In a message dated 1/30/05 2:41:00 PM, KJODesign@aol.com writes:
<< Man, that's a hard thing! Effort and participation is the main aspect of
art. Art is not always about the end result. It's often about the journey.
>>
But there are ways to document effort and participation at every grade level.
Have students show planning through thumbnail sketchs, listing materials,
one-on-one discussion with peers and teacher about on going work or to edit and
revise. These things can be documented as "work", which they are...not just
lumped into effort and participation! That way you can have evidence of a
student's effort and participation.
The process is so important...so think of ways to document it. Everything a
student does is student work...it is not pointless! Make your grades reflect
what you ask the student to do. Instead of giving an effort grade, make it a
planning grade or a daily work grade. Have students document the
conversations they have with each other (even on the back of their work...after all some
of us have 400+ students...we can't write down everything for them), this way
those very important conversations are documented. Try to document one
teacher/student on-on-on conversation each marking period. Again, you can make this
a grade for editing and revising work. These are all the things we have the
students do every day, we just have to call it what it is instead of lumping
it together under "effort"
