded this test based solely on percent correct (and let's assume each target had four problems), the student would have 9 / 16 (56%), which is traditionally an F. That feels inaccurate to me. Based on my professional judgment, this student has passing knowledge on three out of four topics and really good understanding on one of them.

Do they really deserve to fail with that level of demonstrated knowledge? This way of reporting grades to students allows them to take more ownership of their learning path. They can track their progress over time, set goals, and see how they advance.

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1. Averaging scores over time: Most grade books average scores over time. We teach for a semester and evaluate students at different intervals. For a student who comes in with strong skills, this feels like a fine practice. But think about this scenario: Marisa came to class with super-strong skills and aced the whole year.