Using Student Work to Improve Teaching: A Practical Toolkit for Educators

At Success Academy, we believe analyzing student work is integral to improving teacher practice and ultimately increasing academic outcomes. In our previous post, we highlighted the five key qualities of effective teacher practice. Below, we’ve provided concrete examples (and non-examples!) that illustrate these qualities using real scholar work samples.

Guidelines for Analyzing Scholar Work:

• Create systems to collect scholar work frequently and consistently
• Focus on classroom and grade-level trends, not individual students or misconceptions
• Identify not only the trends in student work, but what that tells you about teacher practice
• Name the gaps in teacher practice and create a plan to change

As you review the work samples below, think about: what do you notice? What does the work tell you about teacher practice?

Five Key Qualities of Effective Teaching with Student Work Samples:

Teacher’s Commitment to Big Ideas

Look for: big ideas at the forefront of work that are connected and supported with evidence.

Teacher’s Level of Concision and Precision:

Look for: clear writing and purposeful decisions around word choice and overall writing strategy.

Teacher’s Excellence Bar for Academics

Look for: scholars to prove what they know through evidence.

Teacher’s Level of Press and Demand

Look for: work that evidences using goals and feedback to revise.

Teacher’s Bar for Work Habits

Look for: big ideas at the forefront of work that are connected and supported with evidence.

What are you committed to doing differently to improve the quality of student work in your school? As always, reach out to our team with any questions on implementation at [email protected]!