In my previous post I stated that I would post some photographs of student work once I could ensure privacy. Here are some photographs of the displays of student work I saw. The work pictured below is representative of other shared work that I observed as I toured schools: colorful, artistic/visual in nature, aesthetically pleasing, very little writing, often group work. Other displays (not pictured below) included "Personal Color Wheels" and line drawings of animals.
I did not observe any writing work displays with the exception of very brief responses to literature in the form of the "3-D Postcards" pictured below. This suggests to me that perhaps wall displays of writing are not favored by school personnel. I can hypothesize several possible reasons why: hesitation to display 'imperfect' work (spelling errors, typos, etc.); difficult to read small print or type while walking in the hall or seated at a distance in the classroom; difficulty getting a 'finished [written] product' out of individual students (as expressed to me by one administrator).
However, Dearman & Alber (2005) have stated that the purpose of viewing student work is to refine instructional strategies; this cannot occur if only certain types of student work are being considered. In addition, researchers (Dearman & Alber, 2005; Fisher, Lapp & Flood, 2005) have found that reflection on student work should include dialogue about the quality and context of the work. With only limited samples of work being displayed and very little information being provided about the context in which the work was produced, the schools in which I work are limiting their ability to have these types of reflective conversations.
