Two stars and a wish

The boys and girls participated in a really important activity this morning. We all have one of those friends we can count on for honesty. They're special to us because they can tell us what we need to hear and not necessarily what we want to hear.  We appreciate them for the tact and compassion they show when they provide constructive feedback. 

Today, students were that friend to one another. Each child was given another child's assignment to review. Students were asked to provide "two stars and a wish". They had to state two things their classmate did really well and the wish was something the child might want to consider next time.  

Everyone worked very, very hard on this. We've been talking a lot lately about being tactful and oh, how proud you would have been to read the care and thought that was put in to this task. Even when giving suggestions for next steps, students still added plusses such as, "You're awesome at drawing by the way." It was a very heart-warming experience.  

Children were asked to consider the descriptive feedback they've received from me in the past.  They were reminded to consider their own printing when suggesting their classmate print neater, if their suggestion was that the child make sure the no-excuse words were spelled correctly, they'd want to make sure they to were doing this too when filling in their form (see photo). 

Then, the students were asked to meet with each other and review the feedback. It was so important that they sit down with each other and explain their rationale for the comments and have a bit of a peer review session. 

This is the direction that education is going and to see children so young engaging in such accountable discussion was remarkable. Everyone learns (and wins) with rich activities such as this.