Smart & Good High Schools - The Flippen Group

CHAPTER 3: The Ethical Learning Communityphysical disabilities and health or family problems that makelife a struggle. I want them all to be craftsmen. Some maytake a little longer; some may need to use extra strategiesand resources. In the end, they need to be proud of theirwork, and their work needs to be worthy of pride. 37Schools that aren’t working need a lotmore than new tests and mandates.Schools that aren’t working, Berger argues, need a lotmore than new tests and new mandates: “You can mandatetests and standards and curricula all you want, but itmeans nothing if you can’t inspire kids to care.” Whatmost inspires students to care is the experience of excellence.“Work of excellence is transformational,” Berger writes.“Once a student sees that he or she is capable of excellence,that student is never quite the same. There is a newself-image, a new notion of possibility. After students havehad a taste of excellence, they’re never satisfied with less.”What are the pedagogical practices that enable all studentsto achieve the excellence of which they are capable?For 25 years, teachers in Berger’s small elementaryschool in rural western Massachusetts and teachers in outstandingschools across the country, have used five pedagogicalpractices to create a classroom culture of excellence(see box below).“What most inspires students to careis the experience of excellence.”As an example of classroom work that involved all five ofthese pedagogical practices, Berger describes a project inwhich his 6th-graders interviewed senior citizens andwrote their biographies.No one needed to tell them the reason for doing a qualityCREATING A CULTURE OF EXCELLENCE: FIVE PEDAGOGICAL PRACTICES1. ASSIGN WORK THAT MATTERS. Students need assignmentsthat challenge and inspire them. At the RaphaelHernandez School in Boston, middle-schoolers took on astudy of vacant lots in their Roxbury neighborhood.Students researched the history of the sites and interviewedneighborhood members regarding what uses theywould prefer for the lots. They collaborated with officialsfrom city hall and faculty and students from the HarvardSchool of Landscape Design. Eventually, they draftedblueprints and scale models of possible buildings, gardens,or playgrounds that could be built on the sites.Their proposals were formally presented to the mayor ofBoston and his staff, and one of the sites was later convertedinto community gardens. Projects such as this notonly help students achieve excellence by real-world standardsbut also make a tangible contribution to the welfareof the community.2. STUDY EXAMPLES OF EXCELLENCE. Before they beginwork on a project, the teacher and students examinemodels of excellence—high-quality work done by previousstudents as well as work done by professionals. Whatmakes a particular science project, piece of writing, orarchitectural blueprint so good? What was the process ofachieving such high quality? What mistakes and revisionswere probably part of the process?3. BUILD A CULTURE OF CRITIQUE. Formal feedback sessionsbuild a culture of critique that is essential forimproving students’ work. The rules for group critique:“Be kind; be specific; be helpful.” Students presenting apiece of work first explain their ideas or goals and statewhat they are seeking help with. Classmates begin withpositive comments and phrase suggestions as questions:“Have you considered . . .?” The teacher uses the critiquesession as the optimal opportunity for teaching necessaryconcepts and skills. Through this process, students haveregular experiences of being able to improve the qualityof a piece of work as a result of feedback from others.4. REQUIRE MULTIPLE REVISIONS. In most schools, studentsturn in first drafts—work that doesn’t representtheir best effort and that is typically discarded after ithas been graded and returned. In life, when the qualityof one’s work really matters, one almost never submits afirst draft. An ethic of excellence requires revision.5. PROVIDE OPPORTUNITIES FOR PUBLIC PRESENTATION.Every final draft students complete is done for an outsideaudience—whether a class of kindergartners or the widercommunity. The teacher’s role is not as the sole judge oftheir work but rather similar to that of a sports coach orplay director—helping them get their work ready for thepublic eye.50Smart & Good High Schools