Day 20: Curating Student Work

Day 20: How do you curate student work--or help them do it themselves?

Curating student work is something I've experimented with--rather poorly--the whole time I've been a teacher. I keep experimenting because I truly believe in looking at work as a way for students to be mindful of their growth.

I've mostly used manilla file folders, asking students to keep their major writing pieces, which they flip through a few times a year, and then I send home with them in June, begging them to at least take them home and shove under their beds rather than trashing it on the way out of the building. (No, I do not believe this is the most powerful form of student reflection.)

And reflection is the big piece of the puzzle. Sure, collecting can be powerful when students can compare what they are capable of in May versus what they could do in October. But they have to have the TIME and a GUIDE to help them see the nuances in their writing. Very few students will do this by accident on their own.

This year, since we are 1:1 with Google Chromebooks, I thought I might try helping the kids create Google Sites, with different pages for their different types of writing. This would be an organized place where they could gather their pieces, use the "comment" at the bottom of the page to reflect ever so often, and maybe even look at again next year to remember that they actually did learn something in ninth grade.

Any tips and pointers from folks who have used this method before?