“Take Two!” Why My Students Are Asking to Redo Their Work
- Colleen Farris
- Sep 21
- 3 min read
Updated: Oct 10
For years, I believed I was challenging my students, holding them to high standards, and designing authentic assessments. But now I realize I can do so much better. With a master’s in educational technology almost complete, my perspectives on teaching and learning have widened dramatically.
This school year I shifted to what I call “thinking quizzes” with funny names, characters, and realistic scenarios. I meet students at the door where the “password” to entry connects directly to essential course content. These methods are refreshed and energized as assessments for learning—that is, activities designed to guide and improve learning, not just measure it.
The most powerful new tool in my teaching kit is “skills check-ins,” and they are knocking my socks off with student achievement. I teach Culinary Arts, so assessing hands-on skills is important. With 37-to-47-minute classes of up to18 students, it is impractical to try to observe every student perform each skill.
Skills check-ins leverage technology to capture each student’s skill level. In doing so, they straddle two views of assessments: 1. that they are technologies themselves (Au (2008); Selwyn (2011), and 2. that they are context dependent and social (Broadfoot and Black (2004). Video cameras built into school-issued Chromebooks, along with interactive assignment functions and rubrics in Google Classroom fit neatly into technology-as-assessment side. On the social side, students work in pairs to coach each other while recording, extending the “spotter” role we use for knife skills practice. Since I cannot watch 18 students cut at once, having 9 students guiding and encouraging their partners has been a safe and effective way to support skill development.
These factors create a high engagement in learning, but what surprises me most is how willing students are to revise and improve their video presentations. Most are excited to create their videos and diligent in critiquing their work, which is part of the assignment. Students grade their own work according to the rubric built into the Google Classroom assignment. The fact that students are asking to redo their videos to fill in missing content is evidence of their self-reflection and investment in learning.
I am thrilled that students want to “get them right.” In response, I have arranged for video communications students to reshoot polished and professional videos for interested students. “Students monitoring their own progress” is one of my school system’s goals. I am delighted to see that this method encourages not only monitoring, but also genuine motivation to learn in response to self-evaluation.
What makes these skills check-ins the best formative assessments I have ever created and employed in my classroom is a combination of all the positive ways they support learning, plus their usefulness toward their ultimate purpose. This year, my students will present a digital portfolio as their final exam and summative assessment. The skills check-in videos they create throughout the year will be featured in that portfolio, creating a better record of learning than any I have used before—and giving my students a showcase of evidence they can carry into their futures.
References
Au, W. (2008). Unequal by design: High-stakes testing and the standardization of inequality. Routledge.
Broadfoot, P. and Black, P. (2004). Redefining assessment?: The first ten years of Assessment in Education. Assessment in Education: Principles, Policy & Practice, 11(1), 7-26. https://doi.org/10.1080/0969594042000208976.
Selwyn, N. (2011). Education and technology: Key issues and debates. Continuum International Publishing.
