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Walking the walls on the road to achievement
November 24, 2010, Wednesday
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STUDENT achievement is associated with exam scores and report cards, essay grades and homework marks. These are all age-old ways of measuring learning. They are tried and trusted, and worthy of their place in the business of schooling. However, there is another place to look for student achievement these days, or at least a place parents, teachers and school managers should be looking: the walls.
Isaac Newton was famously purported to have said, "We build too many walls and not enough bridges." Enter the 21st-century classroom/school corridor, where the walls are indicators of what students have been achieving, as well as bridges to on-going learning.
I recently spoke to John Boychuk - a professional artist in his home state of Michigan, who is spending this year working as an art teacher in a local Chinese school - after he had finished appraising displays in his school building. Boychuk believes school and classroom displays in many local schools are meant to be eye-catching artistic attractions, and many live up to this billing. What they lack, he asserts, is a "learning focus." The teachers he most admired in North America "used the walls and display areas as interactive teaching tools. They went beyond aesthetics to display more than just the best work." Boychuk elaborated, "They used their walls to present every child's work. Students aspired to do better, knowing that their work would be put up regardless of its quality. In this way, all children's achievements were valued."
Indeed the avant-garde educator ensures that classroom walls and corridors reflect past objectives that have been met, and the broader spectrum of student achievement, irrespective of the temptation to exhibit only the most marketable work. Well-knowing pedagogues also involve students in creating displays, getting them talking about what they have chosen to post - and why - with other students, or as part of a student-led conference with parents. This makes the walls part of the learning process, as opposed to what surrounds it.
Also in vogue in many international schools is the "learning wall." These are designated places where recent student achievements are documented in a variety of ways: a laminated picture of a child with a speech box that the learner can fill in with an erasable marker daily or weekly; collections of Post-it notes with student comments acting as leaves on a cut-out learning tree; or a wall covered in tinfoil featuring student reflections on their learning that might be aptly called a learning mirror. The key, argues Boychuk, "is getting students involved in using the walls and interacting with them, bringing them into the learning process as opposed to allowing them to stand lifeless."
Another way of allowing walls to teach might be the most simple. In Chinese schools, displays are often found featuring slogans and statements that tell students what to think. By simply adding a question mark to a statement, or phrasing something we want children to ponder in the form of a question, we give young people the chance to consider the validity of the message, to value it, judge it and thus internalize it more deeply. If it is an important message, this is the way to make it stick. Let's take a slogan Boychuk saw as he toured his school: "Reading makes us happy." If we adjust this to "How can reading make us happy?" we invite students to wonder, and explore the possibilities. The result will be more stimulated young people, who are able to think, do and solve the riddles of modern society. Such children are more likely to achieve success in our ever-changing world and make real change for a better tomorrow. This is the kind of student achievement that will be the longest lasting.
So the next time you step into a school, walk the walls. Is student attainment visible? Do the corridors and classrooms encourage you to think about what children have been learning? Can you interact with the displays? Are they beautiful? The latter is probably the least important, the priors the truest indicators of a school whose children are achieving.
Isaac Newton was famously purported to have said, "We build too many walls and not enough bridges." Enter the 21st-century classroom/school corridor, where the walls are indicators of what students have been achieving, as well as bridges to on-going learning.
I recently spoke to John Boychuk - a professional artist in his home state of Michigan, who is spending this year working as an art teacher in a local Chinese school - after he had finished appraising displays in his school building. Boychuk believes school and classroom displays in many local schools are meant to be eye-catching artistic attractions, and many live up to this billing. What they lack, he asserts, is a "learning focus." The teachers he most admired in North America "used the walls and display areas as interactive teaching tools. They went beyond aesthetics to display more than just the best work." Boychuk elaborated, "They used their walls to present every child's work. Students aspired to do better, knowing that their work would be put up regardless of its quality. In this way, all children's achievements were valued."
Indeed the avant-garde educator ensures that classroom walls and corridors reflect past objectives that have been met, and the broader spectrum of student achievement, irrespective of the temptation to exhibit only the most marketable work. Well-knowing pedagogues also involve students in creating displays, getting them talking about what they have chosen to post - and why - with other students, or as part of a student-led conference with parents. This makes the walls part of the learning process, as opposed to what surrounds it.
Also in vogue in many international schools is the "learning wall." These are designated places where recent student achievements are documented in a variety of ways: a laminated picture of a child with a speech box that the learner can fill in with an erasable marker daily or weekly; collections of Post-it notes with student comments acting as leaves on a cut-out learning tree; or a wall covered in tinfoil featuring student reflections on their learning that might be aptly called a learning mirror. The key, argues Boychuk, "is getting students involved in using the walls and interacting with them, bringing them into the learning process as opposed to allowing them to stand lifeless."
Another way of allowing walls to teach might be the most simple. In Chinese schools, displays are often found featuring slogans and statements that tell students what to think. By simply adding a question mark to a statement, or phrasing something we want children to ponder in the form of a question, we give young people the chance to consider the validity of the message, to value it, judge it and thus internalize it more deeply. If it is an important message, this is the way to make it stick. Let's take a slogan Boychuk saw as he toured his school: "Reading makes us happy." If we adjust this to "How can reading make us happy?" we invite students to wonder, and explore the possibilities. The result will be more stimulated young people, who are able to think, do and solve the riddles of modern society. Such children are more likely to achieve success in our ever-changing world and make real change for a better tomorrow. This is the kind of student achievement that will be the longest lasting.
So the next time you step into a school, walk the walls. Is student attainment visible? Do the corridors and classrooms encourage you to think about what children have been learning? Can you interact with the displays? Are they beautiful? The latter is probably the least important, the priors the truest indicators of a school whose children are achieving.
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