HTH instructors explain the importance of exhibitions as they not only provide an evaluative opportunity but they empower students to share their work with the world and bring meaning to their learning.
[MUSIC PLAYING] One of the things that I think makes exhibition very important for students is to have an audience that goes beyond just their parents and family members to be able to invite businesses, other schools and organizations and even to contact other places around the world.
Whether it’s their parents or their grandparents or someone, who has come in from the community to celebrate that piece of work or someone who they design the work for that human connection between the creator of the work and the person who is receiving the work or the message of the work is the most beautiful part of exhibition.
Students and teachers should exhibit not just a beautiful project but also document the process of the project. Share about the meaning of the project and why the students are doing it?
I think the exhibition is one of the most authentic ways I’ve seen to assess the students learning. Students find value and they find discipline in the project, when they’re a part of something that needs to get done. And so a well-designed project and a well-designed exhibition requires something from every student in the class.
I think a lot of planning is important when the students do it because then at the end of the day, the exhibition is really theirs. It’s not just what the teacher planned out for them.
I think that it’s an equity a voice issue within the classroom to ask students what they think and ask them for advice but I also think it just makes the work more real and more accepted by the students as you ask them to do really difficult things.
Curating student work along the school hallways and the classrooms and like in every little nook and cranny has a dramatic impact in school culture, because the students know what the school is about. And they take pride seeing their work in public view, especially when you have guests during the school and see work the students can get really confident that their work is up there being exhibited.
It also shows that we do care and value what they do. It doesn’t just go in a trash can when it’s done. But we give it a life. And it goes beyond the classroom. And we put it up. And it’s shown with all these audience and viewers.