Throughout this course, one paragraph has stuck with me day in and day out. It's from Zimmerman's Becoming A Self-Regulated Learner article where he states: "Although research findings strongly support the importance of students’ use of self-regulatory processes, few teachers effectively prepare students to learn on their own (Zimmerman, Bonner, & Kovach, 1996). Students are seldom given choices regarding academic tasks to pursue, methods for carrying out complex assignments, or study partners. Few teachers encourage students to establish specific goals for their academic work or teach explicit study strategies. Also, students are rarely asked to self-evaluate their work or estimate their competence on new tasks." I continue to think about this paragraph because I don't want to be one of the majority. I strive to be that teacher who is preparing students to learn on their own! Here are some of the ways that SRL practices are being imbedded into my teaching practices:
3. I give opportunities for students to provide feedback to one another. This is important because as Tobey and Goldsmith tell us in their article The Critical Role of Feedback, it increases the learning resources in a classroom by having students, not just the teacher, provide formative feedback; and helps students learn to apply processes of analyzing work with respect to their own self-assessment 4. Students goal set when working together. Students work in table groups and they each set goals for their group and came up with action plans on how they would accomplish their goals. This is from early on in the year so students have begun refining their goals as the year progresses. 5. Students reflect often on their own work. They reflect on their pre and post math tests to evaluate what they did well and to set goals for upcoming units. They reflect on the week to recall what they did that week and they reflect on their projects on their blog. As this course comes to a close, I will continue to embed self-regulatory processes into my teaching. After reading Encouraging Self-Regulated Learning Through Electronic Portfolios, I'm going to make sure that I set time aside for students to build their digital portfolios through our kidblog site. I've found that the use of my own blog site has kept me accountable for this course and now I want to pass that knowledge onto my students.
As stated in the article, electronic portfolios allow students a chance to share their processes for learning and they tell the story of that child's achievement as well. These portfolios also give students responsibility over their own learning, and allow them to set goals. I'm excited for what the remainder of the year holds for these students as they continue their SRL journey alongside me. To read about my own self-reflection, please here
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Our narrative writing unit finished last week and that was my personal deadline for goal setting and accomplishment. I was thinking for a while on how I wanted students to reflect on their goal setting progress. While I don't normally do this much pen and paper work, in order for ease of uploading and posting, I decided to do one more written reflection. I want to state that I don't think that this is the most effective way of gaining student understanding and I had all these grand plans of using apps like Explain Everything, or our blog to post reflections but time got away from me this past week since I'm also furiously preparing for report cards and marking assignments and projects right, left, and centre. I researched goal reflection sheets online and found this great article from the Colorado Education Initiative that had a step by step plan for goal setting, goal monitoring, and goal reflection. I wished that I had discovered this packet earlier in the course. It's meant for older students but I found that the reflection piece fit really well for my students so I adapted it to fit their needs. I'm attaching both the packet and the revised reflection sheet. Next, I called the students to the carpets and we talked about the goal setting process. I modelled how I would reflect on my own goal. I then asked students to think about their goals and if they'd accomplished them. I told them that this was work designed for much older students but that I thought they could handle it. They loved hearing that. I recently read Chapter 12 of Learning and Leading Through Habits of Mind by Arthur Costa. Chapter 12 is all about Learning Through Reflection. One sentence that really spoke to me was " We foster our own growth when we control our learning, so some reflection is best done alone." I created a serious tone in the classroom and asked students to put up their privacy barriers so that they could reflect honestly without worrying about what others were doing. Students asked if they would be marked on this assignment and I assured them that this was for their own growth and it would not be evaluated. Off students went to their desks to work. Most students felt like they'd actually accomplished their goals. For some, I agree with them and I think they grew as learners through the process. Here are a few of those reflections. Read the captions to see my thoughts. For others, I don't agree that they accomplished their goals however, they felt a sense of accomplishment and I don't want to take that away from them. These are the students however, that I need to keep a closer eye on as the year progresses and we continue to goal set, monitor and reflect. There were also other students who say that they didn't accomplish their goals however, think they did. Here are a few of their reflections. View the caption to see my opinions I think regardless of the fact if students fully accomplished their goals or not, their understanding of themselves and how they work during a writing period has greatly improved. They now also better understand how to set goals, track their goals, and reflect upon them.
There are three students in my class who set and achieved their initial goals very quickly. All three students chose goals which they knew were attainable and then worked quickly and efficiently to achieve these goals. I wanted to challenge them to set new goals but I wasn't sure how. So, while talking to some fellow coursemates, one of them suggested that maybe these students would benefit from thinking big. He said to tell them to "blue sky it" and come up with large lofty goals. I asked the three students who had already accomplished their goals to meet me on the carpet. I asked them why they think thought that they may have accomplished their goals so soon and one answered, “Because we chose goals that were too easy.” We talked about how they actually maybe knew how to set goals better than some of their peers but that I wanted them to choose goals that were a bit more challenging. I told them about my conversation with my peers and how one suggestion is to “blue sky it.” I explained that I wanted them to create any writing goal- any at all that would make them better writers. At first they were uncomfortable and were joking around with each other but after a few minutes, they had created some broad goals. I let them think about these goals for a few days and then asked them to meet with me again once they had narrowed it down to one goal. Again, at first they were reluctant to share their goals with me and each other because, as one of them said, "It's going to be impossible." Little by little, I got them to open up and share their goals. The first student (in picture one above) decided that her goal was that she wanted to be like JK Rowling. So, we discussed how she was going to go about accomplishing that. She then said, "Well I need to find out how JK became JK....I need to become an expert on JK Rowling." Great- she was able to narrow it down a bit into a manageable goal. So off she went to create her action plan The next student decided that she wanted to create a "best seller" which would be a fantasy book about animals in different habitats called "Spirit." We discussed how she was going to create this book as our units at school didn't exactly align. She let me know that she wants to create this book at home and then give out copies in the class. Off she went to create her action plan. After the first two students went off to work on their plans, it was time for the third student. When I had watched her earlier thinking of her blue sky goals, she seemed to rush and not really give them much thought. So, we had a great discussion about what goals were and how they were different from behaviours. She crossed off some ideas from her list (help others, be creative) and then decided that she too wanted to create a book at home and share it with the class. Off she went to create her plan (picture coming soon.) Soon after the students created their plans, it was recess. I was out on duty when two of the three students came running up to me. One of them asked, "Can we please go in and get our writing so we can begin working on our plans?" The other added, "We've been talking about our stories all recess and just can't wait to get started."
This was obviously music to my ears. These students were so excited about writing that they couldn't wait to get started. Success! As we continue to work on our writing and writing goals, one of the things I've been struggling with is that students will tell me that they've already accomplished their goals but then they have no proof or evidence of accomplishment. As noted in Dale H. Schunk's article Goal Setting and Self-Efficacy During Self-Regulated Learning, if students are not recording their behaviours, then observations may not fully reflect behaviours due to selective memory. He believes that behaviours need to be observed close in time to the occurrence and on a continual basis. So, today as students were finishing up their narrative writing pieces (the unit is almost over), I asked them to show me how they are keeping track of their goals. Here is a small sampling of the various monitoring strategies that kids are using.
I showed these monitoring charts to some of the other students who were struggling to keep track so hopefully they will begin to use a strategy that works for them. I also printed off a chart that they can use as well.
I was reading module #4 and came across the following reflection questions: -What is going well for you? -Where are areas where you are struggling? -What supports would assist you? -How are your SRL skills increasing? This got me thinking. If I am going to reflect on these questions and my own progress, then I should also be asking my students to do the same thing. So, I planned a lesson to reflect on their goals. You can check out the lesson plan below. On this day, I actually was being evaluated on my teaching my my principal. The lesson went really well for the most part. There were a few students who actually said "I forget what my goal is," and this was obviously concerning so I made sure to meet with these students to clarify expectations. The rest of the students got right to work and reflected independently. As I walked around and conferred with students, I had to keep reminding myself that they were fourth graders and that my expectations for them needed to be lowered a bit. My overall goal for them for the lesson was that they actually took the time to reflect and were honest with themselves. Here are some of their final reflections. Click on the photos to check out my thoughts. After my lesson, my principal even said "It's so great to see students thinking about their thinking." She also said that the students all seemed engaged and on task and understood the expectations. This was great to hear!
I also met with some students who weren't progressing as effectively on their goals. For a few of these students, I think the reason they aren't working towards their goals are due to their motivation and lack of self-efficacy. One student believes he is a "bad writer," and that these goals aren't going to help him. So, we discussed goal oriented self-talk (from Christopher A. Wolters's article: Regulation of Motivation: Evaluating an Underemphasized Aspect of Self-Regulated Learning). I didn't tell him it was called that, but we discussed the ways that the goal would help him with his writing. He was very goal-oriented as opposed to mastery oriented saying things like "i'll be able to finish this piece quicker," "you'll be proud of me," but at least it was start. I discussed more mastery-oriented thoughts with him such as "I'll be able to write for a longer period of time." I'm not sure if it is going to stick but he seemed a little more focussed for the rest of the period. Some students are slowly accomplishing their goals so I need to figure out what sort of overall reflection piece I will give them and we need to do a lesson or two on how we will know when we've accomplished our goals. Students continued working on their narrative pieces. I gave them a quick reminder to make sure they were focusing on their goals as well but wanted to see what they could do independently without too much assistance. Some students took out their SMART Goal setting sheets and actually put them on the table next to them while others got right to work and quickly seemed to forget they even had goals. The next day, I repeated the same process. After the mini-lesson, I asked students to remember their goal and their action plan.
As students went off to work, again I noticed a variety of self-monitoring strategies happening around the class. Some students got out timers and started to time themselves, others marked down how often they were getting distracted. One student even started to make a plan not only when he was working on his writing but anytime he’s independently working. He has begun to create a to-do list for that day or that class period and then checks things off as he completes them. On the other end of the spectrum, some students seemed to have completely forgotten their goals and these are definitely the students I need to check in with! They are showing me that their self-monitoring strategies do not exist at this time. I stopped the students part way through the period and talked to the students about their motivation. After reading Christopher A. Wolters's article: "Regulation of Motivation: Evaluating an Underemphasized Aspect of Self-Regulated Learning" I modelled how to self-praise positive behaviour. I modelled giving myself positive feedback as I was working. We discussed stopping and telling ourselves "Great progress so far, I just wrote for 10 minutes without any distractions," or "Wow! I just added in 5 sentences today. I am on a roll." The students thought this was funny of course and acted a bit silly while doing it but I need to model how to do these types of behvaiours out loud if I'm expecting that they begin to do them independently! At the end of this second tracking period, I asked students to write a goal reflection in their writing journal with how they think they did that day with their goal. The responses varied widely. Some students were quite honest while others had already accomplished their goal (and this is a whole other post topic). Last week, we finally sat down and set goals. Students were given a SMART goal planner which I found on Pinterest and they used this to write down their goal and action plan.
I found that I had quite a variety of understanding even though we had spent a TON of time already on goal setting. If you haven't read my previous posts, we talked about goal setting as a class, we watched movies about goal setting, I modelled how to goal set, students chose three goals, discussed their goals with partners and then actually narrowed it down to one goal. Some students set proximal goals which had great action plans while others needed to conference with me multiple times before they were able to create a specific and proximal goal. I found that most students chose a writing behavioural goal as opposed to a content specific one. Reflecting back, I'm wondering if the behavioural goals are going to be more authentic as they can be transferred into any genre of writing. I'll have to wait and see which goals are actually easier to accomplish. So, now that we've set the goals, it's time to begin self-monitoring. This is part I am most nervous about as it's the area that I need the most help with in my own life. My plan is to give students time during each writing workshop to stop and self-monitor. Also, after every couple of lessons, we will take time to self-reflect on our goals. I'm not expecting students to be self-monitoring or self-reflecting on their own yet but I am expecting that they are able to do it with my assistance. Stay tuned!
I started goal setting on Wednesday. It was really busy week in 4B as we were off on Monday for Thanksgiving and then away at the zoo on Thursday as part of our habitat unit. I gathered the students on the carpet and tried to sound really excited. I find that if I build up whatever we are doing to make it sound like the most exciting thing in the world, then I can usually get more buy-in from students. Now, I need to be completely honest here. I had previously discussed goal setting with students during the first few weeks of school and had already discussed with them that we would be setting goals. But, what I missed was the important step of actually discussing what goals are! So, I launched with a Kid President video. If you don't already know who Kid President is, I strongly recommend that you visit his Youtube channel! The video was all about dreams and achieving them and it was a great pep talk for the students. I attached the video to the bottom of this post so that you can watch it. Next up, I asked the students "What are goals?" and I got responses such as: " Goals are things that aren't easy, you need to work for them" "Goals are things that you want to do or get or achieve" "Goals are in soccer. You get a goal when you score on the net." "Goals take work." The students seemed to have a pretty good understanding of what goals were but when I asked them how they achieve their goals, most were quite general and said "You work toward it." When I asked, "How?" there was radio silence in the classroom. You could have heard crickets sing. So, I introduced SMART goal setting. I showed them a presentation on the smart board that I found at the the SMART Exchange (different SMART- this one is the name of a brand of smart boards that you use in the classroom). You can find the presentation here: http://exchange.smarttech.com/details.html?id=86f8ab91-e4be-453b-91b1-34e8ddf9c548 It was quick, to the point and the students seemed to have a better understanding of how we actually set and achieve goals. We discussed each stage and I gave examples and asked for examples from the students. On Monday, we'll review this concept, and I am going to model how I would set my own writing goals. Stay tuned! |
GOAL:Students will set 1 writing goal for the duration of the narrative writing unit. I will teach them strategies to self-monitor during their writing periods, and will teach them to reflect upon their goals. ArchivesCategories |