One early morning a few days before our spring exhibition of student work, Festival del Sol, I asked a seventh grade student if he was nervous about sharing his work publicly. His response sums how most of us were feeling:
Yeah, and I’m really excited.
Exhibitions are an opportunity for students (and indirectly their teachers) to publicly showcase their work. They can take many forms, from single classes presenting to a targeted audience to full school exhibitions where parents and community members can see all the projects students have been engaged in. High Tech Middle Chula Vista’s Festival del Sol was a full school exhibition; parents from all grade levels join the teachers and students to examine their work, dig into the process that created it, and celebrate accomplishments.
Exhibitions are, however, more than a single event on the calendar. They are a powerful tool for deepening learning and growth for teachers, students, and leaders. They provide authenticity by ensuring students will have an audience for their work. They create shared accountability and connections between school and community. These elements form a virtuous cycle of motivation for students and teachers to create the type of beautiful work that stems from and fosters transformational learning, the type of learning that sticks with students long after middle school.
Beautiful Work & Authenticity
Creating beautiful work can be transformational for students. It has the power to show students what they are capable of and help them reimagine themselves. As Ron Berger (2013) explains,
Once a student creates work of value for an authentic audience beyond the classroom — work that is sophisticated, accurate, important and beautiful — that student is never the same. When you have done quality work, deeper work, you know you are always capable of doing more.
Ensuring student work has an authentic audience is intricately tied to supporting students to create beautiful and transformational work. In fact Berger (2003) includes opportunities for public presentation as one of the five essential practices to creating transformational work and developing students’ ethic of excellence. An audience can motivate, inspire, and even provide feedback to help students reach levels of work they did not know they were capable of creating. In addition, sharing their work beyond the classroom honors it as an achievement and creates connections between school, community, and families that are centered what students create in their classrooms. When students know they are working towards a public exhibition, it shifts their approach to work. No longer are students simply doing work for a teacher; instead they are creating a product that will be shown to their community. Making work public motivates students to do their best work.
Yeah, and I’m really excited.
Exhibitions are an opportunity for students (and indirectly their teachers) to publicly showcase their work. They can take many forms, from single classes presenting to a targeted audience to full school exhibitions where parents and community members can see all the projects students have been engaged in. High Tech Middle Chula Vista’s Festival del Sol was a full school exhibition; parents from all grade levels join the teachers and students to examine their work, dig into the process that created it, and celebrate accomplishments.
Exhibitions are, however, more than a single event on the calendar. They are a powerful tool for deepening learning and growth for teachers, students, and leaders. They provide authenticity by ensuring students will have an audience for their work. They create shared accountability and connections between school and community. These elements form a virtuous cycle of motivation for students and teachers to create the type of beautiful work that stems from and fosters transformational learning, the type of learning that sticks with students long after middle school.
Beautiful Work & Authenticity
Creating beautiful work can be transformational for students. It has the power to show students what they are capable of and help them reimagine themselves. As Ron Berger (2013) explains,
Once a student creates work of value for an authentic audience beyond the classroom — work that is sophisticated, accurate, important and beautiful — that student is never the same. When you have done quality work, deeper work, you know you are always capable of doing more.
Ensuring student work has an authentic audience is intricately tied to supporting students to create beautiful and transformational work. In fact Berger (2003) includes opportunities for public presentation as one of the five essential practices to creating transformational work and developing students’ ethic of excellence. An audience can motivate, inspire, and even provide feedback to help students reach levels of work they did not know they were capable of creating. In addition, sharing their work beyond the classroom honors it as an achievement and creates connections between school, community, and families that are centered what students create in their classrooms. When students know they are working towards a public exhibition, it shifts their approach to work. No longer are students simply doing work for a teacher; instead they are creating a product that will be shown to their community. Making work public motivates students to do their best work.
Transparency & Shared Accountability (Celebration)
Just a exhibitions shift students perspective on their work, publicly displaying the outcomes of classes also changes the dynamic for educators. No longer is the work students create for the teachers’ eyes only. Instead of closed-door classrooms, the efforts of educators showcased for the community to see. If had asked a teacher that same morning how they were feeling about the upcoming exhibition, I would have probably received a response not so different from the students: exhibitions create a sense of excitement along with a bit of helpful pressure. More than the stress of meeting a deadline though, exhibitions create a shared sense of ownership and accountability for the work students do. They promote and, in many ways, demand shared reflection and collegial conversations about the work students are creating.
Exhibitions serve a particularly important role in the schools that allow teachers the freedom to create their project and curriculum because they ultimate form of transparency. Parents, community members, and other educators can literally see what has been happening in teachers classrooms through the student work on display. Grades, report cards even parent-teacher conferences offer insights into the learning, but there’s no replacement for actually seeing the work students created.
In addition to sharing the school’s work with the community and parents, exhibitions also provide space to share work between colleagues. This space can provide inspiration and ideas that can help educators grow in their practice. In a 2013 report, education research heavyweights David Conley and Linda Darling-Hammond push educators to challenge themselves to develop a system for continuous improvement. Done well, exhibitions could be a key piece of that system. In fact, Conley and Darling-Hammond suggest among other ideas “feedback loops to students, educators, and schools about their work (e.g., through exhibitions, educator evaluation systems, and school quality reviews); and collaboration opportunities within and across schools and networks” (p. 38). When combined with thoughtful reflections, exhibitions can provide a space for educators to both self-and-collaboratively assess their practice. While exhibitions shouldn’t become competitions between teachers to see who can create the best project, they do offer a chance for educators to reflect on their own practice by considering the work of their colleagues. As one teacher reflected:
The exhibition made me think about my own classroom because I couldn’t help but wonder if I was doing as good a job as my peers. I have never looked at myself (as a teacher) as critically as I do working at HTH.... It pushes me to take extra measures in making sure all of my students are learning/growing. It pushes me to constantly look at my classroom and how I do things—and at times changes my thought process about how certain things can be done (Riordan, p. 5).
Making the work public pushes both teachers and students to do their best work; it inspires an ethic of excellence, as Berger (2003) describes it.
For a single structure, exhibitions pack a strong educational punch. They can be a powerful tool to improve the quality of student work in way that deepens students’ learning and transforms their conception of their abilities. They also can be a lever to improve educators’ practice through transparency, shared accountability, collegial inspiration, and collaborative reflection. Lastly exhibitions bring a sense of celebration to the work students, teachers, and leaders do each day. The same way we celebrate months of practice with a big game, exhibitions can bring an intangible sense of joy and energy to our practice. Finally exhibitions can connect the larger community to what’s happening in the classroom. Given all these benefits, including exhibitions as part of the life of a school is a worthwhile endeavor.
Just a exhibitions shift students perspective on their work, publicly displaying the outcomes of classes also changes the dynamic for educators. No longer is the work students create for the teachers’ eyes only. Instead of closed-door classrooms, the efforts of educators showcased for the community to see. If had asked a teacher that same morning how they were feeling about the upcoming exhibition, I would have probably received a response not so different from the students: exhibitions create a sense of excitement along with a bit of helpful pressure. More than the stress of meeting a deadline though, exhibitions create a shared sense of ownership and accountability for the work students do. They promote and, in many ways, demand shared reflection and collegial conversations about the work students are creating.
Exhibitions serve a particularly important role in the schools that allow teachers the freedom to create their project and curriculum because they ultimate form of transparency. Parents, community members, and other educators can literally see what has been happening in teachers classrooms through the student work on display. Grades, report cards even parent-teacher conferences offer insights into the learning, but there’s no replacement for actually seeing the work students created.
In addition to sharing the school’s work with the community and parents, exhibitions also provide space to share work between colleagues. This space can provide inspiration and ideas that can help educators grow in their practice. In a 2013 report, education research heavyweights David Conley and Linda Darling-Hammond push educators to challenge themselves to develop a system for continuous improvement. Done well, exhibitions could be a key piece of that system. In fact, Conley and Darling-Hammond suggest among other ideas “feedback loops to students, educators, and schools about their work (e.g., through exhibitions, educator evaluation systems, and school quality reviews); and collaboration opportunities within and across schools and networks” (p. 38). When combined with thoughtful reflections, exhibitions can provide a space for educators to both self-and-collaboratively assess their practice. While exhibitions shouldn’t become competitions between teachers to see who can create the best project, they do offer a chance for educators to reflect on their own practice by considering the work of their colleagues. As one teacher reflected:
The exhibition made me think about my own classroom because I couldn’t help but wonder if I was doing as good a job as my peers. I have never looked at myself (as a teacher) as critically as I do working at HTH.... It pushes me to take extra measures in making sure all of my students are learning/growing. It pushes me to constantly look at my classroom and how I do things—and at times changes my thought process about how certain things can be done (Riordan, p. 5).
Making the work public pushes both teachers and students to do their best work; it inspires an ethic of excellence, as Berger (2003) describes it.
For a single structure, exhibitions pack a strong educational punch. They can be a powerful tool to improve the quality of student work in way that deepens students’ learning and transforms their conception of their abilities. They also can be a lever to improve educators’ practice through transparency, shared accountability, collegial inspiration, and collaborative reflection. Lastly exhibitions bring a sense of celebration to the work students, teachers, and leaders do each day. The same way we celebrate months of practice with a big game, exhibitions can bring an intangible sense of joy and energy to our practice. Finally exhibitions can connect the larger community to what’s happening in the classroom. Given all these benefits, including exhibitions as part of the life of a school is a worthwhile endeavor.