If I got hurt as a kid, I could guarantee one of these responses from my dad:
“Here’s a quarter. Go call someone who cares.”
“I think we oughtta shoot ya.”
“It’s two feet from your heart. You’ll live.”
As an adult, my best friend, a therapist, was appalled to learn this. How could anyone say that to their child? And are you okay?! I’m fine, I’m glad to report. I can’t pretend these were the “warm-fuzziest” of parental responses, but I can say that I’m pretty tough, in part because I learned to let things roll off my back. This has come in handy as a teacher.
THE CASE FOR EVALUATIONS
It can be hard, of course, to hear a student doesn’t like your class. That’s a major clue that something needs to change. But bypassing that, let’s say that we all have great classes that students enjoy. Evaluations can still draw a bigger bruise to the teacher ego when we hear that things we do in class that we love (projects, strategies, etc) some students might not.
It can be easy to dismiss these comments, but here’s the thing: student feedback needs to drive our instruction.From lesson planning to assessment creation and everything in between, our classroom needs to center on students, not on us. For example, we might be crazy grammar nerds, but most of our students are not. This creates a choice: we figure out a way to teach it better or we let it go.
Student evaluations give us a window into what is working for kids vs. what is not, what kids need vs. what they don’t. And we have to be have a thick skin to take this information in. We have to be able to ask ourselves, “Why, exactly, am I doing this?” and then adjust accordingly. We have to be willing to kick an activity that we’ve been using for years to the curb if it is ineffective, and that can be a tough pill to swallow. Ego has no place here. Essentially, we need the ability to read student comments and tell ourselves “It’s two feet from my heart, I’ll live.”
WHAT TO INCLUDE
I start evaluations with general questions about how they feel about the class and how it compares to other classes. I add in a little self-reflection, such as How much work have you put into learning French this semester?, because that can give context to how they reply to the other questions.
A section on the skills of reading, writing, listening/understanding, and speaking the language is useful to gauge student feelings about their progress.
Students enjoy the sections where they share what works well and what does not work well for them. The former tells me what helps them to learn, what they want more of, and what they would like to see continued. The latter tells me what I could get eliminate, what isn’t helpful, and where students are lost.
I finish with giving a list of the items/supports I provide for students that are “extra” and ask them if they use those items. If they do use those items, I ask what they think of them. This tells me very clearly where I need to focus my energy and what “extras” I need to expand upon.
AND THEN WHAT?
Lastly, what do you do with end of the semester evaluations once you have them? My first step is to tally the responses and look for patterns, and I generally do this before school is out. That way, I can talk to each class about their responses. Sometimes I need to ask them for clarification, and sometimes I need to explain why I have to do something. (Kids don’t always understand that we have requirements too!) Once I have tallied and had open discussions with my students, I put the evaluations in my gradebook binder. That way, as soon as I start thinking about the next school year, there they are, ready to inform my planning.
Until May 7, 2019, you can download my student evaluation form for FREE on Teachers Pay Teachers here!