Did you do your best on this?

I have heard teachers ask this question numerous times through the years.  I have asked it myself.  Recently, I have really started to pay attention to this one.  It is quite interesting!  On the surface, it seems like it could be a good question.  A seemingly simply, non-judgmental query for a kid to self-assess effort.  But the reality of the question is usually far from that.

Little Johnny regularly takes twice as long to finish his assignments even though he spends the majority of time staring at the ceiling or talking to his friends.  His work typically does not show mastery of the learning target.  Then he hands the teacher his assignment and hears, "Is this your best effort?"

Little Johnny can see and hear his teacher's opinion in those words.  He knows she doesn't think he did his best so he answers, "No...," grabs the paper, and walks back to his desk as if he is going to do better.  Really though, it actually was Little Johnny's best effort.  He did the best he could with the tools he had available to him.

Little Jimmy hands his paper to the same teacher and hears the same question, "Did you do your best work on this?"

Little Jimmy replies emphatically, "Yep!"  Then he walks away, even though he knows he barely read through the questions and wrote incomplete thoughts for his answers.  In other words, Little Jimmy did as "best" as he was willing to do.  His willingness to to actually do his best was non-existent and his teacher knew it before even asking the question.

Little Janie hands her paper to the same teacher and hears, "Did you give 100% on this assignment?"

She takes a deep breath, looks down at the ground, and answers, "I guess not..."  She walks back to her desk, scratching her head and thinking to herself, "I always do my best!  I make straight A's!  What does she want from me???  Perfection???"

These different scenarios are just a few of examples I have seen.  Each different one is based these things:

• the student/teacher relationship,
• the student's past experiences,
• the teacher's body language and tone of voice, and
• the mindset of both of them.

How can we consistently ask kids to assess their efforts without prejudice?

Submitted for your approval

My current job requires most assignments to be submitted to management for approval.  Sometimes I am the submitter and sometimes I am the approver.  Sometimes, I am one of the funnels it most go through prior to final approval.  Confusing?  Yes.

There are a few purposes for the approval.  When something is going to be published, it is always a good idea to get a 2nd, 3rd, and even 4th set of eyes to check it out so that it can be ready for publication.  Another purpose is for the approver to simply determine if the words are to his or her liking.  In other words, does this say what it needs to say in the way that I would say it?  This often leaves the writer trying to guess what is in the manager's head!!

This got me thinking...

When kids turn in assignments, how often are they trying to guess what is in the teacher's head?  I have seen some incredible examples of learning tasks that included simple, yet perfect rubrics so kids could judge their work prior to submission.  Wouldn't it be excellent if a student knew how well their efforts met the expectations for pretty much every assignment?

When teachers design a learning experience, they first determine, "What exactly do my students need to learn?"

Then they ask, "How will I know if they learned it?"  To go deeper with this one, start asking, "How will my students know if they learned it?"  If your students know, they will not be submitting their work for your approval, they will be submitting their work stamped with their own approval!