JUAB SCHOOL DISTRICT
OCTOBER 2017
#jsdinnovates Empowering our students to discover and pursue their dreams.
What should we have learned this week? How do we know you have learned it? What is our plan if you haven’t learned it YET? What can you do now that you have learned this?
Formative (Fri)days
You can find it on Twitter under #formativefriday. The premise is simple: teachers create time to have meaningful one-onone discussions with students. On Fridays, stop teaching and focus on learning.
“Asking students to think about their work before receiving feedback scratches up the soil in the brain so the feedback seeds have a place to settle and grow.” Jan Chappuis
Why have Formative Friday? The answer, I think is twofold: to build relationships and provide meaningful feedback. There is something that changes when a student knows that you are willing to sit down and focus on their progress on an individual level. There are logistics to sort out, but teachers who make it a priority are able to make Formative Friday work. You must be creative in both time and classroom management. You must teach students a routine, and may want to start with a simple script so you know you are meeting your target. Teachers who have engaged in formative Friday have a consistent refrain: “go slow to go fast.” Learning begins to accelerate when you take time to focus on what matters most. It’s not about Friday at all (although it sounds catchy). Its about time wellspent, giving feedback to students and recalibrating the classroom experience. When a student is able to go into the weekend feeling confident knowing what they know and what they still need to know, something powerful begins to happen. This looks different at elementary and secondary levels. Think about it in your own context. Explore what it might mean in your own classroom. Give it a chance and let me know how much you like it. KB JUAB SCHOOL DISTRICT
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#juabpride #juablearns #jsdchat