Kristen Jackson Fieldwork Seminar 4/19/13 Artifact 12: Final Survey The final survey was administered to students

in the last week of my student teaching. This short survey simply asked students to reflect on their experience in my class over the past year. I asked them to tell me a range of things, including if they enjoyed history and why, and if they believed their effort and behavior was good over the course of the year. Of the 15 surveys collected, all students answered all questions. The answers to these simple questions have allowed me to reflect on the entire year in terms of my student teaching and my inquiry pursuit. A student that I often struggled with, Mitchell, admitted that his behavior could have been better. For a student to say no to a question like were you on your best behavior means they are truly acknowledging the deficit between what they could do and what they did do. This refers back to Noonan and Duncan, who outline the benefit of asking students to write their own rubrics and then grade themselves based on that rubric. Mitchell was able to express in the survey that he is aware that his behavior could be better, and in answering the question by saying no, he is also affirming that his poor behavior was a problem.

One of my ESOL students expressed that shes a good student because she alwa ys respect [her] teachers, elders, friends and family. This is the conundrum that I have continued to

encounter (as addressed briefly in Artifact 8), which is students defining being a good student by simply being present and being respectful, which they all defined as listening. On this point, I know that I should have asked students help draft a rubric with different sections that address what it means to be a good student, what good behavior looks like in the classroom, and how we can measure effort. If I had a student-created rubric, they could grade themselves on this. However, doing that would have been a deeper task in self-assessment, and I chose this year to focus on the basics. This is yet another thing to add to my list of future practices.

Another student I have discussed at great lengths is Rhea. Rheas journey in my class has been tumultuous at best. In the beginning I struggled to connect with her, and when I did, she seemingly made great progress. However her frequent absences from school caused her grade to plummet, coupled with several poor days in class where she didnt complete any work. The low grades in history seemed to discourage her. This is evident by her answer to does your grade reflect your effort in this class to which she answered no, because I dont care about my grade or effort in here. This comes as a direct contrast to many conversations we had about her effort and behavior in class. She would always respond with a resounding yes to the question do you care about school or do you care about your grade in this class so this answer reflects a level of discouragement. However, if we dig a little deeper into her answer, we can see that this answer contradicts itself which further indicates self-assessment on her part. She says no it does not reflect her effort, which shows that to an extent, she could have input more effort. Moreover, a more fitting answer would have been yes because I dont care but she said no, which shows she is acknowledging that she feels her grade doesnt reflect her effort. At first glance one might

thing oh she must mean no her effort could have been better but she is most likely saying I dont think I should have gotten such a low grade based on my effort. This unfortunate assumption leads me to believe that although she does care, she has been discouraged by her grade. This is proven further by the next answer in which she says she doesnt believe shes a good student because she doesnt do her work. If she really didnt care, she wouldnt care if shes a good student or not, but in admitting she feels like a poor student reverses her previous answer to an acknowledgement that she could do better and she knows where her effort has been lacking. I have struggled all year to understand Rhea, and just when we were making progress, she seemingly regressed. It was even more difficult to connect with her because she was so often absent from my class, but I have high hopes that regardless of what she says, she does care and with prodding, can progress.

Finally, I want to look briefly at a student who directly confirms that her behavior has been poor but her effort has been strong. It is interesting when students can be completely honest about their personal assessments. Although I do not want to directly equate self-assessment with honesty and would rather link it to reflection, there is a layer of honesty that must be peeled back in order to reflect. This student acknowledges her poor behavior in contrast to her strong effort toward completing work. And truthfully, although this student does talk a lot, she is often the first to answer questions and participate in class and complete assignments in a timely fashion.

Her affirmation is crucial because she realizes her strength (getting her work done) and her deficit (talking too much in class). In simply reflecting upon the fact that talking too much makes her poorly behaved, she is directly addressing a deficit in her behavior and inherently admitting that by talking less in class she will be better behaved.

This final survey was used to reflect on my complete experience in the classroom. Although there were gaps in my inquiry focus, ultimately this survey shows that my students have begun to show effects of agency. They are taking ownership (for the most part) over their actions and expressing responsibility through their self-assessments. If I were to reflect directly on this survey, I would say that it shows the progress my students made and just how much they have benefitted from being asked to self-assess.