An article by Richard James Rogers (Award-Winning Author of The Quick Guide to Classroom Management and The Power of Praise: Empowering Students Through Positive Feedback). This blog post has been beautifully illustrated by Pop Sutthiya Lertyongphati.
Accompanying podcast episode:
My promise to you: I never use generative AI to create, edit, or enhance my blog posts. All of my content is original.
When a student produces a brilliant piece of work, or when a group of students create a particularly strong output of some kind, it is then that we should realise that we have been given a tremendous opportunity to capitalise on the moment. Unfortunately, however, most teachers only partially take advantage of ‘touchpoints’ like this.
When we showcase student work, which means that we show that brilliant work to the other students as an example of ‘What a Good One Looks Like’ or a ‘WAGOLL’, we achieve a number of great things:
- The student, or group of students, who have their work showcased receive acknowledgement and praise for their efforts, which empowers them to keep pushing themselves to achieve success in future classes of yours.
- The other students in the class gain a clear sense of what the expectations for the work are: whether that’s a neat and colourful layout, a particularly detailed summary of something, an interactive resource, or whatever makes the creative output outstanding against a set of pre-determined criteria.
- Other students receive a clearer sense of what’s possible and, therefore, achievable. After all, if another student or group of students can create such an amazing piece of work, then surely they can, too!
One of my favourite quotes relating to the showcasing of student work comes from Dylan William:
“If I had to reduce all of the research on formative assessment to one sentence, it would be this: we should make student thinking visible.” -Wiliam, D. (2011). Embedded Formative Assessment. Bloomington, IN: Solution Tree Press.
By showcasing student work, we make their thinking visible to other members of the school community: providing acknowledgment for their efforts, direct communication of a sense of what’s possible through immense effort, and exemplars of benchmark standards that have been met.
Now that we’ve established that the showcasing of student work can be a really powerful technique to deploy in the classroom, or with our school community in general, it’s important to address some important considerations that will make our showcasing as effective as possible.
Showcasing Tip #1: Establish criteria from the beginning
It’s unfair to showcase a great example of student work if the class were not told what the criteria for excellence were when the assignment was given. Make those criteria really clear, perhaps by publishing those on the school’s VLE, by writing the criteria on your whiteboard or smartboard, or even by expressing them verbally a few times. When students are really clear about your expectations, they will be better able to produce an excellent piece of work.
Showcasing Tip #2: Always ask permission before showcasing
Not every student will be confident enough to welcome the showcasing of their work. Some students may be shy or withdrawn, and may not want the extra attention that comes with putting their work on display, even if you are just planning to hold up the work for the class to see. Ask first. Make sure the student, or group of students, are comfortable with you making them, and their work, the centre of attention.
Showcasing Tip #3: Consider whole-school approaches
If you want to build a really positive sense of community at your school, where the ethos is warm, collegiate, and welcoming, then start showcasing! You’ll be amazed at how quickly this transforms school culture.
Here’s some strategies I’ve utilised to great effect in the past:
- Host assemblies in which work is showcased: In my role as Acting Head of the Secondary School last year, I invited teachers to contribute photos of excellent student work to a set of Google Slides once per half-term. Following that, I would host an assembly with all of the students and invite their teachers to describe the excellent work they had chosen to showcase on the slides. Not only was this great for school community-building, but it also created a shared ethos that involved celebrating achievement on a regular basis.
- Strategies like ‘Star of the Week’ or ‘Top Student This Month’ can be really effective, especially if the criteria are made clear from the start (as mentioned earlier). In my role as Science Curriculum Coordinator a number of years ago, I set up a Science Star of the Week system where our Science teachers would display a particularly good piece of work on a noticeboard in a communal area for everyone to see. I was amazed by just how many students stopped by each week to look at the great pieces of work on display. Another system I’ve seen being utilised in a similar way was Class Dojo, with the highest scoring students being showcased on a weekly basis.
Final thoughts
We all know that praise is powerful. In fact, I wrote a whole book about the power of praise and how it should be utilised correctly. However, when we showcase student work in accordance with the criteria I’ve laid out above, we make the praise we give even more powerful and meaningful than it would normally be.
