We provide both formal and informal assessment and feedback to students in a number of ways.  First, we provide progress reports and written narratives two times per year. Progress reports track student progress in communications literacy and math. Narratives are written by educators to provide feedback on student successes, challenges, and student growth.  We also conduct parent conferences twice per year.

 

Equally important, three times a year, we have our formal Learning Exhibitions where students present projects. These exhibitions offer opportunities for students to demonstrate their learning and growth, develop presentation and communication skills, and embrace feedback and reflection in front of authentic audiences.

 

Check out the Kindergarten exhibition videos above. Our youngest students have explored a variety of topics from ocean adaptations in different levels of the sea to simple machines and cause and effect relationships. This led to the creation of a grand-scale, group Rube Goldberg machine that would deliver ice cream and cookies to the students. It led to the design of an apparatus that would allow people to explore the ocean depths without getting wet. These videos were accompanied by books written collaboratively by the students, reflections that highlight student process, and a variety of other smaller scale projects and explorations.