Allowing Students to Redo Their Work

There is an old saying, "If first you don't suceed, try, try again."  How often do we translate this saying into practice when assessing student work?  My school has adopted a more progressive assessment policy in hopes that we embrace the premise that students in Middle School should be given the opportunity to learn from their mistakes.

In Ken O'Connor's book, A Repair Kit for Grading: Fifteen Fixes for Broken Grades, he talks about the importance of giving students the opportunity to redo work.  He challenges traditional assessment practices which are grounded in the notion that "what's done is done".

I have always believed in a more student friendly approach to assessment.  Over the last few years through reading books like Mr. O'Connor's and adopting new technological tools, I have made signficant strides towards allowing students to view many assessments as, "a work in progress."  In my Design Courses, work is mostly project based.  Students plan, create and reflect on their solutions/products using the Design Cycle.  I want them to realize that with this approach, there is aways opportunity to revisit a project and re-tool your work and way of thinking.  No work in Design Class is every really finished.  So students will sometimes go back and re-vist their Design Portfolios and make changes.  Here is a screencast demostrating how I organize and afford these types of opportunities for students.




If you would like to learn more about some of the tools I used in the screencast, here are some resources to consider:

1.  Google Docs- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8FYgnM6ZeTk

2.  Google Drive- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AzrixPhql54

3.  Kidblog.org - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_KtWSaVdzkI

What are you thoughts, practices and processes when it comes to allowing students to redo assessed work?