Redos and Retakes at YMS

At York Middle School, we believe it's important for students to make mistakes, to reflect on their failures, and to persevere to meet their goals (learning targets!).  Perseverance, in fact, is one of our school's core values.  We are striving to create a student culture that values hard-work and recognizes when students learn the most: When they make mistakes and when they persevere to do better.
Teachers have historically placed a high value on work-ethic and with good reason.  Intuitively, we have always known that learning improves when students persevere when faced with a challenge.

Now, we actually have the science to back up our intuitions.  The neuroscience that supports the research is fascinating.  We now know, irrefutably, that students actually get "smarter" by being allowed to fail and having the opportunity to make corrections.  The research couldn't be any more powerful.  Here is what we know to be true:

When students are given descriptive feedback on their failures, time to reflect in meaningful ways, and the opportunity to make corrections, learning WILL improve.  Period.  Having kids formally reflect on their academic setbacks is the single most powerful thing teachers can do to improve learning in their classrooms.

In order to encourage this new mindset, teachers have been working to create redo/retake policies within their teaching teams and classrooms.  Creating a formalized redo/retake policy is something new for most teachers.   A formalized policy helps students to prepare a plan of action if they do poorly on an assessment.  A good policy also helps teachers manage time and the workload that comes along with new and improved classroom practices.

Please follow the link below to read an outstanding article by Rick Wormeli called Redos and Retakes Done Right.  In this Educational Leadership article, Wormeli provides the philosophical argument for allowing redos in schools then goes on to offer practical strategies for implementation.  I'm proud to report that many of the practices he describes are now becoming increasingly common at YMS!

Redos and Retakes Done Right