A full-circle moment: Harwood students return to former teachers with M-STEP results
A full-circle moment: Harwood students return to former teachers with M-STEP results
On Sept. 11, fourth-grade students at Harwood Elementary School lined up in the cafeteria, each holding a bi-fold paper in their hands that many flipped throughexcitedly while talking with classmates.
One by one, students approached their former third-grade teachers, opened their papers, and shared their M-STEP test results. The third-grade teachers marveled at the document, before celebrating the moment with smiles, congratulations, and often a hug.
Regardless of how well they scored, each student walked away from the conversation with a big, mostly-toothy smile on their faces.
Grant West, one of the fourth-grade students in attendance, said he previously had no idea how he did on his M-STEP test.
“I felt a little nervous on my math, but I felt a little bit better on my reading,” he said.
West had Jazmine Ciegotura as his third-grade teacher and eagerly joined the line of students waiting to talk withtheir former teacher. After their conversation, he recalled Ciegotura’s comments.
“She said, ‘nice job,' and, like, a lot of good stuff,” West said.
This year, West is a student in Stacy Younis’ class.
“These teachers are here so that they can celebrate the successes and talk about, you know, where they need to grow and that they did their best,” Younis said.
.jpg "student shares scores with teacher")
Younis not only watched her own students share their results with their former teachers, but she also got to hear from her former students about their scores.
“The thing with teaching is you plan all these seeds and you don’t always get to see, like, the fruits of your labor and so this is the chance to go back and really like celebrate with those kids,” she said.
This empowers students to share their test results with their parents and puts them in the driver's seat of explaining how they did. Building the students' ability to do this is an especially meaningful part of students sharing their accomplishments with the teachers who spent nearly an entire school year helping them prepare.
Younis also has a unique perspective on the event because she is a former Harwood parent.
Her son, who is now in middle school, will have his M-STEP scores delivered to him by his fifth-grade teacher later this school year.
“The kids freak out, like they think it’s so neat that their fifth-grade teachers come and deliver their scores to them and they still care about them,” she said.
.jpg "students talk about their scores")
The day starts with the students meeting with the school’s intervention team to review their scores. They then head to the cafeteria to share their results with their former teachers. While the third-grade teachers meet with their former students, current third graders enjoy recess under the supervision of recess monitors and Principal Jason Clark.
