Making Our Success Public - And Publicly Failing

Making our successes public isn't new, but allowing our students to publicly fail is a bit of a new stretch - and makes many uncomfortable.

So I was inspired by a talk I went to earlier this year by Principal Kafele. He spoke about a challenge he issued to his students, and making their successes public by putting their names on the wall. For many, it was a moment of transformation to have their successes so publicly acknowledged!

I wanted some of that. I wanted to inspire my students to achieve more than they thought possible. So I issued my own challenge. In my then current unit of study, we were working on Reading Comprehension Strategies. My challenge was this: if everyone reached a Level 4 by the end of the unit, we would all go play The Hunger Games (oh - so fun!). However, if we ALL didn't reach Level 4, then we couldn't go - I wasn't going to leave anyone behind. So, it began!

I launched the unit with a diagnostic assessment, and though I know I'm not supposed to, I gave each child a Level grade as well as rich, descriptive feedback, telling them exactly how they could reach a Level 4 response. I then printed off this list and posted it in the hallway. As I had them all do this on the MOODLE, I was able to print off just their profile icon and grade, though not totally private, it wasn't obvious who was who.

Then we got to work. Over the remaining 5 weeks of the unit, we practised these skills. I conferenced with individual students, pulled guided reading groups, share excellent examples, publicly displayed awesome mentor texts (written by the students), modelled what I was expecting, held strategic group work sessions, oh my!

I also gave out a mid-point assessment. I published this list as well. I then repeated my interventions, with a more specific group of students who still hadn't gotten it. 

Energy was high, expectations were high and the pressure was on! We finished the unit with a portfolio assignment, where they gathered excellent examples from their practice to prove that they had successfully demonstrated mastery of the skill. 

Did everyone get a level 4? No. However, everyone moved. I was able to save face and honour the work of everyone, and we did end up going. However, what I really worried about - and have come to accept as okay - is that not everyone reached the goal, and that we all knew who they were.

So: should kids be allowed to publicly fail? Is it enough to say YES because failure is a fact of life? I believe it teaches the kids resilience, it teaches them a valuable life lesson, and it allows them to own their learning. It certainly didn't shut down the learning in my class. It allowed for acceptance of each other's differences. As well, though, I firmly believe that everyone can be successful - perhaps not on the same day nor in the same way, but everyone can be successful. I heard this somewhere it is has stuck to me as being true - apparently this is a slight mutation from this quote: Every student can learn, just not on the same day, or the same way. ~George Evans

Would I do this again? Certainly. I believe that every student can be successful, and I work my hardest to ensure that.

M.

Making our learning public
You can see the 3 sets of grades - Diagnostic, Mid-point and Summative.
You can also see around examples, names of students who reached Level 4.