Gratification in Teaching

This was my last 'content' week for my World History class. The students did their last in-class presentations on Thursday, and I did a short debrief. My questions: do you think that the rubrics I use are an accurate reflection of your learning? How would you evidence your learning? Have you experienced any learning you've done in this class?

What I was trying to get to was a critique of the rubrics (as I'm always trying to make them better), and a critique of the class format. What I got was that AND a rattlingly strong endorsement of my approach to teaching. Caveats: I have what are small classes for the rest of the world (my big classes are capped at 30), and complete autonomy in method, goals, etc.. The students have to do two in-class presentations in which they use art/artifacts to illustrate a culture's values/traditions, and teach their peers how to read the artifact. Their final is a creation of their own - some kind of artifact that illustrates a culture of their own, and it is to reflect their learning about a culture other than their own. No papers, no exams (except map quizzes). 40% of their course grade is based on their participation in class discussions, and no points are awarded for contributing breath, bodily presence or questions/comments based in lower level learning (knowledge, comprehension and application on Bloom's scale).

Their response was amazingly gratifying. At least half noted that coming into this class, they'd hated history. That they'd thought history was all names and dates, unconnected to their world and reality. By the end of the term, 25/27 voiced enthusiasm for the presentations as a way of demonstrating their learning. They liked the rubrics, said that not only did the things help them understand their grades, but that they were instrumental in shaping their future work. 25/27 (the other two rarely opened their mouths for the entire class anyway, so I don't really count their silence as anything other than silence) were impressed by their own learning, and were excited about how what they've done in my class has translated into their other classes. 25/27 argued that exams were a useless assessment tool. They actually volunteered to have outside assessors come in and watch them strut their learning. They were astonished when I told them that not only had they learned some history, they'd actually done history by developing skills needed and used by historians. Astonished and delighted. More than half the dancers (24/27) wanted to get a minor in history. And they were delighted to talk about how much, and how, they'd learned. At one point, one of the girls raised her hand and noted that one measure of how much the class enjoyed their learning was that they'd been assured that as soon as the debrief finished they could leave. Yet 35 minutes later we were all still there, and had things to say.

I was flying. That was the most gratifying debrief I've ever had. It's enough to get me out of the end-of-term doldrums.