It seems that teachers are often contradictory in their expectations of students. On one hand teachers want students to take risks, to push the boundaries of their learning, creativity, and skills. On the other hand teachers penalize failure, deducting marks for work that doesn't "cut" it. Often, students don't find out that the risk didn't work out until the deadline is approaching, and there's little time to rework the challenge. So what would you do as a student?
I want my students to take risks, but as a teacher what do I do if the risk blows up in their face? I think we teachers need to develop other options for students that put themselves out there and try a risk. We have to support them and provide options when things don't work out.
For the student that takes a risk and succeeds, full props, level four work, an A, well done.
For the student that tries something new and discovers the new tact doesn't work so well, how about a lengthy extension to try again? How about a detailed analysis of what worked and what didn't, and a 'what did I learn from this' explanation? What if they presented what they got done and had the class help with the analysis? There are so many options, that teachers should be bending over backwards to help a student that took a risk.
Of course there is an onus on the teacher to continually monitor the student's progress so that a total failure of the risk would never really happen - that is the purpose of formative feedback and assessment for learning, isn't it?
