How Do I Communicate Learning?

The short answer is through celebration, baby. The long answer is more complicated. 

Let’s begin with the fun stuff: the coffee brewing in my classroom, potlucks, small trinkets like bubbles and plastic dinosaurs, and the disco ball.

These come out at the completion of a project or essay assignment that has been particularly difficult. Celebrations communicate to students that they have engaged in something rigorous, that they are a part of a learning community, and that we learned something new, together. I celebrate that. 

We celebrate that. 

Because we work within a system that has the potential to wreck the self-esteem of just about any person, it is imperative to create a climate where we take time to celebrate what students do.

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Learning is perhaps one of the most vulnerable tasks we ask young people to engage in, involuntarily, at the whims of a stranger. Every day, we tell students to walk into our classroom, sit down, listen, engage, follow rules, take risks, and be judged (by someone who may or may not be justly judging). 

Because we work within a system that has the potential to wreck the self-esteem of just about any person, it is imperative to create a climate where we take time to celebrate what students do. When they walk through my door they know they are taking a risk, they are signing up for potential harm, and, yet, they trust me. At least, they pretend to trust me because they think they have no real choice. And they’re right, to a point.

So, before I explain the method I use to communicate learning, I want to note a few things: 

• If a student makes it into the classroom, they are learning, and that learning should be noticed

• Multiple methods of assessment should be used 

• Learning is a process, not an end target that can be “hit” or “mastered” 

• Students should not be expected to trust a teacher or engage in content until the teacher has established contact and some type of relationship with each of them 

I do not communicate learning in the traditional sense, that is, I do not score assignments with points, and I do not use an A-F grading scale as a measurement tool. For this reason, I have to be uniquely organized and consistently communicative with my students. Because my system of assessment is extremely reliant upon students learning how to articulate their growth in English, it is imperative to their success that they understand and learn how this system works, as such, organization and articulating expectations are key. 

In order to get students on board with any new concept, I need to build their trust. This is one reason I begin the school year getting to know my students through small group discussions, large group check-ins, and surveys. I try to formulate questions that probe their thinking: I ask them whether they see themselves as readers and writers, what they are proud of, what they want to accomplish this year, about their hobbies, and interests. I sit in on the small group discussions, hopping from group to group, to listen to how they are articulating the answers to my questions. 

During check-ins, which continue throughout the year, I ask them to tell me the number they are feeling from 1-10 and a one to three word explanation of why they are a 5/10 or 10/10 that day. With students at a 5/10 or below, I find time to check in one-on-one at some point during class or send them an email later that day. 

I also send out surveys asking more personal questions about how they see themselves as learners, and I have them rate their likelihood of success in English. I note these answers in the gradebook under the comments section so that I can conference with them later as we collect more evidence of growth and set goals for learning. I typically ask students to complete a self-reflection once every two weeks using Google Forms. These aggregate data rapidly and give me immediate feedback for how students are currently feeling and doing in my class. 

Some teachers may be concerned that this will take too much time away from teaching content. I understand that. I’d ask a few reflective questions: 

1. Have you identified specific priority standards for your classroom?

2. Have you attempted to cross-pollinate and meld separate standards together so that you are not attempting to cover each standard separately? 

3. Is it possible to teach the academic content while you are building this important (and time-saving) culture the first couple of weeks? 

4. Has there ever been a year when you have taught all the content to every student? 

If the answer to this last question is “no,” then I suggest you quit trying to jam all content and all standards into one year. You and your students will be better for it, trust me.  

The summer before I went to a gradeless system in my classroom, I thought deeply about why I was doing this, what it would be like, and how I would communicate with all stakeholders so that it didn't appear as though I was bringing their child into a chaotic environment with no expectations or guidelines for success.

As such, I created a process with links to all of my work. If I had to give the bare-bones answer of how I communicate learning, it would look like this:

1. Decide on the Power or Priority Standards for all the courses you teach and try to meld standards together. It's best if you can do this with colleagues. Here is a link to a list of our district’s ELA Priority Standards.

2. Write down and clarify your teaching philosophy. This is what I refer to as my teaching Codex, which I explain in the “Learning Impacts” link below.

3. Set the Standards and your Codex side-by-side and cross-pollinate the two (my example) to create Learning Impacts (or goals or targets) in your own words. These are what you will use to communicate the skills and practices that will be focused on. 

4. If you are working with an AP class, add College Board’s enduring understandings and essential knowledge from the Course & Exam Description (CED) for your course. Here is my example for AP Language and Composition. 

5. Create rubrics (preferably single point) that explain what proficiency on each Learning Impact looks like.

6. Develop assessments and multiple options for how students can show they have met each Learning Impact.

7. Create a course design that includes mini-lessons, activities, daily routines, conferencing, and reflection, and be sure to give students the appropriate amount of time to learn how to demonstrate learning and growth on each standard.

8. Create grading guidelines and expectations document that translates clearly how the assessment will work and another that includes clear gradebook categories that answer the question: What does an “A” look like in this system?

9. Hack your Gradebook (be sure to discuss this with administrators and counselors) to reflect words as opposed to numbers and set up a category for feedback.

10. Create Digital Notebooks and Digital Goal Trackers (or, go analog!) so that students can effectively track their learning progression for each Learning Impact. Here students will keep ongoing evidence of their learning; these will be used to conference and determine the final grade

I believe it is only a matter of time before grades are replaced by authentic forms of communicating learning—and we’ll all be better for it.

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So, to summarize: How do I communicate learning? 

I begin with organizing what I want learning to look like in my classroom through priority standards, my codex, and learning impacts. I then come up with systems that will help my students track and articulate their progress over the course of each semester. 

When school starts in the fall, I build relationships and set a positive climate for learning and risk-taking. I then communicate clear expectations and guidelines for how we categorize evidence of learning by connecting evidence to relevant learning impacts and individual student goals. Throughout the year, I continue to link each lesson and assignment to its larger learning impact. Finally, I use feedback and conferences to discuss growth, to set progress goals, and, ultimately, to determine a final grade that best represents the student’s learning growth. 

Setting up and maintaining a system like this takes time and energy. But it is also much more effective and reflective of student learning than a number or letter grade. For this reason, I believe it is only a matter of time before grades are replaced by authentic forms of communicating learning—and we’ll be better for it.

So, is it worth the time and energy? Yes, yes it is.

Oh, and by the way, as you and students journey through this unfamiliar landscape together, always remember the celebration, baby. 

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Lisa Wennerth teaches English Language Arts at Windsor High School in Northern Colorado. She also facilitates an online course for educators on connecting students to poetry through podcasts. When she is not teaching, she spends time running, biking, and hiking in the Rocky Mountains with her daughter, husband, and Great Pyrenees.