[MUSIC PLAYING] I think that what you ultimately assess kids on and communicate to families, whether that be a grade or comments or any kind of communication you have, Are? ultimately communicating the values of the class you’re holding or the experience that you’re holding.

A strong way to do assessment in a project-based classroom is to have students really reflect on themselves and the work that they’ve done. I always put it in their own hands to go back and think about during their project what is it that they have succeeded, what is it that was a struggle, how do they overcome it, and why didn’t they overcome it if they weren’t able to.

In my experience, it’s been a little bit hard to let go of some of the, perhaps, control that comes with evaluation coming from the teacher. But what I realized the more I’ve let go is that the students really articulate many of the same things that you would be thinking as the adult or teacher involved in their lives. And when they’re allowed to articulate it first, they own that reflection and they own where they’re at any given topic.

Because it isn’t just that they got a 95. It’s how they got there, and I think this has really shifted that into more about the process and the whole student. When students have all these great experiences, they are adding more to their lives. And when they’re able to reflect on those and articulate those they really become part of their permanent self. So that’s really what we want to see is for students to be able to have those skills to articulate what they’re doing, where they’re at with things, and be able to make that more of their permanent personality and persona.

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