Student Goal Setting

Student Goal Setting

As I have looked through staff reflections in My Learning Plan, an area that has come up frequently is that of Student Goal Setting (4.2 Involves students in setting learning goals and monitoring their own progress).  As luck would have it, an article about this topic by Choice Literacy showed up in my email this week.  It's about student use of a writing checklist, which offers a way for students to understand what is expected.  Take a peek!

Getting Students in the Game!

-published by Choice Literacy

“Knowing yourself is the beginning of all wisdom.”   -Aristotle  

We were looking over the student checklist for narrative writing. We were about to launch the next phase of the narrative unit and we wanted the students’ to set goals.

• ·        Do you think this is overwhelming?
• ·         Will they just quickly check “Yes” for everything?
• ·         I am trying to envision how I would use this with my class.
• ·         Do you just hand it out?
• ·         Do you check it off the first time to model it?
• ·         Can they really assess themselves? Are they aware of their strengths and weaknesses?

After discussing the checklist for some time, we decided to introduce the tool to the students. We planned to simply show it to them, describe it and then have them work in partners to closely read it. We asked them to read together and jot down on the checklist they were using:

What do you Notice?
What do you Wonder?

The students set off and we listened in, we jotted down patterns with student names. Instructional goals started to emerge. We noticed that the students were quick to identify areas of focus, they marked items they didn’t understand, and had great conversations about the difference between “Starting To” and “Yes.”

As we debriefed after the lesson, we highlighted the difference in the students’ disposition. They were identifying what they needed and leading the process of reflecting on their progress. Their voices were dominant – they were in the game.  Black and Wiliam remind us, “Our profession needs to improve the quality of the feedback we give our students and the feedback our students give themselves” When they know their role in assessment and in the process of learning they are more engaged. Student checklists or rubrics are often used to collect summative data. When we use them at the beginning or during of a unit of study the tool can collect more formative data. It can help us and students’ see what instructional steps they need next.

Research demonstrates that students need to know the expectations, where they currently are in relation to the expectations and the action steps they need to take to achieve the goal. Checklists help students see the expectation and self-assess where they are in relation to the goal. Once the student understands where he is in relation to the goal, we can help him outline the steps he needs to take to reach his goal. It also teaches the student a process he can continually use to reassess himself and set new goals.

Other Suggestions:

1) Start slow - Use just a section of the checklist, first with a mentor text and then use it with student writing.

2) Cut up the checklist (Checklist Game) and draw out one item. See if you find it in the piece of writing. Be prepared to say both where and why you think that is an example.

3) Use cutup checklist strips. Have students tape or glue them ONTO their paper when they find examples.

4) Instead of merely having kids check off “yes,” encourage kids to use tally marks on each row. This encourages kids to try that thing often — across multiple pieces of writing — and show how many times they did it (rather than just checking yes).  Some checklists have a space for the student to write an example.