Skinned Knees and Secret Identities

Helping students embrace self-validating assessments

This week is a very exciting time in our household because our second grader has been chosen as “Star of the Week”. Her teacher determined she was this week’s “Star” after a very competitive round of “pick a number between 1 and 19” amongst the students in the class. My daughter saw this as a very prestigious designation and was thrilled that she guessed the number correctly. (Spoiler: It was “5”.)

As part of the festivities, she gets to make an “All About Me” poster. She took it very seriously and wanted all of her besties, cats, hobbies, and family represented. She took forever picking out pictures and gluing them just so. My favorite section looks something like this:

Age: Almost 8

Color: Purlpe (sic)

Secret Identity: “Dabbing Unicorn”

Food: Sausage

Toy: NumNom

None of this is particularly surprising to her classmates. They know her as an outgoing individual and her exuberance and openness is always on display both in and out of the classroom. For my daughter, a Secret Identity is an opportunity to flex creative muscle. Personas are fun to try on and then cast away. She loves trying on costumes and putting on plays. She wants to be thrilled by living, doesn’t hold back, and actively looks for opportunities to be silly. She falls down and proudly shows off her scars.

As I look around my own classroom of high schoolers, I realize how precious this is. I see students carefully crafting both physical and digital identities, personas stretching to meet the expectations of others amidst an uncertain world. Students that are afraid of taking a risk, highly dependent on grades and rubrics for validation, and and who bury creativity for fear of ridicule. I wonder when my daughter grows up to be their age, will she feel her “true identity” and “secret identity” are the same?

I’m mildly guilty of this. My teacher persona is purposely crafted. At first glance, students see a middle-aged man in pressed shirts and khakis with a bad haircut. I’ll use this persona in a somewhat self-deprecating manner over the course of the year to remind students of the importance of understanding and defining their world, and not depend on someone as seemingly out of touch as me for explanation. “Kid,” I’ll say, “You’re going to have to explain it to me. I’m old and not from around here.” I want to empower and embolden them out of their comfort zones, even if that means playing on their sympathies. And I know they’ll do it, because at heart, they are good people and will make the world better if given the opportunity.

I don’t think that they believe this. Students express feelings that school is to be endured as a way to “A”s and extracurriculars. Somewhere along the line, students grew out of creativity. I let them know that they have my sympathy; they are working in a system where effort and completion are rewarded with good grades and rubrics presented as their treasure map. Parents want them to complete assignments without wondering what the developmental benefit is to the student. They need those A’s to be competitive and get into a good college. The current grading scales are simplistic and easy to understand.

Students are not simplistic and understand, however, and they seem to be most mysterious to themselves. I am hoping to find assessment alternatives through the Greater Madison Writing Project’s Teacher Inquiry and Writing Institute and books such as Maja Wilson’s Rethinking Rubrics in Writing Assessment. Like most teachers, I want them to find fulfillment in their choices, to be intellectually curious and adventurous, and to embrace mistakes which comes from trusting a process. Moving forward, I want to bring students in as part of their evaluation process at all levels and take a larger role in personal growth. I want them to embrace the persona of “student” without feeling like it is burdensome or predefined in a classroom. The system isn’t set up for them to fall down and show off scars. I want them to value creativity and themselves, without the need for secret identities.