Looking closely at detail

"Critique" is an important feature of heightening students' motivation to achieve the best they are capable of.  Here's a great article that explains why kind, specific, and useful feedback from peers is so important, How Looking at Student Work Keeps Kids and Teachers on Track. The article quotes one of our favorite educators Ron Berger, author of two books that guide us at Parker, A Culture of Quality and An Ethic of Excellence.

An important element of critique is noticing specific details.  That's another skill that students practice at Parker.  Teaching students how to observe closely - to notice details - helps them in every area of study. 


This YouTube video, Austin's Butterfly, explains the process of critique in a wonderful way.  You can see how students at any level and in any context, could use the feedback of their peers, and the ability to observe details, to produce something of excellence.

Assessment at Parker

2-3 students give each other feedback about their Ganges River poems in a critique session. This form of peer-assessment gives students practice in critical thinking.

We had a great time at this morning's Coffee with Meg sponsored by Parent Council.  The topic was Parker Assessment vs Common Core Assessment.  One of our parents made this podcast of the conversation.  If you couldn't be there - take a listen!  https://archive.org/details/CoffeeWithMegCommonCore

A poem has the ability to surprise

Writing poetry is a process that takes time, revision and courage to put yourself in front of your peers. To help, we teach children a process called critique so they can see their writing through others' eyes.  They learn how to give feedback that is kind and useful to the writer.  It's hard at first and children often give feedback like "I like it!"

In 2-3 children learn to give a "compliment sandwich" - feedback that includes first a compliment, then a suggestion, then a compliment.  The writer can take the advice  - or not - and continue revising.  The kids also read great poems, noticing what makes them great.

Here is an article by Mark Yakich in the Atlantic, What's a Poem?  You read it.  It reads you.  An object lesson.  He says, Because of its special status—set apart in a magazine or a book, all that white space pressing upon it—a poem still has the ability to surprise, if only for a moment which is outside all the real and virtual, the aural and digital chatter that envelopes it, and us.

Here is the poem of a third grader, Madeline, after revising her first draft with the help of critique.

I am...

I am birds singing
I am math
I am water cascading over rocks
I am books with a good story
I am music fresh from the violin
I am water cascading over rocks
I am fall
I am winter
I am water cascading over rocks
I am wild animals
I am a creek
I am the ocean hustling and bustling with life
I am water cascading over rocks
I am cute seals sunning on boulders
I am water cascading over rocks
I am the earth recovering from humans