February: Quality Producer

True Confession
Quality Producer has been a skill in our district since I started over 25 years ago. When I was still in the classroom, whenever I assigned a project I tried to make sure high quality work was an expectation, and I sometimes even made it part of the rubric. In this way, I felt like I was “doing” Quality Producer and could proudly put a check in that box. Nonetheless, most of the time I was
disappointed and frustrated. Disappointed in the low quality (crossed out words on a poster, sloping text, bad printing, crudely crafted projects, etc.) of much of the work. Frustrated that I didn’t feel like I had the tools to clearly teach what I meant by “high quality” which in turn made it difficult for me to hold students accountable. I didn’t like marking students down for something I didn’t really teach them. No surprise: telling students to do high quality work isn’t the same as showing them what it looks like. I hope this month’s learning helps you in your quest to support high quality work in your classroom.

Check It Out
Read the description and review the grade-level checklist for this skill at the Future Ready Skill website.

Learn More
Read the following articles
Go on a Field Trip
Step outside your classroom and roam the halls for a few minutes. How many examples of high quality student work do you see? What helps you distinguish the high from the low quality work? Using this lens through which to view the hallway walls, what observations can you make about your school’s culture of quality?

Prompt
Finally, read about the three attributes of high quality work (Models of Excellence: Attributes of High Quality Work). As you read, think about a t project or assignment that students completed for your class in which you were disappointed by the quality of the work your students displayed. In which of the three attributes was the work lacking? What could you do next time to support students producing high(er) quality work for that project or assignment? What success criteria from Quality Producer would help your students increase the quality of their work in this instance?

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Kim Fitzpatrick (RC)'s avatar

Kim Fitzpatrick (RC) · 311 weeks ago

PART 1: As I wondered the halls, I noticed there was a lot of artwork and very few pieces that incorporated writing or math. I have to admit, my lens for looking at artwork comes from a place of believing that every child is an artist, and that it's impossible to "judge" art as high quality or low quality, but I did my best to look for the success criteria in the work I did see. I was looking for work where I could see attention to detail. I also looked for originality and inventiveness. I saw A LOT of that. I feel that our building does an incredible job at highlighting and teaching FRS, particularly quality producer(s). What I didn't see, that I think would be cool, is some kind of reflection or narrative from students to accompany their work, maybe stating something they improved upon, or something they were most proud of...what was most challenging, or what steps they took to complete it. I'm going to try to add that to my next project and display it on the board next to their work to encourage more reflection about the process.

PART 2: Craftsmanship! This is an attribute that was really lacking for some of our teams in a recent science investigation we did. Students created a model of a jewelry box using magnets and cardboard boxes (and tape). There were specific criteria and constraints, and teams worked collaboratively to meet each of those. They worked together beautifully as teams, and communicated their ideas, used creativity and innovation, and presented with confidence. I just wondered about the quality of the work when I saw teams rushing to finish and scribbling their designs. They were having fun, but was it truly "quality work"? I think if I had focused more on deliberately talking about craftsmanship, and what that means, and maybe even provided a rubric or checklist to them ahead of time, they would have been more thoughtful about it. I think I'd even create a reflection tool so that they could evaluate their own models when complete.
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Mark Lange (RC)'s avatar

Mark Lange (RC) · 307 weeks ago

Step outside your classroom and roam the halls for a few minutes. How many examples of high quality student work do you see? What helps you distinguish the high from the low quality work? Using this lens through which to view the hallway walls, what observations can you make about your school’s culture of quality?

As I walked down the halls of Rock Creek, I saw many examples of quality work. Being in an elementary school, 99% of it is art. To me, art is subjective and I must admit, I am no artist. My students get a kick out of my models I draw in math and science. So if I see student work that is better than what I could produce, I consider it quality work. Ha! However, being a veteran teacher (I can’t believe they let my do this still), I do understand what it means to be a quality producer. I know I walked down the halls to look, but I focused really on the students I teach. Simply because I know their capabilities and the criteria I set for successful work. One project lends itself to easy evaluation considering it has both art and writing combined in one project. 5th grade covers the events leading up to the revolutionary war. Students follow a “story path” to learn all the content that lead us to our independence. They create a colonial character, which includes owning a business, participating in business activities, having family members, and creating leisure activities. Students right a bio with these in mind. A quality producer not only has good penmanship (to a degree, my handwriting is terrible), but correct grammar and spelling when writing their final draft. They are also creative and show good voice. I had a few that were above the rest, but I could not upload a photo that I took. On the other side of the construction paper, the students created their character using a picture of their face and cloth that I provided. The criteria was to dress themselves in period clothing. Many did not understand this, or chose not to, but others did. They were also responsible for drawing a time period background. A quality producer in my class took the time to follow the criteria and spent time paying attention to the small details that made their projects stand out.

Finally, read about the three attributes of high quality work (Models of Excellence: Attributes of High Quality Work). As you read, think about a t project or assignment that students completed for your class in which you were disappointed by the quality of the work your students displayed. In which of the three attributes was the work lacking? What could you do next time to support students producing high(er) quality work for that project or assignment? What success criteria from Quality Producer would help your students increase the quality of their work in this instance?

For the prompt, I also chose the colonial character project. Even though many showed high quality work, there were many that did not. I feel craftsmanship and authenticity was lacking in a few. 5th graders at times can rush through work and projects in order to just be “done”. I noticed lack of accuracy, detail and authenticity. The criterion was given and a few did not follow. For example, dressing their character in leopard skin pants (really?) or saying a leisure activity was watching TV. Obviously, these students missed not only the lesson I taught when we covered clothing/activities, but in my mind, basic common sense. Quality producers for this project they were not. Next time I would take out the leopard cloth and review rough drafts before allowing final copies. It didn’t occur to me that a student could be that ummm… out to lunch?, but I digress. I feel these few students could have benefited from me showing them the I use criteria to evaluate my work from the check off list because it was obvious they did not.
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Kelsie Gooch (GPES)'s avatar

Kelsie Gooch (GPES) · 306 weeks ago

As I walked our hallways I was consistently surprised at the quality of work being displayed. There are mixed media creations, canvas paintings and science/art combos. What was really obvious to me was the teacher/classroom that clearly expected high quality work because each project within the group was done with thoughtfulness, attention to detail and exemplified the same qualities.Overall I see high quality exceptions in the projects displayed in the hallways. I haven't had the honor of working in any other classrooms or talking much with teachers to understand the challenges they come against on a given day, however, their expectations for excellence isn't deterred by these experiences.

The most recent project that my group of EEP students did was a "Spring" themed free choice craft time. I put out a few crafts/art supplies and asked them to create Spring themed things like flowers, clouds, rain, bugs, etc. Being a "free choice creative time led to many differing interpretations of the task. Some student work was well thought out and obvious to the viewer what it was. Some other work wasn't as obvious. And other student made a video game vehicle but put a wooden flower on it so it was a Spring Themed Battle Bus. Since my kiddos are k-5th, I struggle to demonstrate the high expectation I want from their work, when a 1st grader and 5th grade will be producing very different levels of work. I may take a leaf from this "Future Ready "Skills" and create two Criteria/Rubrics for my projects so students can have clear expectations of what they are working toward k-2 and 3-5. I always really want to make what we do relevant. These kiddos are sometimes at school for up 12 hours and I want them to do things that are relevant and meaningful to them and not just busy work. I want to build projects around different organizations in our community that we can partner with to open our eyes to what is happening outside the four walls of the school. Once students by into the relevance of the organization as it is linked to real people in real need, their desire to do well and accomplish a task with quality should increase. And with these projects I would love to put rubrics/checklist's in place that can be showed to the parents. EEP doesn't give grades, but we do celebrate behavior and allowing students to celebrate their successes with their parents and school would be a really powerful thing!
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Lauren S (RCES)'s avatar

Lauren S (RCES) · 279 weeks ago

Walking down the hallway, I noticed that are hallways are covered with work proudly displayed and produced by our talented students. A large majority of the student work was artwork. I noticed that most of the projects had clear expectations of what the teacher was looking for. Just glancing at the art on the wall, one would notice all the similarities and keep on walking. However, when really looking at the art, I began to notice the subtle differences between the projects and how each child’s individual creativity came out in unique ways. I believe that art is subjective and while its hard to determine if it is ‘high quality’ or not, one can appreciate the creativity that shines through in each piece and to me, that is high quality.

Reflecting upon some of the projects and assignments we have done this year, our writing assessment comes to mind as a project that I was disappointed with the results. While some of the students wrote amazing informational pieces using the skills and strategies we had be practicing all unit, some students did the bare minimum. I feel that craftsmanship and authenticity were lacking in a few pieces because some students were rushing just to get the assignment finished. Next time, before handing out the assignment, I think it would useful to spend a few extra minutes reviewing all the we have learned. Also remind them about why we are doing this final assessment: to show all that we know.
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Jamie R. (LWES)'s avatar

Jamie R. (LWES) · 278 weeks ago

As I think about one of the last writing projects I did in my classroom, I believe that the work produced by my students was lacking in craftsmanship and authenticity. Teaching students to pay attention to the small details that they are adding into their writing and how those little details add so significantly to the quality of their writing. My students are also relying on my direction, which affects their authenticity in the work that they are producing.
I think for me to release some scaffolding to provide students with the opportunity to create and produce work more authenticly. By encouraging risk-taking and providing a safe environment for students to try and succeed or make mistakes. To support my students in craftsmanship, I want to use the quality producer checklist/success criteria to have students self-reflect on their work completed.
The success criteria that I believe will help my students grow as a quality producer is:
I use criteria, self-reflection, and feedback from adults and peers to improve my work throughout the project.
For my students to have the ability to self-reflect will increase their ability in other areas of being a quality producer.
1 reply · active 270 weeks ago
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Carolyn (TES)'s avatar

Carolyn (TES) · 270 weeks ago

I see that in my students' writing too. Especially when I talk to students about how writing the first draft requires editing and revising since the first draft is rarely the best draft. However, by the time they have finally dragged out multiple paragraphs, they are so exhausted and are not interested in putting in more detailed work towards adding and deleting sentences to make the writing "more interesting." I understand when you say "My students are also relying on my direction, which affects their authenticity in the work that they are producing." A handful of my students who really struggle to produce writing usually cannot write anything until I give suggestions like, you could try this, or you could think about this. I am going to try to teach and create more anchor charts that hang in the room of sentence starters and examples of ways to write. Students also have an interactive writing binder where I print out anchor charts I share and they each have their own copy to refer to at any time. This can help guide them when they are stuck.
My coworker does this and I also want to start doing this: post examples of work that is deserving of a 4 and discuss why it is well-written work. Posting different levels of quality work set a high expectation for students and give them a visual reference of what their work should also look like.
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Kathy Johnson's avatar

Kathy Johnson · 270 weeks ago

My 4th & 5th grade students in Future Ready worked on a Collaborative Team Project creating their own coin with specific guidelines on what to include. I did not do a "sample" because I was thinking it would influence their creations. However, upon reflection, there were a few groups of students that did not follow the instructions and did the bare minimum of what was required. It would have benefited them to see an example and I would have provided a rubric. I would also have had them present their drafts to a partner group for feedback before they completed their final draft. They all presented their coins to the class.
1 reply · active 270 weeks ago
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Kate H.'s avatar

Kate H. · 270 weeks ago

I have also opted to not show an example, worrying that it would just be copied and then been disappointed in the final products or been confused at how some students interpreted the directions to be. I think that your ideas for future projects are great. I have asked students to share ideas when they are in the planning phase too, as a way to give examples without showing them.
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Alyssa Hayes's avatar

Alyssa Hayes · 270 weeks ago

Walking through the halls looking at the kiddos work is one of my favorite things. I love to look and see how other classes/ grade levels are doing. There were quite a few examples of quality work that I came across. I think it is important to remember quality work looks differently depending on their abilities. Quality work is sometimes hard to distinguish if you don’t know the kiddos and see how hard they are working on their project. Based off of what I saw in the hallways there is a good culture of quality in our building.
I automatically think about writing and being quality producer.* At the beginning of the year, kindergarten writing is complicated and it is very hard to reach all levels of kiddos. We usually teach to our lower kiddos because there is so much that they need to know. That being said, writing conferences are an easy way to differentiate your lessons but we can’t start doing those until the kiddos are used to how writers workshop should look. Eventually there are different papers (amount of lines. Checklists etc.) that the kiddos can choose from. Next year, I would like to introduce these different types of papers earlier so that my kids coming in at a higher level won’t be limited in the amount of work they can produce at the start of the year.
*This is something that I am thinking about how I can improve. Kiddos need the opportunity to show that they can produce quality work in other ways/subjects.
1 reply · active 270 weeks ago
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Mandy Keller (CRES)'s avatar

Mandy Keller (CRES) · 270 weeks ago

I think you brought up a great point when you said that quality can look very different among the range of ability levels. A student who is barely writing sight words and who struggle to sound spell might write a sentence and that can be their best quality work. Whereas a student who can write full sentences easily might have a whole page be quality work for them.

In my own class, I know that I need to be better about self-reflection to improve the skill of being a quality producer. By teaching students to self-asses they become aware of what their best work consists of. By knowing their best, they can continually grow and improve. I plan on using this especially during writing our writing block.
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Toni Bylin 's avatar

Toni Bylin · 270 weeks ago

As I read about the three attributes of high quality work (complexity, craftsmanship, authenticity), I was thinking about a recent essay that my 4th and 5th grade students were writing in our resource room classroom. As a whole, I felt like most of my students were lacking in the attribute of craftsmanship. They weren’t always attending to detail in their writing as there were many errors with their grammar, spelling, capitalization, and punctuation. Most of these errors could have been caught and fixed by students if they took the time to carefully review what they wrote. However, they just rushed through their work and were excited to be done! Next time I can support my students in producing higher quality work with their essays by finding meaningful ways for them to go back and review their work. My students are motivated to read their essays to stuffed animals, peers, or staff members. I could try having them print a draft to read aloud to one of the following. They could have a writing utensil with them and stop and jot a note about any changes they can make in their writing as they catch errors with their grammar, spelling, capitalization, or punctuation. In the article “How to Get High- Quality Student Work in PBL”, the author stresses the importance of allowing time for students to revise and polish their work. By building in time for activities like this, we would be cultivating a culture of quality in our classroom. Ron Berger also talked about the five pedagogical practices to create a culture of excellence. His 4th practice states that we should require multiple revisions from students. With this focus on the success criteria of “I pay attention to detail”, my students can produce higher quality of work with their essays.
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Kate H.'s avatar

Kate H. · 270 weeks ago

In reading this article and thinking through the prompt, I am reflecting more broadly on the assignments or projects I have given to students. I teach social skills in small groups and most groups meet 2 times per week. Due to this, I feel that it can be difficult for me to increase the complexity of the work we do. Time can definitely affect the complexity of work and even the interest level of the kids. I typically see my groups for 30 minutes. Within that 30 minutes I teach a mini lesson, we engage in the work and then it is time to clean up. The time limit can affect how deep students are able to dive into their project or assignment. There is also the time between sessions to consider. When students come back, we review the lesson and goal of the work before they have time again to start. This starting and stopping can interrupt the process of students throughout the completion of the work. It also affects the craftsmanship. Many of my students seem to be working quickly to get the task done rather than focusing on quality. I might unintentionally reinforce this as well, considering I only have 30 minutes with them per session. I have one group that is going to start meeting 4 days per week. I am interested to see if we I am able to increase the complexity as well as the craftsmanship of the work the students do in this group. One of the Quality Producer success criteria that would probably help my students is for them to use criteria to evaluate their own work.
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WendyS's avatar

WendyS · 270 weeks ago

In kindergarten, I am introducing these topics. When it comes to complexity, they often need prompting to remember to answer the “why” part to a comprehension question. For example, if I say ‘Tell your partner what animal you found interesting in the book and why,’ I hear them tell their partners what animal but I often have to remind them about the ‘why do you like ___.’ Writing is another area that I find my kindergarteners need many prompts to increase their complexity and craftsmanship. The idea of going back to something they think is "done" to edit the piece more or add more details can be a challenge.

I agree with Mandy's post, that 'best quality work' could look different between students in our class. Thinking about the two in my class who have OT sessions on how to hold a pencil...of course their drawings and letter formation is probably going to look very different than the perfectionship child in the class. However, I can observe all those students are trying their best on their tasks.
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Kelly Nelson's avatar

Kelly Nelson · 270 weeks ago

After reading about the three attributes of high quality work, I think that my students' writing can lack complexity. Many times they are still learning how to produce writing that makes sense so they often times will copy the ideas or examples given to help guide their work. In order to add complexity to writing at this stage, it would help to teach students how to add more details. For example, in nonfiction writing you could show students how to include how-tos, add details to each fact and include step by steps which they then could apply throughout the writing unit. I could see using writing checklists earlier on to help students set their own criteria for their writing which would allow them to strive for exceeding expectations early and move on to the second grade checklist.
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Kelly M. (CRES)'s avatar

Kelly M. (CRES) · 269 weeks ago

I do enjoy walking through the halls and admiring student work. I love the fact everyone's work is displayed with pride regardless of the quality of the work. It's important to remember that students have different abilities and even though one student's work is more aesthetically pleasing than another's, that does not necessarily mean the students didn't put forth their full effort. As teachers, being objective is crucial, and understanding how your students' abilities, background, and experiences, can impact their work and learning is something we should always keep in mind.
When I look at my students through the lens of quality producer, I am thinking specifically of writing and the quality of their content, not penmanship, or illustrations. I am trying out a writing progression in 1st grade, in which students will self-reflect on their elaboration skills. They will look at their work, and decide if their facts are teaching their reader, some, a lot, or at an expert level. The goal of this is for them to decide what can they do better. Don't we always want to get better at writing? This differentiates elaboration based upon the ability of the student. Students can decide upon the complexity of their elaboration based on what was taught. For example, do they want to do the bare minimum of a twin sentence, or teach more by adding comparison, or be an expert and teach using twin sentences, comparisons, and examples. They will decide upon what quality of work they want to produce or what they are capable of based on their topic. I am excited to try out the progression because it will also have the students take ownership of their learning, a practice I am trying to improve upon.
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Stacey P (TSD)'s avatar

Stacey P (TSD) · 269 weeks ago

Field Trip
There are many samples of student artwork lining the halls of Rock Creek Elementary. I would say there is a relatively high percentage of high quality work. I consider high quality work that which appears to show effort on the part of the student. Evidence of effort on the part of students includes when the artist sample and the student art closely resemble each other. Alternatively, if an art project appears to have been rushed (e.g. scribbled color vs. full blended color), I tend to rate this as “low quality” work.
By just looking at the art on the walls, without knowing who’s art is who’s, it is probable that I may be inadvertently classing some art as “low quality” simply because they do not appear to have been produced with a great deal of effort. I remind myself that it is important to keep in mind that not every student is capable of producing an art project that resembles the artist sample or that of one’s peers. Despite that, the art could be high quality work for that particular student.

Prompt
Recently in Future Ready class, my 2nd and 3rd grade students have completed a small group project that required groups produce a poster about collaborative teamwork. As a class, we went over the attributes of being collaborative teammates; developed an anchor chart together on what collaborative teamwork looks and sounds like. We also went over the poster requirements together, and I provided each group with a checklist (i.e. rubric) to help them stay organized and keep track of their progress.
I was thrilled by the creativity and teamwork my students showed. Overall, the complexity and authenticity of their work was impressive. For some groups, I was surprised/disappointed that certain instructions were not followed as I expected. The attribute of high quality work that I feel was lacking was craftsmanship, and this was related to accuracy and attention to detail. I believe this was also related to not doing more than a final draft.
For future student projects, I would ensure that students would do at least one draft before the final draft, as well as take the time to go over the expectations more thoroughly before students begin working on their projects (I see each class one time per week for 45 minutes). Because I only have a short amount of time with each class every week, when they have a project, I want to give them as much of the time to work. However, ensuring students are very clear about the expectations before they get back to work is definitely time well spent.
In order to help my students increase the quality of their work, I would have them focus on the following criteria from Quality Producer self-reflection checklist:
•I pay attention to details
•I use criteria to evaluate my work
•I use criteria, self-reflection, and feedback from peers, teachers, and mentors to improve my work throughout the project
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Kimberly F (TSD)'s avatar

Kimberly F (TSD) · 269 weeks ago

I've completed this prompt previously, so I came at it from a different perspective this time, looking at the quality producer 3-5 checklist, and reading about the attributes of high quality work as they pertain to a recent writing project my students completed. Although I'm not necessarily "disappointed" in their work, I do see places where I could have supported their growth as quality producers in a more deliberate way. Students selected an animal to research, using guiding questions to gather information from a variety of sources. With that information, they drafted expert books, consisting of a Table of Contents, and chapters for each section of information. Once complete, students edited, revised, and met with writing partners to receive feedback and suggestions for improvement. The final published books were printed and signed by the author and then placed in our school 's "Book Nook" for everyone to read and enjoy. While I feel that this was a successful project overall, I did take pause after looking at the QP checklist today. Students did show complexity, craftsmanship, and authenticity, however, I think they would have benefited from a checklist, specific to this project. I also think having specific criteria to evaluate their work and the work of others is a critical component that was not provided. Students did a nice job of following directions and transferring understanding, however I do think I could have created an additional layer of rigor by focusing on the attribute of care and precision in this project. Moving forward, I will be more intentional about incorporating the QP checklist in this project and developing a tool for students to reflect and measure their own progress.
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Judy K (TES)'s avatar

Judy K (TES) · 268 weeks ago

Finally, read about the three attributes of high quality work (Models of Excellence: Attributes of High Quality Work). As you read, think about a t project or assignment that students completed for your class in which you were disappointed by the quality of the work your students displayed. In which of the three attributes was the work lacking? What could you do next time to support students producing high(er) quality work for that project or assignment? What success criteria from Quality Producer would help your students increase the quality of their work in this instance?
I felt like craftsmanship was lacking in my students informational writing. I feel like we do have lots of time to write in our class and talk with partners to help each other to make it better but now I feel like I could have done more. Next time, I think I am going to have to show more examples but also have kids do their paper to show more of student work on the document camera. We show some but not alot and after talking about it, I think the next step that I need to do is to have kids rewrite and rewrite adding more details and information to make it their own paper. I feel like a lot of my students do not like the idea of rewriting it but I feel like maybe be more enthusiastic and showing them more of my work and how it became from this to that. We use a checklist in class but I feel like kids skim over it and assume that they have it so having a rubric and an example of what it looks like in each criterion. Then at the end, we can share it and see where kids can add or delete things in a positive way by helping each other out.
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Zoryana L. (LWES)'s avatar

Zoryana L. (LWES) · 253 weeks ago

In thinking back to a project in which I was disappointed by the quality of the work my students displayed, one attribute, as described by our article, that was lacking was craftsmanship. To explain, I had my 5th graders work on a composition project where they got to compose their own short song. Although the songs themselves were "high quality" and I was proud of the final product my students presented, in receiving their compositions on paper, I was disappointed in the sloppy and hard to follow rhythms that were written out by my students. Next time, to support my students in producing higher quality work for that specific project, I want to be very clear in my instructions/rubric and also have a really excellent example on display for students at all times that exemplifies high quality work (i.e. success criteria). Two success criteria from Quality Producer that I believe would help my students increase the quality of their work in this instance are "I pay attention to details" and "I use criteria to evaluate my work". Hopefully in the future I can emphasize these points to help my students be more successful in producing high quality work in their written composition projects.
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Maureen B. TSD's avatar

Maureen B. TSD · 253 weeks ago

Unfortunately I could not take a field trip, due to being on maternity leave since December.

Thinking back, I taught a writing lesson in November. Although my students are only first graders, they do have the ability to have complexity in their writing. We were doing a writing piece about the Mayflower, and what they would bring if they could go on the Mayflower. Many of my students just wrote the exact same things that were stated in the book, lacking creativity and complexity. Next time I would talk more in-depth about the students' own lives, and why they would choose to take different things, with more student examples.
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Susan H (SLES)'s avatar

Susan H (SLES) · 252 weeks ago

In the opinion writing portion of our year, I was disappointed in their persuasive essays. They were lacking craftsmanship. In order to support the student s in producing higher quality work, I would give them more opportunities for peer review. In addition, I would try to create a classroom culture that was more focused on revision and critiques, which would lead to higher quality presentations. The part of the checklist that this refers to is: I use criteria, self-reflection, and feedback from peers, teachers, and mentors to improve my work throughout the project. I would create a video of students involved in critiquing others and show that video to the kids so they can see how it is beneficial and a "good thing" to have others care enough about your work to want to help you make it even better than it already is. I would share other opinion papers, not only professional mentor texts, but also mentor texts created by 3rd and 4th graders so they have the opportunity to find the powerful parts of these texts and discuss what made them powerful, thereby allowing them to create powerful parts in their writing because they have been shown how to do so.

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