There are few things more important in education than leading your own learning. Think about it - if we want our students/children to become life long learners, than how much better would it be for them to reflect on their strengths and needs as a learner. If students can evaluate their own progress and identify where they need to improve, chances are the assessment process and the learning process will be much more authentic for them.
Ron Berger is an educational guru whose ideas our staff have embraced. Austin's Butterfly shared how to help students create quality work through kind, specific and helpful feedback. Berger also talks about how essential it is for students to take charge of their own learning is his book Leaders of their own Learning. My blog summary of the book and how it started our move to student led learning conferences is pasted below.
https://inquirenlearn.wordpress.com/2015/02/08/what-some-friday-morning-collaboration-created/
Students in Mrs. Liscio's Gr. 3/4 class have been working towards our first student led learning conferences.
You can see some of the lead up to these conferences in the documents pasted below.
First step - we worked together as a class to develop learning goals and success criteria for the four areas we are focusing on in our portfolio (writing pieces, reader response samples, personal interest, and Catholic Graduate Expectations)
portfolio reflection sheets with learning goal and success criteria.pdf
Next we designed an organizational structure to display our work (a student based learning portfolio).
Portfolio Check list.pdf
More recently, we started to keep a learning log to document our favourite learning experiences.
parent letter.pdfgr 1 self assess portfolio.pdf
Goals sheet for next year
My Goals Sheet.pdf
Sample of a filled in goals sheet
My Goals Sheet sample.pdf
We are now ready for our first student led learning conferences.
Parent invite to student learning conferences.pdf
Our script and next steps in process as of June 2
Student Led Learning Conferences Format and next steps as of June 2.pdf
Updated script and parent letter as of June 10th
Student Led Learning Conferences Format and next steps as of June 10.pdf
portfolio letter final info.pdf
Stay tuned for the post learning conferences report.