Quality Work

Teaching students to produce quality work is about teaching them about craftsmanship, complexity, and purposeful work.

Attributes of Craftsmanship

• Accuracy, detail, and beauty.

• Craftsmanship requires perseverance to refine work in conception, conventions, and presentation, typically through revisiting/revising, multiple drafts or rehearsals with critique from others (adults or peers).​

• Craftsmanship understands and considers the audience of their work, both through penmanship and communication standards.

Attributes of Complexity

• Logical, relevant, and complete

• Complex work is rigorous: it aligns with or exceeds the expectations defined by grade-level standards and includes higher-order thinking by challenging students to apply, analyze, evaluate, and create during daily instruction and throughout longer projects.​ ​

QUALITY WORK

• The paper is dated and includes your first and last name.

Take credit and pride by claiming your work. The date gives the work a space in time.

• The assignment is complete, no blank answers.

The work should have a sense of completion (for the maker) and a feeling of closure (for the audience). There is an overall complete feeling to the final project. Nothing is left unfinished.

• Your work is done with legible penmanship or word process (when appropriate). You use correct punctuation and capitalization. There are no doodles or extraneous writing in the margins. Work has purpose. Words on the paper, in the question, or in the related text are spelled correctly. Mistakes are erased

Pride is taken in presentation of the work by making the reading of the work smooth for the audience. The eye of the audience is able to move through the work logically and able to clearly interpret all information in the work. Reader is not unnecessarily distracted by carelessness, unnecessarily misspelling, or mess.

• Your answers are logical; make sure you answer the question. Questions are answered in complete sentences unless otherwise specified.

The work is relevant and has a level of complexity that matches the task.

There are TWO types of WORK that we will complete in class: work for learning/self and work for an audience. Work for learning/self is not expected to meet quality work standards. Work for learning/self is not evaluated and will be done in the science notebook; work for an audience will be generally turned in or presented.