THE ABRUPT SHIFT from face-to-face instruction to remote and blended learning brought about by COVID-19 in March has had educators scratching their heads regarding how to capture student voice.

To better understand each student, educators typically measure a multidimensional and personalized set of indicators, such as goals, interests and aspirations that capture the student perspective.

While establishing this framework is the first hurdle, actually collecting meaningful data presents another challenge. Often, the key to success in effectively measuring whole child indicators lies in fostering student engagement and capturing student voice.

Personal Meaning

One way to facilitate long-term engagement is by having students write brief personal statements that afford them the opportunity to authentically represent themselves as learners. Most personal statements include aspirations, hobbies, likes, dislikes and even students’ reflections on their performance data such as assessments, grades and attendance.

A key benefit of developing personal statements is that it encourages students to reflect on and express themselves as learners, reinforcing social and emotional learning concepts. Additionally, having a range of personal statements from different points in a student’s educational experience enables teachers to better understand their students’ personal experiences.

Educators have expressed how powerful this student reflection can be. Those who analyze personal statement data over time have found it an invaluable asset toward measuring whole child growth.

“The incorporation of personal statements has been invaluable for our teachers and related service personnel because it brings a true element of student voice into planning daily lessons,” says John Bruesch, assistant superintendent for teaching and learning at Barrington Community Unified School District 200, in Barrington, Ill.

“We learn more about the dreams and goals of our students, and we can make deeper connections with them in the classrooms and hallways!” Bruesch adds.

Deeper Insights

There are various insights to be gained from personal statements. Engaging students by asking them to share in an open-ended format enables educators to better understand how each student is developing. When students feel they can freely express themselves, it cultivates interpersonal relationships between students and educators, giving the latter the resources necessary to connect and engage with a student on a more personal level. The openness provided by personal statements is not just limited to educators. Personal statements can also be shared with parents.

Having students write personal statements and reflect on who they are as learners is an exercise that can aid districts in engaging students and capturing student voice during a remote learning era. 

ECRA’s Personalized Learner Profile helps facilitate this process, providing each student with a learner profile where students can represent themselves as learners and add artifacts over time.

Personalized learning statements allow students to be active participants in measuring quality growth by demonstrating strengths beyond what is measured via traditional assessments.

JOHN GATTA is CEO of ECRA Group based in Schaumburg, Ill. Twitter: @jlgatta.