Students Earn Study Skills Badge

After launching two student badges as a test pilot a few weeks before Thanksgiving, 13 students have earned the ‘Taskmaster’ badge. By earning this badge, students have demonstrated mastery of a set of age-appropriate, study skills. Specifically, they have demonstrated (as 5th Graders) the ability to use a student planner and calendar to monitor weekly and monthly assignments, events, and class schedules.

Today, the students received their badges in an informal ceremony of recognition at the start of class. The badges were awarded in two forms: digital and locker magnet. In the digital form, students can view their badge (and the criteria demonstrated) anytime in Haiku (our learning management system). With the physical locker magnet, students can proudly display their accomplishments for all to see.

As with any pilot, we hope to ‘fail fast’ and iterate from the lessons learned. Some of the immediate questions we have include…

• Will the locker magnets work? What will prevent other students from moving them?
• What will parents think of the accomplishment? What will they think about this mode of measuring learning? Will they find it more informative (or less) than a numerical grade?
• If we scale this up to 300+ students, how will we handle the logistics? Each magnet has to be printed and cut in a perfect circle. Someone has to verify the criteria have been met, then issue the digital badge. Conference mentors have to make sure (that the students make sure) the full image of the badge and its criteria are uploaded into the eportfolio for use during student led conferences in February.

Some student quotes from this class…

I think the badges are really cool because it kind of makes the lockers stand out and everybody that has a badge feels like they have received a  privilege and an award.

I think the badges are awesome. Instead of a graduation piece of paper it’s just something you can put on your locker or a digital thing.

I think the badges make you feel better about yourself because you can put it on your locker and you could go to your haiku profile and see it.

I think badges are a good idea because if you get the badge you feel better about yourself then if you get a hundred on the test. I got the taskmaster badge which makes me feel really good about myself and it shows a more specific description of how I did.

I now feel proud of myself and feel like I have accomplished something.

I think it’s a privilege to get a badge because we are in the only expanded core class to receive one.

Grades are in a book and badges you can hold.

I like the badges because it’s a little piece of what you learned in class that you can show off to everyone who walks in the hall.

You don’t have to get everything perfectly right and you still get the badge.  You can show what you learned over time to earn the badge.

Resources:
Pearson Infographic: The Power of Badges