they work with a team to solve a problem. Parents, board members, and
community representatives are thrilled to see actual video clips showing
students thinking interdependently, listening with understanding and
empathy, and questioning and posing problems.
Schools can invite board members to hear students speak to parents
about their study of the Habits of Mind. At Meadowview Elementary
School in Eau Claire, Wisconsin, teams of 6th grade students used their
public speaking skills to deliver a presentation on the Habits of Mind to
the city council. (City council members commented that they became
self-analytical about their own behaviors as a result.)
Although the Habits of Mind don’t readily translate into numbers,
they can easily be observed in the context of daily life. Board members
will need to get used to trusting their own observations rather than look-
ing for quantifiable measurements of the habits’ success. Board members
should be able to find examples of students’ progress with the habits from
students’ employers, parents, and students themselves as they demonstrate
the use of the habits on public occasions.
Eventually, educators, students, parents, and community members
will begin to see the influence of the Habits of Mind in the community
at large. For example, Zelda’s Tip Top Café in Adrian, Michigan, displays
a large poster listing the Habits of Mind. The restaurant owner, impressed
by the use of the Habits of Mind in the schools, decided to use the same
list as a guide for her employees. Each week, the coworkers agree to focus
on a particular habit, and they practice the behaviors as they serve cus-
tomers. Children who eat in that restaurant are reinforced by the visible
attention to the same behaviors they are learning in school.
Promoting Self-Evaluation
Ultimately, the most enduring legacy of evaluation is the habit of self-
assessment. When students internalize a sense of what constitutes high-
quality work, they will work toward that goal without prompting.
Ask students to assess their own work against carefully crafted rubrics
that define different levels of performance. (See Chapter 11 for several
sample rubrics.) Many teachers ask students to fill out a self-assessment
survey a few times during the school year. Then, students create a graph
266 Learning and Leading with Habits of Mind