How can Teachers Successfully Plan for and Carry Out Examining Student Work?

Decide which of these Student Work Protocols are best for your classroom. Make informed Instruction patterns in order to tune your students learning goals.

A protocol is a means with a set schedule and specific guidelines that is used to examine student work. Choosing a pre-determined format helps structure the process of looking at student work. It is important for each group to decide on the protocol they want to follow.

Below is a list of commonly used protocols and their descriptions. While some of these are used to analyze what student work demonstrates about student learning, others are used to solve particular instructional dilemmas. They are useful in clarifying problems, identifying evidence to support opinions, sharing perspectives, and reflecting on teaching practices. After you are familiar with the different options you are then able to choose a protocol and begin implementing it in your classroom.

1. Vertical Slice Protocol

This protocol enables teachers to collect data, make comparisons, and determine changes in student performance, while helping the school identify overall trends in teaching and learning. Teachers capture and analyze all “ordinary student work” produced by a broad sample of students during a narrow time period. The student work may include artwork, notes, drafts, worksheets, homework, and even discussion and classroom interactions captured on audio or videotape within a span of a day or up to a week. Depending on the purpose, samples may be collected either school-wide, by grade, by team, or by discipline. The team is then able to assess the data collected as needed.

2. Consultancy Protocol

This is aimed at providing assistance in solving a particular problem or gaining insight into a certain dilemma. A teacher will present the context of his or her problem and pose a question to the group. Others on the team then ask the teacher factual questions regarding the issue. These questions ensure that the group understands the problem and stimulates the teacher’s own thinking. The team then discusses the problem and will brainstorm to generate ideas that may help the teacher. The presenter responds to the team by reflecting on the suggested ideas

3. Standards Protocol

This protocol provides a format for closely looking at student work and grasping what it tells us about their learning. It can also show how well the lesson or assignment is designed to ensure that students will meet the standards. Teachers are able to analyze the relationship between lessons, student work, standards, and rubrics. An important part of the discussion is the standards developed at state, district, and school levels to define what students know and are able to do.

The group works through questions like: What does this work tell us about student learning in relationship to our school standards? Are there patterns that indicate what students know and are able to do, and what they don’t know? Does this assignment help all students meet the standards? What are the strengths of this assignment? The team is then able to decide whether the assignments are helping students reach the correct goals.

4. Collaborative Assessment Protocol

This protocol provides a systematic way of looking at a piece of student work to see what it reveals about the students’ thinking, knowledge and skills. This information becomes useful for reflection and revising instruction methods.

5. Assignment Protocol

This protocol is helpful in determining whether an assignment or project enhances student learning. Consider whether the unit helps students to address big ideas, concepts, and themes and if it helps students make connections between school and the real world. Teachers can effectively examine assignments by looking at their students’ work in most cases. There is also a need, however, for teachers as a group, to assess how they are putting learning goals into practice.

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