Learning is a shared responsibility between the teacher and the student. It is a place of mutual accountability. Seems true. Sounds simple. Anything but, for words like responsibility and accountability are sharp, edgy words that can be harmful in the wrong hands.

In too many cases, too many hands hold forth the transactional reality of the traditional approach to classroom learning. Teacher gives work. Student does work. Teacher grades work. Teacher gives more work. Student does more work. And, before long and before we know it, responsibility and accountability become about work done/not done and roles become separate parts played, not shared acts choreographed as the story unfolds.

Yes, again, with the “story.” Learning is a story that unfolds from the shared acts between teacher and learner. And though I suppose we can regard the “traditional tale” a story, it lacks the rich interaction found in the pages of the response routine of the feedback process. And it is those pages, those moments that I seek to capture for many reasons, and one of them is accountability.

Accountability

What did I do? This seems an important consideration in one’s learning story as one puts pen to paper at term’s end to make sense of the journey behind. But one, here, is two. “I” is both, teacher and student. And it is the teacher “I” that I have in mind as I think about being accountable to an experience shared. What did I do?

It has to be more than I gave and graded work. If my contribution was simply completing transactions with my learners, then I wonder about the writers of the script. Could not they have given me a richer supporting role? Could not the director have interpreted and imagined my role differently for the sake of the story?

Okay, enough fancy thinking for a moment. When I posed the question, which began this series of posts, “What if I have them keep a feedback journal?” my role was foremost in my mind, and in my mind, I wondered about what I do or don’t do to support my kids. Yes, I know that I make and take time to give them feedback, and some of them make reference to those shared interactions from the feedback process in their Learning Stories, but not enough of them do, and even when they do, it’s perfunctory and sparse. But there is richness there to be found, to be considered, to be captured before it vanishes. The shared feedback/response process never gets recorded, and we lose a primary source for their learning stories, and they are mostly left to consult the secondary source, the scores in Skyward. And even though I have made Herculean efforts to mitigate the power of points, they still creep onto the page. That has to change in principle and practice. And that is why I want them to keep a feedback journal. We are leaving a powerful primary resource behind on our journey. And in this I see a better to chase, and that is more of the “why” behind my wonder of keeping a feedback journal.

Well, time tells me I must stop for this morning. I promise I will cut to the chase here soon with this and get to the “what.” Thank you for your patience.

Happy Thursday.

Do. Reflect. Do Better.