Website: Looking at Student Work

Looking at student work. (2000). Retrieved from http://http://lasw.org/


Summary:  This website was created by a an "association of individuals and educational organizations that focus on looking at student work grew out of a meeting on "Examining Student Work and School Change" held in Chicago in October 1998, hosted by the Chicago Learning Collaborative and the Annenberg Institute for School Reform."  The purpose of the site is to introduce, model, and provide resources for educators who want to begin or improve their practice of looking at student work using protocols.  The site highlights ten protocols and gives detailed explanations for each as well as sample protocols complete with pictures of the students work and transcripts of the conversation.  The site gives straightforward explanations of why and how one should look at student work and answers faq's from peers in the "LASW" community.


Evaluation:  The site is thorough, drawing on the experiences of the authors as well as upon research and other resources to explain and demonstrate the ten protocols.  The site is well maintained and provides many references and opinions, making it multi-dimensional rather than just one person's opinion or experience.  The authors are also connected to the Annenberg Institute for School Reform and Harvard's Project Zero, both respected insitutions in the field of education.


Reflection:  This website is a gold mine for those new to protocols or looking for new protocols to try.  It is focused just on looking at student work and is therefore both thorough and simple to access because everything about the site is designed to help educators learn about LASW protocols.  The transcripts and model conversations were particularly helpful as they helped me "visualize" how the conversation would go (rather than just reading a list of steps).  I was inspired by this site to do two protocols with my staff and to incorporate LASW as a weekly part of our school's intern mentoring program.