Action Plan

These are two action  I created for Kentridge High School to address areas of need in communication and collaboration. Some context is given about the school and it is evaluated using OSPI’s 9 Characteristics of Effective Schools. This is the culminating assignment for a class on collaboration and communication.

Ryan West- Action Plan

Student Work Protocols

Teachers can be the worst students. We are comfortable giving directions and assignments that when we are given a task to do, it is difficult to generate genuine participation. Student work protocols (SWPs) are a good example of irony. As evidenced from our weekly discussion, many teachers dread SWPs. Evaluating student work is an intensely personal action because teachers feel their professional abilities are being scrutinized. We feel the need to constantly defend our students and explain their mistakes or misunderstandings. The evaluators may be reluctant to offer their true opinions because they are worried about how they will be evaluated in turn. While these are very common occurrences during SWPs, they are not reasons to avoid the process.

Student Work Protocols are an important and valuable tool for teachers. When a teacher who isn’t personally invested in a student’s work examines it, they can discover strengths and weaknesses the classroom teacher missed. The important factor in this process is trust. Unless very clear boundaries and protocols are set up to maintain a high level of trust in the group, SWPs can quickly turn into the tooth-pulling exercise described above. Teachers must always seek to learn and improve as educators and one way to do that is to have your peers evaluate your student’s products. It isn’t always an enjoyable process but it will increase student learning which should be the goal of every teacher.