Maybe it is because we have so many of our students being educated by parents, siblings, non-educators, but the time to bring back narrative assessments might be now.
I am also not sure who should author them. Teachers can describe the learning without judgment from afar, but really the parents are the ones with the insight right now into their student’s learning. Wouldn’t it be great if every parent could assess their student this spring?
I started out my teaching career creating a one-page narrative for each 5th grader’s report card every nine weeks. My Apple IIe did the job, and it helped me to be a new teacher, but the tools today are outstanding for the kind of fill-in-the-blank greatness which appeals to everyone.
Try A Learning Story
Create your own and consider sharing your examples with your parents. Then share these resource pages from LucidPress and Canva (login required) and see what parents can create to celebrate their #RemoteLearning with their students.
Check out what I wrote up on my 2nd grader in LucidChart:
Hanrahan, V., Niles, A., & Whyte, M. (2019, January). Learning Stories. Exchange (19460406), (245), 12-15.
Southcott, L. H. (2015). Learning Stories: Connecting Parents, Celebrating Success, and Valuing Children’s Theories. Voices of Practitioners: Teacher Research in Early Childhood Education, 10, 34-50.