“Learning to Describe, Describing to Understand”

Matthew Knoester’s paper on “Learning to Describe, Describing to Understand” points out a very important issue that we as overly busy humans often tend to overlook and that is to take a step back to observe, to “describe” before rushing to judgement and adding our immediate input. Patricia Carini, the developer of the descriptive review, stated:

“Describing I pause, and pausing, attend. Describing requires that I stand back and consider. Describing requires that I not rush to judgment or conclude before I have looked. Describing makes room for something to be fully present…. To describe teaches me that the subject of my attention always exceeds what I see…”

I think this is a very powerful statement. As Knoester had said in the beginning, there are countless ways – be it informal or formal – for us to assess our students. However, each child is different and thus, some assessments, with their limitations, cannot fully paint a complete picture of the child for us and tell us what we as educators need to change or improve on. In using the descriptive review process that Knoester advocates for, we are given a chance to really look at a student and at the same time reflect on our teachings. We are given a “safe space” to receive and give criticism without harming feelings. We are given a platform to simultaneously offer suggestions of improvement and to receive suggestions to improve ourselves and to discuss as a team so we all learn and grow together. While, like Knowster had pointed out, this process does have its limitations – time and effort, – the good, I think, outweigh its limitations. Even studying just one student, whom we might never teach or meet, can help us with improving our teaching in the classroom.