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Organization Challenges- Scott, 5th Grade

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Separating Goals from the Means | Learning Designed

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by TeachThought Staff

From reminding us of what to pack for a trip to helping doctors perform surgery, checklists are crucial for projects that require sequential steps or a series of tasks.

As Atul Gawande points out in his book ' Checklist Manifesto ' (affiliate link), checklists break down complex tasks and also ensure consistency and efficiency if more than one person is working on a project. If checklists are so effective for airline pilots, skyscraper construction teams, and heart surgeons, why shouldn't students use them as well?

Checklists can benefit students in the following ways:

For younger students, simple, task-based checklists can help them become accustomed to following steps, adding order to the relative chaos of learning, and offering a pathway to accomplishing complex tasks. For older students, they can do all of the above, and also serve as memory aids as they work on unfamiliar or complicated tasks.

Checklists help students feel in control and hold them accountable by removing obstacles to success such as "I didn't know we were supposed to do that," or "I forgot to do that part."

Checklists keep students on task. Rather than losing focus and forgetting where they left off or abandoning the task altogether, they always know where they are in a task or project. (Or should know.)

Checklists can help communicate the details or goals of an assignment or project to other teachers, parents, or relevant community members.
Improving Metacognition
Education specialist Dr. Kathleen Dudden Rowlands believes checklists are more than just a way for students to stay organized and on-task. As she explains in "Check It Out! Using Checklists to Support Student Learning," checklists can aid students in developing metacognitive awareness of their own learning process.

"Used effectively, checklists can help students develop metacognitive awareness of their intellectual processes," Rowlands explained. Metacognitive awareness is essentially people's understanding of both the process of learning and how they can optimize their learning of certain knowledge or skills.

"Metacognitive research consistently suggests that students who know how to learn, know which strategies are most effective when faced with a problem or a task, and have accurate methods of assessing their progress, are better learners than those who don't," Rowlands noted. She also discussed checklists' role in the process of fostering strong metacognitive awareness: "

By articulating and labeling operational steps, checklists scaffold students' metacognitive development."
10 Resources To Use Checklists In Your Classroom
1. Wunderlist

This turbo-charged mobile app checklist allows users to collaborate on shared lists, turning it into a project management tool. You can create simple "to do" lists or different lists (subtasks) based on more complicated tasks. It syncs across iPhone, iPad, Mac, Android, Windows, and web browsers.

You can leave notes, set recurring tasks, share your lists and set alarms. The app lets you break big projects or tasks into manageable smaller goals. Of special benefit to the classroom is the fact that Wunderlist lists can be printed. It is also free, with an option for Wunderlist pro at $4.99 a month.
2. Overstrike
An app designed for easy checklists with the ability to create reminders and due dates, perform drag and drop sorting, and change backgrounds to fit the nature of your checklist.
3. Pinterest
You can do a search on Pinterest and find a variety of checklist resources. Search on 'checklist classroom' and find simple, pre-made checklists such as the 'Dismissal Checklist,' a list of tasks to help young students prepare for leaving school at the end of the day. A writing checklist for older students helps them make sure they are taking the necessary steps to successfully write essays and compositions. Other checklists include 'end of the year,' 'field trip,' and 'active listening.'
4. ReadWriteThink.org
This site, a collaboration between the International Reading Association, The National Council of Teachers of English and Verizon's Thinkfinity program, offers several in-depth and useful lesson plans that are accompanied by comprehensive checklists.

The 'Editing Checklist for Self and Peer Editing' offers a step-by-step guide for students to edit their own work as well as their classmates' work. A quick web search on any school subject will yield checklist ideas as well.
5. Templates
From the simple 'Homework Checklist' for young students to more in-depth rubrics for older students, there are countless checklists for both teachers and students across the internet. Even if you don't find quite what you need here, you'll discover plenty of ideas that you can incorporate into your own custom checklists.

You can start by searching several templates available from Microsoft and Adobe.
Other Checklist Resources
6. App: Google Keep (browser, Android, and iOS)

7. App: Microsoft To-Do (browser)

8. App: Checklist+ (iOS)

9. App: Productive (iOS)

10. Book: The Checklist Manifesto (affiliate link)
Conclusion
Any checklist you use in the classroom should be a flexible document that adapts to the needs of your students. Remember to visit your checklist with a critical eye frequently to make sure it's still working for you and your class. As you work through your checklist and realize ways to make it better, take the time to do so. Ask for feedback from your students as you implement new checklists to ensure that they are working as effective learning tools.

They might surprise you.
Kristin Marino writes about education for several websites, including onlineschools.com. She has a bachelor's degree in English composition from the University of Nevada, Reno; How A Simple Checklist Can Improve Learning; How A Simple Checklist Can Improve Learning

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How A Simple Checklist Can Improve Learning

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by TeachThought Staff From reminding us of what to pack for a trip to helping doctors perform surgery, checklists are crucial for projects that require sequential steps or a series of tasks. As Atul Gawande points out in his book ' Checklist Manifesto ' (affiliate link), checklists break down complex tasks and also ensure consistency and efficiency if more than one person is working on a project.

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Learning can be inaccessible when it requires the ability to monitor one's own progress, and where there are no options for individuals who differ in such executive abilities. The experimental research collected here suggests the effectiveness of strategies such as explicit instruction for self-monitoring, guiding questions for self-questioning and prediction, and curriculum-based measurement. The scholarly reviews and opinion pieces provide additional arguments for why it is important to enhance students' capacity for monitoring progress.

Experimental & Quantitative Evidence

Bahr, M. W., Fuchs, D., Fuchs, L. S., Fernstrom, P., & Stecker, P. M. (1993). Effectiveness of student versus teacher monitoring during prereferral intervention. Exceptionality, 4(1), 17-30.

Butler, D. L. (1997). The roles of goal setting and self-monitoring in students' self-regulated engagement in tasks.Paper Presented at the Annual Meeting of the American Educational Research Association (Chicago, IL, March 24-28, 1997).

Calhoon, M. B., & Fuchs, L. S. (2003). The effects of peer-assisted learning strategies and curriculum-based measurement on the mathematics performance of secondary students with disabilities. Remedial and Special Education, 24(4), 235-245.

Carver, C. S., & Scheier, M. F. (2005). Engagement, disengagement, coping, and catastrophe. In A. J. Elliot, & C. S. Dweck (Eds.), Handbook of competence and motivation (pp. 527-547). New York, NY: Guilford Press.

Chalk, J. C., Hagan-Burke, S., & Burke, M. D. (2005). The effects of self-regulated strategy development on the writing process for high school students with learning disabilities. Learning Disability Quarterly, 28(1), 75-88.

Chang, M. M. (2007). Enhancing web-based language learning through self-monitoring. Journal of Computer Assisted Learning, 23(3), 187-196.

Cioffi, G., & Carney, J. J. (1997). Dynamic assessment of composing abilities in children with learning disabilities. Educational Assessment, 4(3), 175-202.

Davis, L. B. (1995). "Will CBM help me learn?" Student perceptions of the benefits of curriculum-based measurement. Education and Treatment of Children, 18(1), 19-32.

de Bruin, A. B. H. (2007). Improving metacomprehension accuracy and self-regulation in cognitive skill acquisition:The effect of learner expertise. European Journal of Cognitive Psychology, 19(4/5), 671-688.

Duffy, G. G., Roehler, L. R., Sivan, E., Rackliffe, G., Book, C., Meloth, M., Vavrus, L.G., Wesselman, R., Putnam, J. & Bassiri, D. (1987). Effects of explaining the reasoning associated with using reading strategies. Reading Research Quarterly, 22(3), 347-368.

Fuchs, L., Butterworth, J., & Fuchs, D. (1989). Effects of ongoing curriculum-based measurement on student awareness of goals and progress. Education and Treatment of Children, 12(1), 63-72.

Fuchs, L. S., & Fuchs, D. (1992). Identifying a measure for monitoring student reading progress. School Psychology Review, 21(1), 45-58.

Fuchs, L. S., Fuchs, D., & Hamlett, C. L. (1989). Effects of instrumental use of curriculum-based measurement to enhance instructional programs. RASE: Remedial Special Education, 10(2), 43-52.

Graham, S. (1997). Executive control in the revising of students with learning and writing difficulties. Journal of Educational Psychology, 89(2), 223-234.

King, A. (1991). Improving lecture comprehension: Effects of a metacognitive strategy. Applied Cognitive Psychology, 5(4), 331-346.

Lane, K. L., Harris, K. R., Graham, S., Weisenbach, J. L., Brindle, M., & Morphy, P. (2008). The effects of self-regulated strategy development on the writing performance of second-grade students with behavioral and writing difficulties. The Journal of Special Education, 41(4), 234-253.

MacArthur, C. A. (1991). Effects of a reciprocal peer revision strategy in special education classrooms. Learning Disabilities Research and Practice, 6(4), 201-210.

MacArthur, C. A. (1991). Knowledge of revision and revising behavior among students with learning disabilities. Learning Disability Quarterly, 14(1), 61-73.

Malone, L. D., & Mastropieri, M. A. (1992). Reading comprehension instruction: Summarization and self-monitoring training for students with learning disabilities. Exceptional Children, 58(3), 270-279.

Mason, L. H. (2004). Explicit self-regulated strategy development versus reciprocal questioning: Effects on expository reading comprehension among struggling readers. Journal of Educational Psychology, 96(2), 283-296.

McNaughton, D. (1997). Proofreading for students with learning disabilities: Integrating computer and strategy use. Learning Disabilities Research and Practice, 12(1), 16-28.

Meltzer, L. (2007). Executive function in education: From theory to practice. New York, NY: Guilford Press.

Nolan, T. E. (1991). Self-questioning and prediction: Combining metacognitive strategies. Journal of Reading, 35(2), 132-138.

Paris, S., Cross, D., & Lipson, M. (1984). Informed strategies for learning: A program to improve children's reading awareness and comprehension. Journal of Educational Psychology, 76(6), 1239-1252.

Paris, S. G., Wasik, B. A., & Turner, J. C. (1999). The development of strategic readers. In R. Barr, M. Kamil, P. Mosenthal & P. D. Pearson (Eds.), Handbook of reading research (pp. 609-640). White Plains, NY: Longman.

Phillips, N. B. (1993). Combining classwide curriculum-based measurement and peer tutoring to help general educators provide adaptive education. Learning Disabilities Research and Practice, 8(3), 148-156.

Reid, R., & Lienemann, T. O. (2006). Self-regulated strategy development for written expression with students with attention Deficit/Hyperactivity disorder. Exceptional Children, 73(1), 53-68.

Saddler, B. (2006). Increasing story-writing ability through self-regulated strategy development: Effects on young writers with learning disabilities. Learning Disability Quarterly, 29(4), 291-305.

Sawyer, R. J. (1992). Direct teaching, strategy instruction, and strategy instruction with explicit self-regulation:Effects on the composition skills and self-efficacy of students with learning disabilities. Journal of Educational Psychology, 84(3), 340-352.

Schunk, D. H. (1996). Goal and self-evaluative influences during children's cognitive skill learning. American Educational Research Journal, 33(2), 359.

Schunk, D. H., & Zimmerman, B. J. (1997). Developing self-efficacious readers and writers: The role of social and self-regulatory processes. In J. T. Guthrie, & A. Wigfield (Eds.), Reading engagement: Motivating readers through integrated instruction (pp. 34-50). Newark, DE: International Reading Association.

Stecker, P. M., & Fuchs, L. S. (2000). Effecting superior achievement using curriculum-based measurement: The importance of individual progress monitoring. Learning Disabilities Research & Practice, 15(3), 128-134.

Stecker, P. M., Fuchs, L. S., & Fuchs, D. (2005). Using curriculum-based measurement to improve student achievement: Review of research. Psychology in the Schools, 42(8), 795-819.

Stoddard, B., & MacArthur, C. A. (1993). A peer editor strategy: Guiding learning-disabled students in response and revision. Research in the Teaching of English, 27(1), 76-103.

Torrance, M., Fidalgo, R., & García, J. N. (2007). The teachability and effectiveness of cognitive self-regulation in sixth-grade writers. Learning and Instruction, 17(3), 265-285.

Wong, B. Y. L., & Jones, W. (1982). Increasing metacomprehension in learning disabled and normally achieving students through self-questioning training. Learning Disabilities Quarterly, 5(3), 228-240.

Wong, B. Y., Butler, D. L., Ficzere, S. A., & Kuperis, S. (1996). Teaching low achievers and students with learning disabilities to plan, write, and revise opinion essays. Journal of Learning Disabilities, 29(2), 197-212.

Scholarly Reviews & Expert Opinions

Baker, L., & Brown, A.L. (1984). Metacognitive skills and reading. In P.D. Pearson, M. Kamil, R. Barr, & P. Mosenthal (Eds.), Handbook of reading research (vol. 1, pp. 353-394). White Plains, NY: Longman.

Campione, J. C., & Brown, A. L. (1987). Linking dynamic assessment with school achievement. In C. S. Lidz (Ed.), Dynamic assessment: An international approach to evaluating learning potential (pp. 82-115). New York, New York: Guilford.

Carroll, J., & Christenson, C. N. K. (1995). Teaching and learning about student goal setting in a fifth-grade classroom. Language Arts, 72(1), 42-49.

Dawson, P., & Guare, R. (2004). Executive skills in children and adolescents: A practical guide to assessment and intervention. New York, NY: The Guilford Press.

Fuchs, L. S. (2004). The past, present, and future of curriculum-based measurement research. School Psychology Review, 33(2), 188-193.

Fuchs, L. S., & Fuchs, D. (1999). Monitoring student progress toward the development of reading competence: A review of three forms of classroom-based assessment. School Psychology Review, 28(4), 659-671.

Fuchs, L. S., Fuchs, D., Hamlett, C. L., Phillips, N. B., & Bentz, J. (1994). Classwide curriculum-based measurement: Helping general educators meet the challenge of student diversity. Exceptional Children, 60(6), 518-537.

Graham, S., & Harris, K. R. (1997). It can be taught, but it does not develop naturally: Myths and realities in writing instruction. School Psychology Review, 26(3), 414-424.

Graham, S., & Harris, K. R. (2005). Improving the writing performance of young struggling writers: Theoretical and programmatic research from the center on accelerating student learning. The Journal of Special Education, 39(1), 19-33.

Harris, K. R., & Graham, S. (1992). Helping young writers master the craft: Strategy instruction and self regulation in the writing process. Cambridge, MA: Brookline Books.

Harris, K. R., Graham, S., & Mason, L. H. (2003). Self-regulated strategy development in the classroom: Part of a balanced approach to writing instruction for students with disabilities. Focus on Exceptional Children, 35(7), 1-16.

MacArthur, C. (1994). Peers + word processing + strategies= A powerful combination for revising student writing. Teaching Exceptional Children, 27(1), 24-29.

Marzano, R. J. (2007). The art and science of teaching. Alexandria, VA: Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development.

Montague, M. (2007). Self-regulation and mathematics instruction. Learning Disabilities Research & Practice, 22(1), 75-83.

Paris, S. G. (1986). Teaching children to guide their reading and learning. In T. E. Raphael (Ed.), The contexts of school-based literacy (pp. 115-130). New York, NY: Random House.

Perry, N. E., VandeKamp, K. O., Mercer, L. K., & Nordby, C. J. (2002). Investigating teacher-student interactions that foster self-regulated learning. Educational Psychologist, 37(1), 5-15.

Rankin, V. (1999). The thoughtful researcher: Teaching the research process to middle school students.Englewood, CO: Libraries Unlimited, Inc.

Reid, R. (1996). Research in self-monitoring with students with learning disabilities: The present, the prospects, the pitfalls. Journal of Learning Disabilities, 29(3), 317-331.

Rose, D., & Rose, K. (2007). Executive function processes: A curriculum-based intervention. In L. Meltzer (Ed.), Executive function in education (pp. 287-308). New York: Guilford Press.

Schumaker, J. B., Deshler, D. D., Nolan, S. M., & Alley, G. R. (1994). The self-questioning strategy. Lawrence, KS:The University of Kansas.

Shinn, M. R. (1989). Curriculum-based measurement: Assessing special children. New York, NY: Guilford Press.

Vye, N. J., Schwartz, D. L., Bransford, J. D., Barron, B. J., Zech, L. and Cognition and Technology Group at Vanderbilt. (1998). SMART environments that support monitoring, reflection, and revision. In D. Hacker, J. Dunlosky, & A. Graesser (Eds.), Metacognition in Educational Theory and Practice (pp. 305-346). Mahwah, NJ:Erlbaum.

Webre, E. C. (2005). Enhancing reading success with collaboratively created progress charts. Intervention in School and Clinic, 40(5), 291-295.

Wiggins, G. (1998). Educative assessment: Designing assessments to inform and improve student performance.San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass Publishers.

Zimmerman, B. J., & Kitsantas, A. (2005). The hidden dimension of personal competence: Self regulated learning and practice. In A. J. Elliot, & C. S. Dweck (Eds.), Handbook of competence and motivation (pp. 509-526). New York, NY: Guilford Press.

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Learning can be inaccessible when it requires the ability to monitor one's own progress, and where there are no options for individuals who differ in such executive abilities. The experimental research collected here suggests the effectiveness of strategies such as explicit instruction for self-monitoring, guiding questions for self-questioning and prediction, and curriculum-based measurement.

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article about executive functions for life & learning

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article about executive functions for life & learning

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video about early learning and executive functions

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video about early learning and executive functions

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5-minutes

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Center on the Developing Child at Harvard University

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Executive Function: Skills for Life and Learning

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This video explains how lifelong executive function skills develop, what can disrupt their development, and how supporting them pays off in school and life.

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article about using a single-point rubric

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article about using a single-point rubric

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A format that provides students with personalized feedback and works to keep them from focusing solely on their grade.

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Listen to this post as a podcast:
Sponsored by Screencast-O-Matic and Microsoft Inclusive Classroom

My daughter was recently given an assignment to create a model of a volcano. It was a group project, meant to be done entirely at home, and the only clear requirement was that it had to look like a volcano, with extra points if it could actually erupt.

And so it began: My daughter and I planned when her two friends would come over to work on it. I texted their moms and we set a date. We also figured out what supplies she'd need from the craft store and when I would drive her there to get it all. We ended up spending about $40 on modeling clay, spray paint, fake palm trees, and tiny dinosaurs. And that's after I said no to about $40 worth of other stuff she wanted to get.

The three girls met at our house one afternoon. One of the other parents brought over the materials they used to make the volcano erupt. I insisted that they do the project in the dining room, where we could make sure they stayed on task, instead of my daughter's bedroom, where I knew they wouldn't. My husband helped them hunt through the basement for an old lampshade to give the model some height, helped them figure out how to make the clay stick to the lampshade, then did a few trial runs of the "eruption" with them, so they knew it would work in class. A few days later, I drove my daughter to school and helped her walk the model safely into class.

So much had to happen to get this assignment done, and very little of that was actually done by the three students whose names went on the project. I'm not saying my daughter and her friends didn't build the volcano, but they got a lot of support along the way, and if any of that support had been missing-time, transportation, money, space, suggestions, supervision-the project would have been less successful.

When I ask my daughter about the other student projects that were turned in that day, she confirms my suspicions that they ranged in quality: Some, she says, were "huge and detailed," while others consisted of little more than a painted water bottle.

Though I never confirmed it, I suspect that each of those projects got vastly different grades.

What Are We Measuring?

Although a movement is growing to eliminate grades, they are still a reality for most of us, and they impact everything from college admissions to whether students get to go on certain field trips. So it's important that we do whatever we can to make sure they measure what matters.

And in too many cases, that's not happening. Take the volcano project: The grade students received on that ultimately reflected the resources each group happened to have at home-not what they learned or even the effort each student personally put into the task. Those with the "huge and detailed" ones probably got the best grades, and those with the painted water bottles probably got the lowest.

Or consider these other scenarios:

The student whose essay gets a D, because even though he organized it pretty well, made some strong, well-supported arguments, and used rich vocabulary, his teacher's rubric allotted 40 percent of the grade to neatness and correctness, and he had a lot of mistakes. The teacher lets him revise for a higher score, but only gives half credit for the points earned the second time around.

The student who raises his grade by earning extra credit for donating tissues and hand sanitizer to the class.

The student who gets a C on an assignment that requires her to compose an original song to explain a constitutional amendment. Despite her solid understanding of the constitution, she doesn't happen to have a knack for writing lyrics and music.

The student whose project is turned in a day late and gets only half credit according to her teacher's "no excuses" late policy.

In all of these cases, the grade is not an accurate representation of what a student has learned. This is a problem of design: When constructing assignments, assessments, and grading policies, every teacher makes dozens of small decisions that determine how much a grade reflects a student's academic work and how much it reflects a mishmash of other factors. Those quantities are different for every teacher and every assignment. Despite that, we tend to treat grades as if they mean the same thing all the time.

Some Questions to Ask While Planning

So what's to be done about this? If you or your colleagues aren't ready to completely overhaul your grading system (again, see how others are doing that here), or you haven't moved to standards-based grading, you can still improve the integrity of traditional grades by considering some important questions while planning for instruction.

1. What learning does this task measure?

The grade on an assignment should match the learning students are supposed to be doing in your class. This sounds simple, but it amazes me how often I see assignments that seem to have no real connection to what the curriculum says students are learning.

If your standards require students to "be able to explain how geography impacts culture," then assignments should ask them to do some variation of that: explain how geography impacts culture. If, instead, they are making a relief map that shows geographic features, and their grade is based largely on how accurately they represent those features, then they are being graded on map-making skills, not on the standard.

This is especially problematic when qualities like "creativity" are part of your criteria. For one thing, this term means completely different things to different people, so students will have to guess how to perform well on this metric. More importantly, grading for "creativity" on an assignment that is supposed to measure something else will distort the results, making it much harder to tell who actually mastered the skill.

2. Are you going to teach everything you will measure?

We often assign points for skills and qualities that students happen to bring with them, but are never taught in our class.

Suppose you assign a group project, and part of each student's grade will be based on how well he or she worked with the group. Collaborative skills are important, absolutely, but if you're grading for them, shouldn't you also be teaching them?

Similarly, if you're going to ask students to do an essay-type question to demonstrate their learning, and part of their grade will be based on how effectively they write, then ideally, some of your teaching prior to that assessment should give students practice in the kinds of writing skills you want to see on that task.

If our lessons don't prepare students to do well on graded assignments and assessments, then those grades aren't a fair measurement of learning in our class.

3. What will quality work look like on this task?

When creating assignments, we often have a general idea of what a good end-product will look like, but we don't always know for sure until the work gets turned in. At that point, it's too late for students to rise to our expectations, and if we haven't clearly defined them ahead of time, it's easy for personal bias to cloud our judgment.

We'll get better work from students and judge it more fairly if we identify and communicate the criteria for success ahead of time. Many teachers accomplish this with a rubric given to students before they start. These come in different formats: A growing number of teachers are finding that students appreciate the single-point rubric for its clarity and ease of use.

I would also strongly recommend you do the assignment yourself as if you were a student-a process we call dogfooding. This will help you get much clearer on how you define excellence for this assignment.

4. How much of the grade depends on outside resources?

If an assignment is going to be completed partly or entirely at home, take a good look at how much the available resources outside of school could influence the grade. Things like transportation, money for supplies, access to technology, or help from an adult can all contribute to an end product that looks impressive, but may not directly reflect that student's academic skill or effort.

If your assignment is designed so that the focus stays on content and skills, and if you set things up so that the majority of the work happens in class, the assignments you get back should be a more accurate representation of what each student can do.

5. Can all students do well on this task, regardless of how they learn best?

If an assignment is delivered with only one type of learner in mind-with instructions only given verbally, for example-some students will be behind before they even start. Ideally, every task will be designed in a way that all students can access.

Universal Design for Learning is a framework that can help teachers design materials so that all learners have equal access to them. To learn more, watch this overview video or explore the UDL Guidelines developed by CAST. As you work to make your assignments more universally accessible, take a look at some of the great accessibility tools Microsoft offers teachers for free.

Similarly, if the task favors students who happen to have a specific type of artistic skill-the way the constitutional song assignment did for students with musical talent-others who might have preferred to demonstrate their learning through an essay, a poster, or a video are less likely to shine.

Instead of limiting student products to a single, narrow option, consider whether you can give them choices in how they demonstrate learning. If the volcano project had been designed for students to create a model for how a real volcano works, that model could have been done with a paper diagram, in a video, with a student-produced skit, or with a physical model. Not only would this give students an opportunity to put their unique gifts to use, it would also provide options that cost a lot less money to bring to fruition.

6. Could this assignment be called "practice" instead?

Too often, teachers give grades to all classroom activity; they are convinced that kids won't do something unless it's going to get a grade. And that means tasks that are really meant to give students practice in a skill or early exposure to content are ultimately included in final grade calculations.

They shouldn't. Instead of making everything graded, have students do some class work as practice, in preparation for a task that will be graded. So if students have to take a test on long division, require them to do enough self-graded practice pages until they get 80 percent or better. These problems won't be part of their final grade calculation, which also means you don't have to grade them, but students can't take the test until they can demonstrate proficiency on the practice, and their grade on the test will count. This way, their grade will reflect their mastery of long division without penalizing them for how long it took to master the skill.

Other Factors to Consider

Late Work

Some policies on late work can have a significant impact on student grades, so that a student who turns work in late can have very low grades, even if they have mastered the content. In classes where late work is penalized, a grade is a reflection of the student's time management, or of stress, or perfectionism, or dozens of other possible factors. What it isn't is a reflection of learning.

Despite this, many teachers feel that taking points is their only option for responding to late work. This piece by Starr Sackstein explores this dilemma and considers some ways teachers can address the problem without docking points. Spoiler alert: It's not a one-size-fits-all solution, because students turn work in late for a variety of reasons. "At the root of every challenge we face with students of all ages is a story," she writes. "Our job as teachers to figure out what the story is. Some students will be an open book and others we will need to be detectives to figure stuff out. Don't give up on the kids. Giving a zero is giving up and almost expecting them to do the same."

Extra Credit

Giving points for anything that doesn't directly reflect learning can have an incredibly distorting effect on grades. In some cases, it elevates grades, giving the impression of mastery without the actual mastery. In other cases, it masks problems: If a student misses a few test items, but erases them with bonus points, that student could fly under the teacher's radar and miss opportunities for reteaching.

Students who are doing so well on the regular class work that they finish early don't need extra credit, they need differentiated assignments and more challenge. Students who do poorly on assignments don't need extra credit to make up the missing points; they need opportunities to re-do and improve on the work.

This piece by Joy Kirr does an excellent job of showing how a variety of typical extra credit assignments are rife with all kinds of problems.

Grade Averaging

If you calculate your grades by simply averaging them-dividing the points earned by the total possible points-your final course grade could be doing a poor job of representing what your students actually learned in your class. In this piece on the pitfalls of grade averaging , Rick Wormelli uses specific examples to illustrate this problem.

Having graded this way myself, I always liked the simplicity and convenience of grade averaging, so I know that the thought of trying some other system will likely be daunting. But if it means our grades will have more integrity, it's worth it.

One alternative to consider is something called a decaying average , which puts more weight on assignments done later in a learning cycle. In theory, this recognizes that skills should improve over time. Although this approach seems to work better in skill-based classes, it shows us one way to rethink the way we calculate grades so they are better aligned with who our students are as learners.

Grades are inherently imperfect. To truly assess our students' learning, we need to get to know them, observe them, and study a wide sampling of their work over time. When we reduce all that to a single measurement for the sake of efficiency, we lose that bigger picture. But as long as grades remain a reality in our system, let's be thoughtful and deliberate when we calculate them. ♦

Come back for more.
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Grades impact everything from college admissions to whether students get to go on certain field trips. With so much at stake, how can we make sure they measure what matters?

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article about how to make rubrics better

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article about how to make rubrics better

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Listen to my interview with Mark Wise (transcript):
Sponsored by Pear Deck and Microsoft Teams for Education

In my 20-year career as an administrator, I've had the opportunity to be a fly on the wall in hundreds of classrooms across grade levels and content areas. While much has changed in education over those years, one element has remained constant: the well-intentioned use of rubrics with varying levels of success.

Starting with their use as early as kindergarten and continuing through high school, rubrics are meant to clarify expectations, but poor design can make the experience anything but clear. Rows of criteria describe, often in 10-point font, how students will be graded for an upcoming project. Students attempt to decipher the details, review the exemplars provided, and note the corresponding due dates, but the information doesn't always translate into action.

This is unfortunate because a well-designed rubric can be more than just an evaluation tool. For the teacher, it can clarify expectations, which increases the likelihood that these traits will be attended to during instruction and as a result, can provide more targeted feedback. For the learner, knowing what is expected from the start along with clear indicators of progress provides an effective means to self-assess, make adjustments, and improve the quality of performance.

So how do we get there? How do we take our current rubrics and fine-tune them so they deliver on those promises? These five guidelines will help.

1. Measure What Really Matters

Teachers often include multiple criteria in their rubrics without adding the primary learning outcome they are most interested in: Did it persuade? Did it create an emotional connection? Did you win your argument? We tend to construct our rubrics with important but sometimes peripheral components of performance because they are easy to see, count, or score ( Wiggins and McTighe, p. 34). For example, if your students are writing an editorial, it could be stylistically sophisticated, well-organized, and meet the length requirement. However, an editorial, regardless of how well written, is wholly ineffective if it fails to persuade the reader.

Moreover, since students can become overwhelmed by the sheer number of criteria they are required to meet, less can be more. One way to accomplish this is to utilize a single-point rubric, which allows the student to focus on the stated expectations while receiving feedback on the degree to which they are meeting them. If you are using a more traditional 4-6 point rubric that details the continuum of performance, it is even more incumbent upon you to identify the main reason students are engaged in the task in the first place and edit down the criteria so it incentivizes students to focus on the most important aspects of the performance.

The "before" example below shows a rubric that measures a lot of things that don't have anything to do with whether a student understands the lunar phases: things like creativity, attractiveness, and whether the task is completed on time. If the purpose of the assignment is to assess whether students have really learned the lunar phases, the rubric should focus primarily on whether the content in the model is accurate and effective.

In the revised version below, all of the criteria is focused on the quality and accuracy of the information in the model and measures the desired scientific thinking from building the model in the first place.

2. Weigh the Criteria Appropriately

As designers of rubrics, we can signal to students that certain criteria matter more than others. Just because a rubric has four criteria, doesn't mean that each needs to be worth 25 percent of the score. With the weight of each criterion adjusted, the rubric itself guides students to focus on what is most important.

In the example below-which is the same revised rubric from above, but where the teacher wanted to include some accountability for mechanics-all four criteria are weighted exactly the same. This means a student who demonstrates a perfect understanding of the science behind lunar phases, but who struggles with spelling and punctuation, could end up with a C on the project. That would not be a true reflection of mastery.

By contrast, in the revised rubric below, "Mechanics" is only assigned 10 percent of the overall grade, while the other three criteria make up 90 percent combined. This way, the final grade will be a much more reliable measure of student understanding of lunar phases.

Another thing to keep in mind is that each criterion doesn't have to be graded every time or the same way. Within the structure of the rubric, teachers have a great deal of flexibility. Although all of the criteria are important, we can use our discretion by grading only certain items, then attending to the others when those skills or concepts are formally taught and practiced. Likewise, since our expectations of what students can accomplish at the beginning of the year are quite different from what we expect at the end of the year, we can continue to adjust the grade or point values we assign to each column.

3. Check Your Math

Your point values for each column need to yield an accurate reflection of the student's performance. For example, if on a 4-point rubric the "3" is "meets expectations" most teachers believe the point value should reflect a range from A- to B+. This stands in contrast to a C (3 out of 4 points) which is what would be earned if a student met expectations for the criteria within that column. This can result in either the teacher giving an unfair grade or altering the feedback in order to generate the desired grade.Either result isn't helpful for the student.

A design tip is to look at each column vertically and choose a number or range that would be appropriate for a student scoring exclusively within that column. The corresponding grades don't have to reflect a neat 4, 3, 2 progression. Often using decimals or a range of numbers is necessary to align each column vertically to a grade that matches the column's descriptors.

4. Can Do Rubrics, Not Can't Do Rubrics

We need to consider the language we choose so that our rubrics encourage students to improve. Without realizing it, when teachers detail the levels of performance, we tend to use degrees of deficiency (e.g. mostly, somewhat, lacking) rather than affirmative non-judgmental statements as to what the students are capable of at each point along the continuum. If we are going to truly use the rubric as a tool to enhance students' ability to self-assess and thus enhance their performance, we must provide clear markers along the way for how students can improve and not unintentionally send the message that their ongoing work is insufficient rather than on a path of progress.

The examples below show two rows in a rubric for a research project. The first uses deficit language to describe the lower levels of performance, while the second describes each level in terms of what the student CAN do.

A real-world model that clearly illustrates a learner's progression toward achieving proficiency is the traditional swim chart which indicates where the swimmer is in on the path toward achieving independence in the deep end of the pool. The language of the swim chart describes traits-from treading water to extended front crawl-that are required for the learner to move from Tadpole (beginner) to Seal (advanced). The expectations are clear, measurable, and non-judgemental; it describes what swimmers can do rather than what they can't. We can view the transparency and progression of the swim chart as an aspirational goal for our rubric design, being mindful to choose language that states the desired outcome, rather than anticipated problems.

Educators are already working toward this in the area of world languages. The American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages (ACTFL) has performance descriptors that describe the learner's degree of communication fluency. ACTFL has also developed "Can Do" statements that describe what language learners can do consistently and independently. Like the swim chart, these indicators allow learners to use the statements for self-evaluation so they are more aware of what they know and can do in the target language. In turn, world language educators have developed rubrics that match those desired outcomes.

5. Models, Models, Models!

When we design rubrics, we tend to pore over their construction. We perseverate over the language we use ("should I say 'clearly.'.. or 'distinctly'?"), repeatedly delete rows or columns, and painstakingly choose fonts.

From the student perspective, they experience the rubric differently. After being introduced to the rubric at the start of the project, the next time students typically see it is when it is returned, replete with circled boxes, teacher comments, and a final grade attached. Understandably, many students suffer from "rubric fatigue," a condition caused by encountering a series of disconnected rubrics across subject areas on any given day.

What students really benefit from are actual models (both exemplars and non-exemplars) that link to descriptors on the rubric that illustrate the quality of work expected. For example, in the real world we typically have many models of the performance or product we are trying to create or implement-whether it is for how a game should be played, a song should be sung, or an editorial should be written. Similarly, when launching a project, showing students multiple examples of prior student work or appropriate real-world examples makes the rubric meaningful and brings these descriptors to life.

Another strategy is to have students sort the various models in order to determine the specific qualities that make some examples stronger than others. The teacher can then incorporate the students' language in their draft version of the rubric or highlight aspects the teacher may have initially overlooked before distributing the final rubric. This process allows the students themselves to generate the criteria and descriptive language of the desired performance which deepens their understanding and creates shared ownership of the expectations for quality work.

Similarly, the rubric can become more user-friendly if we make the criteria more visible to students. This can be done by adding hyperlinks of models tied to the descriptors so students can access a range of examples to inform where they are along the continuum and show them exactly how they can improve.

Better Rubrics Support Student-Centered Learning

As educators, we are rightfully drawn to the goal of establishing a classroom where students have opportunities to engage in complex problem solving, participate more actively in dialogue and debate, design their own experiments, or research topics that interest them. These types of experiences-ones that do not result in a single "correct" answer or follow a formulaic procedure-require more of an open-ended assessment tool with clear guidelines for success that students can use to guide, self-assess, and ultimately improve their learning. Hopefully by following these five suggestions, your rubrics will help clarify what you really want students to take away from the experience, provide your learners with the means to get there, and allow you to fairly and honestly assess their performance. ♦

Reference

Wiggins, G., & McTighe, J. (2012). The understanding by design guide to advanced concepts in creating and reviewing units. Alexandria, VA: ASCD.

Come back for more.
Join our mailing list and get weekly tips, tools, and inspiration that will make your teaching more effective and fun. You'll get access to our members-only library of free downloads, including 20 Ways to Cut Your Grading Time in Half, the e-booklet that has helped thousands of teachers save time on grading. Over 50,000 teachers have already joined-come on in.

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Rubric Repair: 5 Changes that Get Results

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Rubrics are meant to clarify expectations, but poor design can make the experience anything but clear. These five guidelines will help.

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Enhancing Capacity and Monitoring Progress

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Enhancing Capacity and Monitoring Progress

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Learning can be inaccessible when it requires the ability to manage information and resources, and where there are no options for individuals who differ in such executive functions. Wherever executive functions or working memory capacity are not construct-relevant in a lesson, it is important to provide a variety of internal scaffolds and external organizational aids to keep information organized and "in mind." The research listed here suggests the effectiveness of strategies such as graphic and cognitive organizers, concept maps, explicit instruction in how to evaluate information, and templates for note-taking. The scholarly reviews and opinion pieces provide more classroom-based perspectives on facilitating students' management of information and resources.

Experimental & Quantitative Evidence

Alvermann, D. E., & Boothby, P. R. (1986). Children's transfer of graphic organizer instruction. Reading Psychology, 7(2), 87-100.

Anderson-Inman, L., Knox-Quinn, C., & Horney, M. A. (1996). Computer-based study strategies for students with learning disabilities: Individual differences associated with adoption level. Journal of Learning Disabilities, 29(5), 461-484.

Boon, R. T., Burke, M. D., Fore III, C., & Spencer, V. G. (2006). The impact of cognitive organizers and technology-based practices on student success in secondary social studies classrooms. Journal of Special Education Technology, 21(1), 5-15.

Boon, R. T., Fore, C., Ayres, K., & Spencer, V. G. (2005). The effects of cognitive organizers to facilitate content-area learning for students with mild disabilities: A pilot study. Journal of Instructional Psychology, 32(2), 101-118.

Bowler, L. (2001). Primary school students, information literacy and the web. Education for Information, 19(3), 201-223.

Boyle, J. R., & Weishaar, M. (1997). The effects of expert-generated versus student-generated cognitive organizers on the reading comprehension of students with learning disabilities. Learning Disabilities Research and Practice, 12(4), 228-235.

Carnes, E. R., Lindbeck, J. S., & Griffin, C. F. (1987). Effects of group size and advance organizers on learning parameters when using microcomputer tutorials in kinematics. Journal of Research in Science Teaching, 24(9), 781-789.

Clements-Davis, G. L., & Ley, T. C. (1991). Thematic preorganizers and the reading comprehension of tenth-grade world literature students. Reading Research & Instruction, 31(1), 43-53.

Coiro, J., & Dobler, E. (2007). Exploring the online reading comprehension strategies used by sixth-grade skilled readers to search for and locate information on the internet. Reading Research Quarterly, 42(2), 214-257.

Darch, C. B., Carnine, D. W., & Kammeenui, E. J. (1986). The role of graphic organizers and social structure in content area instruction. Journal of Reading Behavior, 18(4), 275-295.

De La Paz, S. (2007). Managing cognitive demands for writing: Comparing the effects of instructional components in strategy instruction. Reading & Writing Quarterly, 23(3), 249-266.

Evans, S. W., Pelham, W., & Grudberg, M. V. (1994). The efficacy of notetaking to improve behavior and comprehension of adolescents with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder. Exceptionality, 5(1), 1-17.

Garcia-Mila, M. (2007). Developmental change in notetaking during scientific inquiry. International Journal of Science Education, 29(8), 1035-1058.

Guinee, K., Eagleton, M., & Hall, T. E. (2003). Adolescents' internet search strategies: Drawing upon familiar cognitive paradigms when accessing electronic information sources. Journal of Educational Computing Research, 29(3), 363-374.

Guinee, K., & Eagleton, M. B. (2006). Spinning straw into gold: Transforming information into knowledge during web-based research. English Journal, 95(4), 46-52.

Herl, H. E., O'Neil, H. F. J., Chung, G. K. W. K., & Schacter, J. (1999). Reliability and validity of a computer-based knowledge mapping system to measure content understanding. Computers in Human Behavior, 15(3-4), 315-333.

Horton, S., Lovitt, T., & Christensen, S. (1991). Notetaking from textbooks: Effects of a columnar format on three categories of secondary students. Exceptionality: A Research Journal, 2(1), 18-40.

Horton, S. V., Lovitt, T. C., Givens, A., & Nelson, R. (1989). Teaching social studies to high school students with academic handicaps in a mainstreamed setting: Effects of a computerized study guide. Journal ofLearning Disabilities, 22(2), 102-107.

Idol-Maestas, L. (1985). Getting ready to read: Guided probing for poor comprehenders. Learning Disability Quarterly, 8(4), 243-254.

Kim, A. H., Vaughn, S., & Wanzek, J. (2004). Graphic organizers and their effects on the reading comprehension of students with LD: A synthesis of research. Journal of Learning Disabilities, 37(2), 105-118.

Kooy, T. (1992). The effect of graphic advance organizers on math and science comprehension with high school special education students. B.C. Journal of Special Education, 16(2), 101-111.

Kuiper, E., Volman, K., & Terwel, J. (2004). The internet as an information resource in education: A review of the literature. Annual Meeting of the American Educational Research Association, San Diego, CA.

McCrory Wallace, R., Kupperman, J., Krajcik, J., & Soloway, E. (2000). Science on the web: Students online in a sixth-grade classroom. The Journal of the Learning Sciences, 9(1), 75-104.

McNabb, M. L., Hassel, B., & Steiner, L. (2000). Literacy learning on the net: An exploratory study. Oak Brook, IL:North Central Regional Educational Laboratory.

Meltzer, L. (2007). Executive function in education: From theory to practice. New York, NY: Guilford Press.

Moore, D. W., & Readence, J. E. (1984). A quantitative and qualitative review of graphic organizer research. Journal of Educational Research, 78(1), 11-17.

Novak, J. D. (1990). Concept maps and vee diagrams: Two metacognitive tools to facilitate meaningful learning. Instructional Science, 19(1), 29-52.

Puntambekar, S., & Goldstein, J. (2007). Effect of visual representation of the conceptual structure of the domain on science learning and navigation in a hypertext environment. Journal of Educational Multimedia and Hypermedia, 16(4), 429-459.

Robinson, D. H., Katayama, A. D., Beth, A., Odom, S., Hsieh, Y. P., & Vanderveen, A. (2006). Increasing text comprehension and graphic note taking using a partial graphic organizer. The Journal of Educational Research, 100(2), 103-111.

Royer, R., & Royer, J. (2004). Comparing hand drawn and computer generated concept mapping. Journal of Computers in Mathematics and Science Technology, 23(1), 67-81.

Shin, E. C., Schallert, D. L., & Savenye, W. C. (1994). Effects of learner control, advisement, and prior knowledge on young students' learning in a hypertext environment. Educational Technology Research and Development, 42(1), 33-46.

Swanson, H. L., & Deshler, D. (2003). Instructing adolescents with learning disabilities: Converting a meta-analysis to practice. Journal of Learning Disabilities, 36(2), 124-135.

Townsend, M. A. R., & Clarihew, A. (1989). Facilitating children's comprehension through the use of advanced organizers. Journal of Reading Behavior, 21(1), 15-31.

Troia, G. A., & Graham, S. (2002). The effectiveness of a highly explicit, teacher-directed strategy instruction routine: Changing the writing performance of students with learning disabilities. Journal of Learning Disabilities, 35(4), 290-305.

Troia, G. A., Graham, S., & Harris, K. R. (1999). Teaching students with learning disabilities to mindfully plan when writing. Exceptional Children, 65(2), 235-252.

Willerman, M., & Mac Harg, R. A. (1991). The concept map as an advance organizer. Journal of Research in Science Teaching, 28(8), 705-712.

Scholarly Reviews & Expert Opinions

Cassidy, J. (1989). Using graphic organizers to develop critical thinking. Gifted Child Today, 12(6), 34-36.

Dalton, B., & Grisham, D. L. (2001). Teaching students to evaluate internet information critically. Reading Online, 5(5). Retrieved June 23, 2009, from http://www.readingonline.org/editorial/edit_index.asp?HREF=/editorial/december2001/index.html.

Dawson, P., & Guare, R. (2004). Executive skills in children and adolescents: A practical guide to assessment and intervention. New York, NY: The Guilford Press.

Dye, G. A. (2000). Graphic organizers to the rescue! Helping students link - and remember - information. Teaching Exceptional Children, 32(3), 72-76.

Eagleton, M., & Guinee, K. (2002). Strategies for supporting student internet inquiry. New England Reading Association Journal, 38(2), 39-47.

Eagleton, M. B., & Dobler, E. (2006). Reading the web: Strategies for internet inquiry. New York: Guilford Press.

Eagleton, M. B., Guinee, K., & Langlais, K. (2003). Teaching internet literacy strategies: The hero inquiry project. Voices from the Middle, 10(3), 28-35.

Egan, M. (1999). Reflections on effective use of graphic organizers. Journal of Adolescent and Adult Literacy, 42(8), 641-645.

Frey, N., & Fisher, D. (2007). Reading for information in elementary school: Content literacy strategies to build comprehension. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson/Merrill/Prentice Hall.

Henry, L. A. (2006). SEARCHing for an answer: The critical role of new literacies while reading on the internet. The Reading Teacher, 59(7), 614-627.

Hughes, C. A., & Suritsky, S. K. (1993). Notetaking skills and strategies for students with learning disabilities. Preventing School Failure, 38(1), 7-11.

Ives, B., & Hoy, C. (2003). Graphic organizers applied to higher-level secondary mathematics. Learning Disabilities Research & Practice, 18(1), 36-51.

Kafai, Y., & Bates, M. J. (1997). Internet web-searching instruction in the elementary classroom: Building a foundation for information literacy. School Library Media Quarterly, 25(2), 103-111.

Mastropieri, M. A., Scruggs, T. E., & Graetz, J. E. Reading comprehension instruction for secondary students:Challenges for struggling readers and teachers. Learning Disability Quarterly, 26(1), 103-116.

Merkley, D. M., & Jefferies, D. (2001). Guidelines for implementing a graphic organizer. The Reading Teacher, 54(4), 350-357.

Mosco, M. (2005). Getting the information graphically. Arts and Activities, 138(1), 44-44.

Novak, J. D. & Canas, A. J. (2008). The theory underlying concept maps and how to construct them. Technical Report IHMC CmapTools 2006-01 Rev 01-2008, Florida Institute for Human and Machine Cognition.. Retrieved September 8, 2009 from http://cmap.ihmc.us/Publications/ResearchPapers/TheoryUnderlyingConceptMaps.pdf

Rankin, V. (1999). The thoughtful researcher: Teaching the research process to middle school students.Englewood, CO: Libraries Unlimited, Inc..

Rock, M. L. (2004). Graphic organizers: Tools to foster behavior literacy and foster emotional competency. Intervention in School and Clinic, 40(1), 10-37.

Rose, D., & Rose, K. (2007). Executive function processes: A curriculum-based intervention. In L. Meltzer (Ed.), Executive function in education (pp. 287-308). New York: Guilford Press.

Sandieson, R. (2006). Pathfinding in the research forest: The pearl harvesting method for effective information retrieval. Education and Training in Developmental Disabilities, 41(4), 401-409.

Scardamalia, M., & Bereiter, C. (1991). Higher levels of agency for children in knowledge building: A challenge for the design of new knowledge media. The Journal of the Learning Sciences, 1(1), 37-68.

Schachter, J., Chung, G., & Shorr, A. (1998). Children's internet searching on complex problems: Performance and process analysis. Journal of the American Society for Information Science, 49(9), 840-849.

Sorapure, M., Inglesby, P., & Yatchisin, G. (1998). Web literacy: Challenges and opportunities for research in a new medium. Computers and Composition, 15(3), 409-424.

Strangman, N., & Hall, T. E. (2002). Graphic organizers. Wakefield, MA: National Center on Accessing the General Curriculum.

Strangman, N., Hall, T. E., & Meyer, A. (2003). Graphic organizers with UDL. Wakefield, MA: National Center on Accessing the General Curriculum.

Sutherland-Smith, W. (2002). Weaving the literacy web: Changes in reading from page to screen. Reading Teacher, 55(7), 662-669.

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Learning can be inaccessible when it requires the ability to manage information and resources, and where there are no options for individuals who differ in such executive functions. Wherever executive functions or working memory capacity are not construct-relevant in a lesson, it is important to provide a variety of internal scaffolds and external organizational aids to keep information organized and "in mind."

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article with images of 3-D graphic organizers

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article with images of 3-D graphic organizers

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Three-dimensional graphic organizers? Yep. They go by many names and have been around for years, but y'know...sometimes techniques stand the test of time because they work. You might know them better as flippables or foldables. I first learned about them from Dinah Zike herself, the pioneer of foldables. Her workshop was one of the best professional development sessions in my entire career! I know I wasn't the only one who was inspired by the sheer variety of foldables and their applications to so many lessons. Only Whole Brain Teaching has come close to Dinah in its ability to inspire me as a teacher. (That's a rather sad commentary on the state of teacher professional development, isn't it? Oh, well...that's another post for another day.) Dinah calls them foldables, but I like the term "3D graphic organizer." Thanks to 3D movies, it's a phrase my 4th graders can understand.

Interactive Notebooks

These 3D graphic organizers came back to my attention recently in a new way. Teachers are gluing them inside composition notebooks and creating Interactive Notebooks! What's great about this approach is immediately obvious to elementary teachers - that of where do kids store their foldables when not in use? Gluing them into notebooks creates not only a safe place for storage but also an organized set of notes. It ticks all the boxes for a teacher - it's organized, useful and the kids enjoy them.

3D with Close Reads

A few weeks ago, my 4th graders finished up our study of economics and we used three-dimensional graphic organizers in three of the four lessons. They were a hit, to put it mildly. When I gave them to my students, we had already done day one of our close read of the informational text. So, when they worked on the graphic organizers, the students had some familiarity with the text. We had also completed an additional close read immediately prior to completing our 3D graphic organizers. For the second reading, we highlighted the information that we wanted to include in our organizers. (If you don't have enough highlighters for your class, crayons in pale colors works well, too.) The first day we focused on a general understanding, but by day two we were looking at the text structure and specific vocabulary.

3D in Economics

In the photos that follow, I created three specific 3D graphic organizers. Each one was for a different lesson in my economics unit - supply and demand, taxes, and opportunity cost. While I didn't have my students glue them into a notebook (that remains a possibility for next year!), they proved to be useful nonetheless. Sometimes when you have students read a content-rich text, it's hard to know for sure if they are really grasping the important details. These 3D graphic organizers combined with close reading and the gesturing techniques of Whole Brain Teaching really adds a lot of impact to our lessons. This was evident in my students' responses to our culminating assignments in a constructed response question. These basic patterns would suit many different lessons, so teachers can use their unparalleled creativity to fashion organizers to suit their own lessons.

Fun...and Crazy Pants

Graphic organizers are used in almost every classroom, grade, and school. Teachers like them because they're an effective strategy and can be used in a variety of lessons. Kids like 3D graphic organizers because they are a fun twist on a common task. And there's nothing wrong with having fun while learning. Just like there's also nothing wrong with having fun while curling. What?! Yeah, I've been watching the Winter Olympics this past week, and I think I've just about figured out this whole curling thing. I'm watching Great Britain and Norway fight it out for medal contention as I write this post. What's not to love about a sport where grown men sweep the floor so enthusiastically, even if it is a sheet of ice? 🙂 Oh, and the Norwegians' pants...style points there for sure. Final score: Pants 7, Great Britain 6. And for 3D graphic organizers? Two thumbs up!

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Three-dimensional graphic organizers? Yep. They go by many names and have been around for years, but y'know...sometimes techniques stand the test of time because they work. You might know them better as flippables or foldables. I first learned about them from Dinah Zike herself, the pioneer of foldables.

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information about a digital organizing template 

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information about a digital organizing template 

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Learning can be inaccessible when it requires planning and strategy development, and where there are no options for individuals who differ in such executive functions. Young children, older students in a new domain, or any student with one of the disabilities that compromise executive functions (e.g. ADHD, ADD, Autism Spectrum Disorders) often are weak at planning and strategy development and impulsive trial and error dominates their learning. The experimental studies collected here suggest a variety of options to help students become more planful and strategic - explicit strategy instruction for planning and revising, concept mapping, etc. The scholarly reviews and expert opinions provide a more classroom based perspective on effectively supporting students' planning and strategy development.

Experimental & Quantitative Evidence

Chalk, J. C., Hagan-Burke, S., & Burke, M. D. (2005). The effects of self-regulated strategy development on the writing process for high school students with learning disabilities. Learning Disability Quarterly, 28(1), 75-88.

De La Paz, S. (2007). Managing cognitive demands for writing: Comparing the effects of instructional components in strategy instruction. Reading & Writing Quarterly, 23(3), 249-266.

De La Paz, S., & Graham, S. (1997). Strategy instruction in planning: Teaching students with learning and writing disabilities to compose persuasive and expository essays. Learning Disability Quarterly, 20(3), 227-248.

Englert, C. S., Manalo, M., & Zhao, Y. (2004). I can do it better on the computer: The effects of technology-enabled scaffolding on young writers' composition. Journal of Special Education Technology, 19(1), 5-22.

Englert, C. S., Wu, X., & Zhao, Y. (2005). Cognitive tools for writing: Scaffolding the performance of students through technology. Learning Disabilities Research & Practice, 20(3), 184-198.

Englert, C. S., Yong, Z., Dunsmore, K., Collings, N. Y., & Wolbers, K. (2007). Scaffolding the writing of students with disabilities through procedural facilitation: Using an internet-based technology to improve performance. Learning Disability Quarterly, 30(1), 9-29.

Fleming, V. M. (2002). Improving students' exam performance by introducing study strategies and goal setting. Teaching of Psychology, 29(2), 115-119.

Graham, S. (1997). Executive control in the revising of students with learning and writing difficulties. Journal of Educational Psychology, 89(2), 223-234.

Graham, S., Harris, K. R., & Mason, L. (2005). Improving the writing performance, knowledge, and self-efficacy of struggling young writers: The effects of self-regulated strategy development. Contemporary Educational Psychology, 30(2), 207-241.

Graham, S., & Perin, D. (2007). A meta-analysis of writing instruction for adolescent students. Journal Educational Psychology, 99(3), 445-476.

Graham, S., MacArthur, C., Schwartz, S., & Page-Voth, V. (1992). Improving the compositions of students with learning disabilities using a strategy involving product and process goal setting. Exceptional Children, 58(4), 322-334.

Graves, A. (1990). The effects of procedural facilitation on the story composition of learning disabled students. Learning Disabilities Research, 5(2), 88-93.

Harris, K. R., Graham, S., & Mason, L. H. (2006). Improving the writing, knowledge, and motivation of struggling young writers: Effects of self-regulated strategy development with and without peer support. American Educational Research Journal, 43(2), 295-340.

Meltzer, L. (2007). Executive function in education: From theory to practice. New York, NY: Guilford Press.

Montague, M. (1991). Planning, procedural facilitation, and narrative composition of junior high students with learning disabilities. Learning Disabilities Research and Practice, 6(4), 219-224.

Quinlan, T. (2004). Speech recognition technology and students with writing difficulties: Improving fluency. Journal of Educational Psychology, 96(2), 337-346.

Rademacher, J. A., Schumaker, J. B., & Deshler, D. D. (1996). Development and validation of a classroom assignment routine for inclusive settings. Learning Disability Quarterly, 19(3), 163-177.

Saddler, B. (2006). Increasing story-writing ability through self-regulated strategy development: Effects on young writers with learning disabilities. Learning Disability Quarterly, 29(4), 291-305.

Saddler, B., & Asaro, K. (2007). Increasing story quality through planning and revising: Effects on young writers with learning disabilities. Learning Disabilities Quarterly, 30(4), 223-234.

Saddler, B., Moran, S., Graham, S., & Harris, K. R. (2004). Preventing writing difficulties: The effects of planning strategy instruction on the writing performance of struggling writers. Exceptionality, 12(1), 3-17.

Sturm, J. M., & Rankin-Erickson, J. L. (2002). Effects of hand-drawn and computer-generated concept mapping on the expository writing of middle school students with learning disabilities. Learning Disabilities Research & Practice, 17(2), 124-139.

Troia, G. A., & Graham, S. (2002). The effectiveness of a highly explicit, teacher-directed strategy instruction routine: Changing the writing performance of students with learning disabilities. Journal of Learning Disabilities, 35(4), 290-305.

Troia, G. A., Graham, S., & Harris, K. R. (1999). Teaching students with learning disabilities to mindfully plan when writing. Exceptional Children, 65(2), 235-252.

Wong, B. Y., Butler, D. L., Ficzere, S. A., & Kuperis, S. (1996). Teaching low achievers and students with learning disabilities to plan, write, and revise opinion essays. Journal of Learning Disabilities, 29(2), 197-212.

Zipprich, M. A. (1995). Teaching web making as a guided planning tool to improve student narrative writing. Remedial and Special Education, 16(1), 3-15.

Scholarly Reviews & Expert Opinions

Baker, S., Gersten, R., & Scanlon, D. (2002). Procedural facilitators and cognitive strategies: Tools for unraveling the mysteries of comprehension and the writing process, and for providing meaningful access to the general curriculum. Learning Disabilities Research & Practice, 17(1), 65-77.

Dawson, P., & Guare, R. (2004). Executive skills in children and adolescents: A practical guide to assessment and intervention. New York, NY: The Guilford Press.

Graham, S., & Harris, K. R. (2005). Improving the writing performance of young struggling writers: Theoretical and programmatic research from the center on accelerating student learning. The Journal of Special Education, 39(1), 19-33.

MacArthur, C. A. (1996). Using technology to enhance the writing processes of students with learning disabilities. Journal of Learning Disabilities, 29(4), 344-354.

Pressley, M., Goodchild, F., Fleet, J., Zajchowski, R., & Evans, E. D. (1989). The challenges of classroom strategy instruction. The Elementary School Journal, 89(3), 301-342.

Pressley, M., Yokoi, L., Rankin, J., Wharton-McDonald, R., & Mistretta, J. (1997). A survey of the instructional practices of grade 5 teachers nominated as effective in promoting literacy. Scientific Studies of Reading, 1(2), 145-160.

Rankin, V. (1999). The thoughtful researcher: Teaching the research process to middle school students.Englewood, CO: Libraries Unlimited, Inc..

Rose, D., & Rose, K. (2007). Executive function processes: A curriculum-based intervention. In L. Meltzer (Ed.), Executive function in education (pp. 287-308). New York: Guilford Press.

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Learning can be inaccessible when it requires planning and strategy development, and where there are no options for individuals who differ in such executive functions. Young children, older students in a new domain, or any student with one of the disabilities that compromise executive functions (e.g.

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article about growth mindset and expert learning

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article about growth mindset and expert learning

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When I taught English years ago, I was dealing out tattered paperbacks of the classics like it was my life's calling. The whole class read The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn and then the whole class read Old Man and the Sea. I excitedly circulated the books, week after week, to groaning middle-schoolers slumped in their chairs. After we read, I gave a test and some students got As and others earned Fs and they were all left feeling like being a good student was a prize. Good grades were bestowed upon those students who either a) were proficient readers or b) were creative enough to come up with another strategy, like watching the movie or reading Sparknotes. There were always a handful of students who failed.

Sadly, we didn't talk much about what it meant to be a learner and why it's important to persevere and fight through challenging text. If we did talk about that, I know some of my students probably would have told me, "These books are torture. How are they relevant to me at all? Who cares about this?" Touché.

Universal Design for Learning (UDL) is a framework that provides a blueprint for educators to design teaching and learning opportunities so students can personalize their learning. At its core, UDL is about providing options and choices to students so they can set meaningful goals for how they will meet the standards, determine the methods and materials they need to reach their goal, and express how they met their goal in standard, authentic ways. To do this, students must become expert learners. Growth mindset is critical in expert learning.

Growth mindset, the belief that success is far more about effort than innate talent, is the brainchild of Carol Dweck, a professor at Stanford University. This concept - that success is something that can be achieved with persistence and motivation - is the foundation of Universal Design for Learning (UDL). Dweck classifies all goals and activities into two categories: things we can do already and things we can't do yet. The theory is that anything is achievable with the right mindset and the right strategy. Dedication to committing to a task, learning from mistakes, and sticking with goals despite barriers is the key to turning not yet into already.

An expert learner may not be the best student, or have the most innate talent, but that doesn't matter. An expert learner is motivated, gritty, perseveres through problems, learns from mistakes, and keeps on trying new strategies until goals are achieved. This creative problem solving is sometimes called 21 st Century Thinking. I'm always amused by this definition since it implies good problem-solvers and critical thinkers didn't exist before our time. The Einstein's, Edison's, and Graham Bell's of the world were always expert learners, and embodied the concept of growth mindset as they were the original Design Thinkers and continued to tinker, take risks, and make mistakes until they reached their goal.

So, how do we foster growth mindset in students? First, we teach them about the importance of growth mindset, struggling to achieve goals, and the gift of failure. Next, we must allow them to personalize their own learning. In order to optimize growth mindset, we have to motivate students so they understand why the distress of not knowing how to do something is worth pushing through. Students are not going to use necessary coping mechanisms to persist if they don't care about the end goal.

When I first began teaching English, I was not promoting the growth mindset. Students were asked to complete lessons because "they had to" or "it's a requirement" without really being motivated to learn why the lesson was important. Without a growth mindset, students may be hesitant to take risks, try new things and challenge themselves to accomplish more. If they aren't willing to be open to uncertainty, persist despite it, and overcome their missteps, true engagement is unlikely. If a student believes there is no light at the end of the tunnel or that success is not possible when things get hard, he'll likely quit and start to believe that he simply "can't." This is a fixed mindset.

But what about the standards, you ask? How can students possibly personalize their learning if the standards outline what students have to do? Glad you asked! The standards do not mandate specific learning or assessment strategies; rather, they provide a destination for the learning journey. If we step back and are truly objective, we find that the standards are much more flexible than they are interpreted to be. And, better yet, the Common Core State Standards endorse UDL as best practice to teach the standards. By that very endorsement, they highlight their own flexibility.

Are you fostering growth mindset in your class? If you're doing all the work to design lessons and students don't have the opportunity to personalize their education, you're not there yet. How can one learn to set challenging goals when everyone in the class has the same goal, but all students are different and need different levels of challenge? How can they learn from mistakes when we design lessons that end once mistakes are made, as we prepare to move the whole class on to the next lesson? How can we expect students to fight and persevere to understand when the work is meaningless? We can't.

If we want real change - real passion and real growth mindset from our students, we have to put them back in the driver's seat of their education so they have something worth persevering for. We aren't there yet ... but we can be with UDL.

For more information on UDL, including ways to integrate it into your classroom, check out UDL Now!

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Growth Mindset: Teaching Your Students to Be Expert Learners - Novak Educational Consulting

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When I taught English years ago, I was dealing out tattered paperbacks of the classics like it was my life's calling. The whole class read The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn and then the whole class read Old Man and the Sea. I excitedly circulated the books, week after week, to groaning middle-schoolers slumped in their chairs.

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article about learning strategies to teach learners

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article about learning strategies to teach learners

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Interview with Megan Smith and Yana Weinstein ( transcript):
What does the word "study" mean to you?
Have you ever told your students to study for a test? Have you ever actually taught them how to study?

It turns out studying can be taught. And t wo cognitive psychological scientists, Yana Weinstein and Megan Smith (whose name has changed since this post to Sumeracki), have made it their mission to teach people how to study better. On their new website, The Learning Scientists, they use infographics and videos to share strategies and other insights about how we learn.

Here we will explore six research-based learning strategies that Weinstein and Smith teach on their site. If we can work these methods into our instruction, and teach students how to use them on their own, our students stand a much better chance of actually remembering our material.

One final note before we dig in: Although performance assessments and project-based learning allow students to show what they know with more depth and authenticity, most content areas still need to measure some learning with tests. When you are teaching that kind of content, these six strategies will help your students perform better on the test AND retain that information long after the test is over.
Space out your studying over time.
Far too many students wait until the night before a test to study for it. Similarly, teachers often wait until the day before a test to review. When enough students score well on the test, it appears they have learned the material. But a few weeks later, most of that information has vanished from students' minds. For more durable learning, the studying has to take place in smaller chunks over time.

"Every time you leave a little space, you forget a bit of the information, and then you kind of relearn it," Weinstein explains. "That forgetting actually helps you to strengthen the memory. It's kind of counterintuitive, but you need to forget a little bit in order to then help yourself learn it by remembering again."

Teachers can help students apply this strategy by helping them create a studying calendar to plan out how they will review chunks of content, and by carving out small chunks of class time every day for review. In both cases, plan to include current concepts AND previously learned material: Many teachers know this as "spiraling."
Practice bringing information to mind without the help of materials.
Many people think of "studying" as simply re-reading notes, textbooks, or other materials. But having the information right in front of us doesn't force us to retrieve it from memory; instead, it allows us to trick ourselves into thinking we know something. Recalling information without supporting materials helps us learn it much more effectively.

"Put your class materials away, and then write out or maybe sketch or speak everything you know and try to be as thorough as possible, and then check your materials for accuracy," Smith advises. "You're bringing information to mind almost like you're testing yourself; though it can be a practice test, it doesn't have to be. You can just sort of go through and explain what you know, or teach a friend or a pet or even an inanimate object everything that you learned in school. By bringing that information to mind, you're changing the way that information is stored so that it's easier for you to get to later on."

Teach students how to do retrieval practice in class: Have them turn off their devices, put all their notes and books away, then ask them to write everything they know about a particular term or topic, or share their thoughts in a think-pair-share. When the practice is done, have students check their understanding by revisiting their materials and discussing misconceptions as a class. Once they learn how to do this in school, they can then apply it at home.
Explain and describe ideas with many details.
This method asks students to go beyond simple recall of information and start making connections within the content. Students should ask themselves open-ended questions about the material, answer in as much detail as possible, then check the materials to make sure their understanding is correct.

Here's how Smith and Weinstein explain elaboration:

Teachers can apply this strategy by having brief class discussions where these kinds of questions are explored and asking students to work elaboration into their own study plans.
Switch between ideas while you study.
Common knowledge tells us that to learn a skill, we should practice it over and over again. While repetition is vital, research says we will actually learn that skill more effectively if we mix our practice of it with other skills. This is known as interleaving.

"Let's say you're doing a bunch of math problems," Weinstein says. "What's fairly typical is ... five of the same problem, or 10 of the same problem. Instead of doing that, try different problems in different orders." So if students are learning to calculate the area of a triangle, instead of having them do 20 problems with triangles, have them do one of a triangle, then one of a circle, then a triangle, then a square.

"The thing about that," Weinstein notes, "is that it's actually harder. So they'll be getting more wrong, they'll be making more errors, but they'll also be learning something very important, which is how to choose a particular strategy for each problem, as opposed to just repeatedly doing the same thing."

When planning exercises for students, resist the temptation to have them repeat the exact same process multiple times in a row. Instead, have them do a few of the new process, then weave in other skills, so that the repetitive behavior is interrupted and students are forced to think more critically. Explain this strategy to students so they can apply interleaving to their own studying.
Use specific examples to understand abstract ideas.
Most teachers already use this strategy in their own teaching; it's a natural part of explaining a new concept. But what we don't necessarily do is help students extend their understanding by coming up with examples of their own. Here's how Weinstein and Smith explain this broader use of concrete examples as a study practice:

Teachers can apply this strategy by using concrete examples when teaching abstract concepts, then asking students to come up with their own, correcting any examples (or parts of examples) that aren't quite right, and looking for more. Encourage students to continue this practice when they study.
Combine words and visuals.
When information is presented to us, it is often accompanied by some kind of visual: An image, a chart or graph, or a graphic organizer. When students are studying, they should make it a habit to pay attention to those visuals and link them to the text by explaining what they mean in their own words. Then, students can create their own visuals of the concepts they are learning. This process reinforces the concepts in the brain through two different paths, making it easier to retrieve later.

"And when we say visuals," Smith explains, "we don't necessarily mean anything specific, so it depends on the types of materials. You could have an infographic, a cartoon strip, a diagram, a graphic organizer, timeline, anything that makes sense to you so long as you're sort of depicting the information both in a way with words and a way with pictures."

"This isn't just for students who are good at drawing," Weinstein adds. "It's not about the quality of the drawing. It really just needs to be a visual representation as you can depict it."

In class, regularly turn students' attention to the visuals used in textbooks, on websites, and even in your own slideshow presentations. Have students describe the visuals to each other and make connections with what you're learning. Then have students create their own visuals of the content to further reinforce it. Remind students to include diagramming, sketching, and creating graphic organizers when they study at home.

Two more pieces of advice on how to maximize these strategies for learning:

Combine them. These strategies don't necessarily work in isolation. You can space out your retrieval practice, and when doing retrieval practice, try to recall concrete examples, elaborate, or sketch out a concept. When doing retrieval practice, you can interleave between different concepts.

Make them part of your class vocabulary. If you just use these strategies in your teaching, you'll see improvement. But if you actually explain the research to students, teach them the terminology, and use that terminology when teaching-"Okay, we're going to spend a few minutes on retrieval practice"-students will not only have a clearer understanding of why you're doing what you do, but they may be more likely to carry those skills with them into future classes.

The Learning Scientists site is full of useful information about how people learn, and more is being added every week. To learn more, visit learningscientists.org, and to download this free chart and other materials about the strategies, click the image below.
Other resources mentioned on the podcast:
Learning Scientists on Twitter: @acethattest

Learning Scientists on Facebook: facebook.com/acethattest

Make It Stick, The Science of Successful Learning, by Brown, Roediger & McDaniel
Teaching How2s simpleshow.com

Learn something new every week.
Join my mailing list and get weekly tips, tools, and inspiration-in quick, bite-sized packages-all geared toward making your teaching more effective and fun. You'll also get access to my members-only library of free downloadable resources, including my e-booklet, 20 Ways to Cut Your Grading Time in Half, which has helped thousands of teachers spend less time grading!

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6 Powerful Learning Strategies You MUST Share with Students

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Studying can be taught. Learn how retrieval practice, interleaving, elaboration, and other research-based study strategies can help your students learn better.

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Facilitating managing information and resources

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Facilitating managing information and resources

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Support Planning and Strategy Development

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Support Planning and Strategy Development

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What's Executive Function—and Why Does it Matter?

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video of a young child talking about executive function

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Organization Challenges- Stephen, 2nd Grade

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Learning can be inaccessible when it requires effective and realistic goal-setting and where there are no options for individuals who differ in such executive functions. Long term and even short terms tasks can raise barriers to learning without the proper embedded support for such goal-setting. The experimental and quantitative evidence listed here indicates the advantages of supports - such as highly explicit goal-setting instruction, varied models, and embedded prompts and scaffolds to estimate effort and task difficulty - for this facet of executive functions. The scholarly reviews and opinion pieces provide additional arguments for why it is important to supports students' in setting their goals. Although some of these articles are dated, they nonetheless continue to provide guidance on supporting effective goal-setting.

Experimental & Quantitative Evidence

Butler, D. L. (1997). The roles of goal setting and self-monitoring in students' self-regulated engagement in tasks.Paper Presented at the Annual Meeting of the American Educational Research Association (Chicago, IL, March 24-28, 1997).

Earley, P. C. (1985). Influence of information choice and task complexity upon goal acceptance, performance and personal goals. Journal of Applied Psychology, 70(3), 481-491.

Fleming, V. M. (2002). Improving students' exam performance by introducing study strategies and goal setting. Teaching of Psychology, 29(2), 115-119.

Fuchs, L., Butterworth, J., & Fuchs, D. (1989). Effects of ongoing curriculum-based measurement on student awareness of goals and progress. Education and Treatment of Children, 12(1), 63-72.

Fuchs, L. S., Fuchs, D., Karns, K., Hamlett, C. L., Katzaroff, M., & Dutka, S. (1997). Effects of task-focused goals on low-achieving students with and without learning disabilities. American Educational Research Journal, 34(3), 513-543.

Fuchs, L. S., Bahr, C. M., & Rieth, H. J. (1989). Effects of goal structures and performance contingencies on the math performance of adolescents with learning disabilities. Journal of Learning Disabilities, 22(9), 554-560.

Graham, S., & Perin, D. (2007). A meta-analysis of writing instruction for adolescent students. Journal Educational Psychology, 99(3), 445-476.

Graham, S., MacArthur, C., Schwartz, S., & Page-Voth, V. (1992). Improving the compositions of students with learning disabilities using a strategy involving product and process goal setting. Exceptional Children, 58(4), 322-334.

Lipsey, M. W., & Wilson, D. B. (1993). The efficacy of psychological, educational, and behavioral treatment.Confirmation from meta-analysis. The American Psychologist, 48(12), 1181-1209.

Meltzer, L. (2007). Executive function in education: From theory to practice. New York, NY: Guilford Press.

Orsmond, P., Merry, S., & Reiling, K. (2002). The use of exemplars and formative feedback when using student derived marking criteria in peer and self-assessment. Assessment & Evaluation in Higher Education, 27(4), 309-323.

Punnett, B. J. (1986). Goal setting and performance among elementary school students. Journal of Educational Research, 80(1), 40-42.

Sachs, A. (1984). Accessing scripts before reading the story. Learning Disability Quarterly, 7(3), 226-228.

Schunk, D. H. (1985). Participation in goal setting: Effects on self-efficacy and skills of learning-disabled children. Journal of Special Education, 19(3), 307-317.

Schunk, D. H. (1996). Goal and self-evaluative influences during children's cognitive skill learning. American Educational Research Journal, 33(2), 359-382.

Troia, G. A., & Graham, S. (2002). The effectiveness of a highly explicit, teacher-directed strategy instruction routine: Changing the writing performance of students with learning disabilities. Journal of Learning Disabilities, 35(4), 290-305.

Troia, G. A., Graham, S., & Harris, K. R. (1999). Teaching students with learning disabilities to mindfully plan when writing. Exceptional Children, 65(2), 235-252.

Walberg, H. J. (1999). Productive teaching. In H. C. Waxman, & H. J. Walberg (Eds.), New directions for teaching practice and research (pp. 75-104). Berkeley, CA: McCutchen Publishing Corporation.

Wise, K. C., & Okey, J. R. (1983). A meta-analysis of the effects of various science teaching strategies on achievement. Journal of Research in Science Teaching, 20(5), 415-425.

Wong, B. Y., Butler, D. L., Ficzere, S. A., & Kuperis, S. (1996). Teaching low achievers and students with learning disabilities to plan, write, and revise opinion essays. Journal of Learning Disabilities, 29(2), 197-212.

Scholarly Reviews & Expert Opinions

Anderson, A. (1997). Learning strategies in physical education: Self-talk, imagery, and goal-setting. The Journal of Physical Education, Recreation & Dance, 68(1), 30-35.

Carroll, J., & Christenson, C. N. K. (1995). Teaching and learning about student goal setting in a fifth-grade classroom. Language Arts, 72(1), 42-49.

Dawson, P., & Guare, R. (2004). Executive skills in children and adolescents: A practical guide to assessment and intervention. New York, NY: The Guilford Press.

Elliot, A. J. (2005). A conceptual history of the achievement goal construct. In A. J. Elliot, & C. S. Dweck (Eds.), Handbook of competence and motivation (pp. 52-72). New York, NY: Guilford Press.

Lemos, M. S. (1996). Students' and teachers' goals in the classroom. Learning and Instruction, 6(2), 151-171.

Marzano, R. J. (2007). The art and science of teaching. Alexandria, VA: Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development.

Rose, D., & Rose, K. (2007). Executive function processes: A curriculum-based intervention. In L. Meltzer (Ed.), Executive function in education (pp. 287-308). New York: Guilford Press.

Schunk, D. H. (2003). Self-efficacy for reading and writing: Influence of modeling, goal setting, and self-evaluation. Reading & Writing Quarterly, 19(2), 159-172.

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Learning can be inaccessible when it requires effective and realistic goal-setting and where there are no options for individuals who differ in such executive functions. Long term and even short terms tasks can raise barriers to learning without the proper embedded support for such goal-setting.

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The new "question-of-the-week" is:
How can we use goal-setting with our students?
Research, and the practical experience of many educators, suggest that encouraging students to set their own goals can assist academic achievement and student engagement. As one student said to me last year, "When you set a goal, it just makes you want to work harder to make it."

This series will explore ways to apply this kind of goal-setting in the classroom.

Today, Dr. Sanée Bell, Kevin Parr, Rita Platt, Dr. Jennifer Davis Bowman and Matt Renwick share their ideas. You can listen to a 10-minute conversation I had with Sanée, Rita and Kevin on my BAM! Radio Show. You can also find a list of, and links to, previous shows here.
Response From Dr. Sanée Bell
Sanée Bell, Ed.D. is a middle school principal and adjunct professor who resides in Houston, Texas. Dr. Bell recognizes her impact as a leader and uses her role to inspire, motivate, and empower others. Sanée shares her thoughts on leadership on her blog saneebell.com and via Twitter @SaneeBell:
The purpose of using goal setting with students is to help understand their role during the learning process. To frame this discussion, I want to use the letters in the word G.O.A.L. to define the importance of establishing goals with our students. Growth. Without setting how goals, how will students know when they are learning and improving? We certainly cannot rely on grades to be a measure of growth. In fact, grades measure compliance more than student growth. Grades are teacher directed and involve no collaboration. On the other hand, goals should be collaborative decisions made by the teacher and the student and include various measurements of progress along the way. Ownership.Through goal setting, students become owners of their learning. They are not able to be passive participants who await for the teacher to determine if they have mastered the learning objectives. When students own their learning, they understand the standards that have been set, and through scaffolding and support from the teacher, they have a clear path on how to improve. Standards should be written in student-friendly language so that students can articulate exactly what is expected of them. Students should be given exemplars for self-evaluation and reflection, as well as a place to collect evidence that demonstrates their progress toward the learning standards. Lastly, when students are able to facilitate a student-centered conference about their progress, it gives them the opportunity to share their learning with their parents and teachers. Awareness.Typically, student awareness toward progress occurs during progress or report card time. On most occasions when students receive graded work, they often look at the grade without little thought about the learning that occurred. Goal setting helps students to be more aware of the learning that they are expected to experience. This awareness helps students to be engaged in the learning process. Mastery-oriented goals give students the opportunity to focus on learning standards and their own growth. Without goals, student motivation and engagement decreases because students are not aware of what they should be learning and have no idea about their role in the learning process. Learning.Learning cannot occur in the absence of feedback. Goal-setting with students must be accompanied with individualized, targeted feedback. Goals without feedback will not increase student achievement. Choosing a limited number of goals will help teachers focus on the most important needs of the student, and will help students focus on the most critical areas of their learning. Goals should be individualized for each student, and an entry point that is challenging but attainable for the student is a great starting place when it comes to setting goals. When students experience success, they are motivated to continue to push themselves. Setting goals with students informs teacher practice, engages and motivates students during the learning process, and creates a partnership between the teacher, student, and parents. Response From Kevin Parr As educators, our task is to empower students and help them grow into lifelong learners. The purpose for goal-setting with students should be no different. Here are a few ways teachers can use goal-setting to empower students to become lifelong learners: Expand the options: Many teachers limit student's goals to current class topics or important grade-level benchmarks. While this is a well intentioned strategy, if we are serious about empowering students we should allow them to set their own goals. When we allow them to do this their goals become personal and they are invested in accomplishing them. We can help them create goals that are important to them by expanding the options. When setting goals with students I ask them to not only think about academics but also behavior, character traits, a sport or hobby of interest or even something at home. Leverage parent support: If we want students (especially our youngest ones) to set goals that have any personal meaning, those goals need to be transferrable from school to home. In this sense, parents are a key player. One easy idea is to have students draft multiple goals and then review them with parents to identify those in which the parents can support from home. For me, these conversations have led to parents verifying goals they could support from home, excluding those they could not and adding some they felt were important to them. Goals that are meaningful for both students and parents are key in fostering long-term growth. Track and evaluate progress: For any goal, tracking and evaluating progress is key, Far too often, however, teachers dictate how students should track their progress and even set benchmarks to tell students if they are on track to accomplish their goals. If we really want students to be accountable, however, we need them to not only create their own goals but also to design ways to track their progress. Students need to consider how they will evaluate their progress, how often, who their evaluator will be, and ultimately, and if they have met their goal. In addition, students also need to reflect on if they should keep working on a goal, modify it or create a new one. Goal-setting does not only have to be a way for teachers to get students to meet an academic standard. By allowing students to set their own goals, including their parents, and developing ways to track and evaluate them, goal-setting can also help teachers achieve their higher purpose: fostering lifelong learning.

Response From Rita Platt
Rita Platt (@ritaplatt) is a Nationally Board Certified teacher and a proud #EduDork!. Her experience includes teaching learners of all levels from kindergarten to graduate student. She currently is a Library Media Specialist for the St. Croix Falls SD in Wisconsin, teaches graduate courses for the Professional Development Institute, consults with local school districts, and writes for We Teach We Learn:
Teaching students to set and meet goals is a skill that they will be able to use for the rest of their lives. I teach students to set goals in reading beginning in 2nd grade. This year, greater than 90% of students met their personal goals and enjoyed the pride and excitement that comes from knowing that they can work hard and achieve! Below, I will share my lesson sequence for goal-setting. Growth Mindset Introduce students to the concept that they can "grow their brains." Researcher, Carol Dweck, compares the brain to a muscle and reminds students that they can grow their brains. To drive this home with students, I have them read and discuss the short article, You Can Grow Your Intelligence! SMART Goals Teach students about goals and why goal-setting is important. I start by offering a student-friendly definition of the word goal. A goal is something that you work hard to be able to do. I then teach students that if goals are to be successful, they must be SMART. SMART is an acronym for Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant, and Time-bound. Students must be taught to set goals that are smart. Try It! Once they get the concept, I show students examples of simple SMART goals in reading.

I will read 5 picture books at my "just-right-level" before April 20th..

I will increase my oral reading rate from 70 WPM to 85 WPM by the end of the 2nd quarter.

I will read four books from the mystery genre by the end of the 1st quarter.

I will finish the second Harry Potter book by winter break.

I will earn 25 Accelerated Reader (AR)* points in the 3rd quarter.

Then, I ask students to think about the types of goals they would like to set. I always have students set a minimum of two per quarter. One for number of books read (or AR points) and the other for whatever they would like to work on. I share the following suggestions. Each is linked to the tools I use to help students keep track of and meet their goals. Goal-Focused Work Students set their own goals and write down a plan to meet them. I frequently remind students to check their progress. If kids (or adults!) are to meet their goals, they must be front and center. I often pair students with "accountability partners" to check in with each day. I have students "tap out" to show me their progress at the end of class. I hold students accountable to their goals. When we meet to confer, goals are at the heart of our conversations, when I talk to parents, I share goal progress, and when the goal-period is up, we assess. If goals were not met, we problem-solve together for next time. I remind students that a goal is a promise they make to themselves and my job it to help them keep it. Celebrate! When students meet their goals, it's time to CELEBRATE! How?

Pull out your cell phone and have students call home and share the good news!

Take students to see the principal or last year's teacher!

Give the student a hug, high-five, or fist-bump.

Give meaningful praise: WOW! You worked hard to meet that goal! You must be so proud! Or, Good for you! What did you do that allowed you to meet your goal?

*Food for though on AR: AR Killed My Dog and Now It's Coming for YOU! A Defense of Accelerated Reader and a Plea for Less Drama Response From Dr. Jennifer Davis Bowman
Jennifer envisions classrooms filled with thinking caps-because uniforms are uninspiring as well as students with plastic utensils-because every student deserves a seat at the learning table. As an educator with a terminal degree in Special Education and a License in School Counseling, she's written about her classroom and higher education experiences in Teaching Tolerance, ASCD, and Teach Thought. For education research and resources follow her on twitter: @DrJDavisBowman:
"But my students see goals as just something else they have to do!" The other night I overheard my husband and son talking. My son was asking for another cell phone (his screen was cracked). I knew how this conversation would end. My husband would explain how he could reach the goal. The ways would include mopping floors, working in the yard, scrubbing blah, blah, blah...Then, my son would complain-feeling forced to do the chores in order to reach his goal. But, I was wrong. The lecture changed into a challenge. My husband challenged my son to fix the broken screen. Struck with intrigue, my son took the bait. Immediately, he fired question after question: "How long does it take?" "Where do I get the repair stuff?" "Really?...you're saying I can figure it out myself?" The take-away here, for educators, is that without the challenge element, a goal is just something else we expect the learner to do. It's just another rung on a ladder or an additional landmark on the curriculum map. But, a challenge furnishes learners with the motivation to pursue the goal. Reflecting on the phone incident, I'm reminded how learning principles illustrate the power of a challenge. For my son, the challenge fueled a series of questions that demonstrated genuine interest in learning (inquiry based learning). Also, because a challenge yields mental tension between if you are able vs. if you will attempt something, my son worked to relieve this. And ultimately, he took the psychological dare. Finally, a challenge builds confidence. For my son, it only took moments to realize dad believed in his potential and thus he began to believe in his own ability too (growth mindset). Unfortunately, we're satisfied with identifying goals and overlook the opportunity to incorporate a challenge. For our students, we naively believe, if we build it, they will come. Or worse, we assume if the goal is specific and measured over and over (a consequence of both the SMART goal and the standardized testing movement) students will magically meet our academic expectations. Instead of going gently into the good night (a nod to poet Dylan Thomas), pledge to incorporate challenges with student goals. But...how? Maybe directly telling students, I challenge you to... Or asking students, "What if you push yourself a little harder and try____?" My favorite is attaching the word "challenge" to the assignment title. For instance if the assignment lasts a few weeks, it becomes "The 30 Day _____ Challenge." How have you faced the challenge of embedding challenges within your classroom goals? Response From Matt Renwick
Matt Renwick is an elementary school principal in Mineral Point, Wisconsin and author of multiple books, including 5 Myths About Classroom Technology: How do we integrate digital tools to truly enhance learning? (ASCD, 2015). Learn more about Matt on his website, mattrenwick.com, and by following him on Twitter @ReadByExample:
Used smartly and with intent, goal setting can be a game changer in engaging our students in their own learning process. Writing down goals makes them concrete. Sharing goals with peers, teachers, and family members puts more accountability on oneself. Including others in setting the goals provides a support system to help achieve them. Others become invested in their success. When students finally do achieve what they set out to accomplish, everyone celebrates. So how can we use goal setting with our students? I believe the first step in this process is asking students what they are interested in as well as their needs. In one 2nd grade classroom, one teacher I know (my wife) asked her students questions regarding their interests and needs. One student, who in previous years had significant behavior issues, said he wanted to "build more because I like to tinker". This information translated into co-developed goals between teacher and student around creativity and the importance of choice in learning. Over the course of the school year, both his behavior and academics improved dramatically. Both the process (choice) and the product (building things) were a part of this example of student-involved goal setting. Including students in the goal setting process also benefits from making the learning process and eventual outcomes visible. By visible, this means documenting student learning as it is happening and sharing their work for a wide audience. Digital portfolios are an effective way for facilitating this approach. Going back to the previous example, my wife used FreshGrade to capture images and video of her students building during Genius Hour. Families could observe the idea generation, collaboration, prototyping, and collaboration that led to an exciting product as it was happening. By making visible a student's pathway toward goal achievement, it takes the mystery out of the learning process and celebrates their work.
Thanks to Sanée, Rita, Kevin Jennifer and Matt for their contributions!

Please feel free to leave a comment with your reactions to the topic or directly to anything that has been said in this post.

Anyone whose question is selected for this weekly column can choose one free book from a number of education publishers.
Just a reminder--you can subscribe and receive updates from this blog via email or RSS Reader. And, if you missed any of the highlights from the first five years of this blog, you can see a categorized list below. They don't include ones from this current year, but you can find them by clicking on the "answers" category found in the sidebar. This Year's Most Popular Q & A Posts! Classroom Management Advice Student Motivation & Social Emotional Learning Relationships In Schools Instructional Strategies Author Interviews
Look for Part Two in a few days...

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Response: Student Goal-Setting in the Classroom (Opinion)

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The new "question-of-the-week" is: How can we use goal-setting with our students? Research, and the practical experience of many educators, suggest that encouraging students to set their own goals can assist academic achievement and student engagement. As one student said to me last year, "When you set a goal, it just makes you want to work harder to make it."

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article about middle school students setting goals

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article about middle school students setting goals

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A MiddleWeb Blog

With a new year comes the typical task of making resolutions, right? Well, not for me. The truth is I have learned that I am much more successful without making resolutions.

Resolutions feel too regimented, and they often lead to the stress of needing to do something different - something "better" simply because it's a new year. Yet all too often, the hustle and bustle of everyday responsibilities yield little or no wiggle room.

And resolutions often fizzle out way before February even comes to an end. Does that sound familiar? For me it makes sense to avoid the "New Year = new me" promises and take a more realistic approach. Here's what I do.

Goal-setting all year long

I set goals throughout the year. It is a way of life rather than a potentially pressurizing New Year "do it to prove something to yourself" kind of thing. It's about what I can do on a consistent basis to create positive habits and successful routines that help me to achieve the results I am looking for.

Most important, it's about continually evolving and growing. And with this process comes the excitement of making resolutions to myself anytime. I do not feel the pressure of a New Year to-do list. I just strive to stay mindful of my flexible process all year long.

Year round goal making for students, too

For me it's about setting goals and pacing ongoing personal and professional growth in ways that are meaningful, relevant, and sustaining. And as educators, this is exactly the kind of thinking we need to instill in our students.

We want to set students up so they develop that determined resiliency they need to be successful. Setting goals, then evolving and redefining goals as the realities of learning unfold through our actions. If you are looking for a relevant text to get the conversation started with your students, check out what Michael Jordan has to say about setting goals and maintaining the pursuit of excellence.

In our role as guides and facilitators, we need to take every opportunity to help students notice and monitor their goals and achievements. Here are some tips for co-teachers (or any teacher) to help students become self-regulators and learn to trigger their executive functioning skills.

Five ways to help students focus on goals

1. Learn how to foster a Growth Mindset. Focus on students' strengths, progress, and the process of learning. Notice the small steps students take toward achieving their personal best. In today's test crazed school environment, it takes conviction and perseverance to maintain a growth mindset. Be the example, and set your students up for the learning behaviors they will truly need as they create a successful future.

2. Have them use individual goal sheets. Work with students to isolate personal and academic goals for themselves within intervals throughout the year. Writing goals can help prepare their minds and attitudes for actions that, over time, solidify a self-regulated and disciplined learner. Check out how to create SMART goals (from UC San Diego's TRIO Outreach Programs) that launch your students toward maintaining healthy habits of mind!

3. Have them jot down 'success' notes. A simple monthly calendar is an easy way for students to keep track of their success. They can jot down one way they made progress-it could be content they mastered, a new concept they finally understand, a new vocabulary word they can use in context-or anything that shows they moved forward in some way. Just imagine how they will feel at the end of the month when they can reflect on a month's worth of individual progress. Talk about motivating and instilling a love of learning!

4. Have them chart a goal. Have students (or you) select a goal and then monitor progress each day or week using a simple checklist or line graph to document their performance. For example, if the goal is to come to class prepared with necessary materials, a student can track his progress in achieving his preparedness goal with ease. Here's a great link that shares paper-based and digital apps that are perfect for individual goal-setting and progress monitoring-enjoy!

5. Have them write about their learning journey. Journaling is a relaxing way to get students to reflect on their effort to reach valuable goals. Students may jot down their thoughts about their learning experiences for the day or the week. Journaling provides time for students to sift through the noise in their minds and allows them to focus on specific reasons to feel disappointed or to celebrate their academic performance and focus on their progress.

Writing in a personal journal or diary encourages metacognition - the ability to step back and look at ourselves - and leads to learning from mistakes and to feeling encouraged (rather than discouraged) when we receive an undesirable grade or have to do something over again.

Journaling can also empower students to find the language that can lead to positive actions toward persevering. But don't take my word for it. Here's a post from Todd Finley, who argues that classroom journaling is a must!
What goal-setting routines do you follow? Or are you a die-hard resolution maker? How will you encourage goal setting with students as 2015 rolls out?
Please share your perspective and stories with us! Looking forward to the conversation!

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5 Ways to Help Students Set Learning Goals

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A MiddleWeb Blog With a new year comes the typical task of making resolutions, right? Well, not for me. The truth is I have learned that I am much more successful without making resolutions. Resolutions feel too regimented, and they often lead to the stress of needing to do something different - something "better" simply because it's a new year.

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We've all heard the acronym SMART for goal setting. You may have even used it with students in helping them create and achieve their own goals.

But I've found that effective goal-setting needs a little something more. I have a close friend who works in the corporate world, and I frequently turn to her for advice in my own decisionmaking and goal setting. She encouraged me to create "action plans" and "action items" for each goal I want to achieve.

These techniques worked well for me, so I've transferred them to my classroom. Now my students use these concrete steps to reach their goals, giving them hope, teaching them perseverance, and helping them practice skills they can use in college and in their careers.

Here are 10 tips for creating action plans and action items with students.

1. Use verb-noun structure. Action items must drive the student to action-not simply be part of a "to do" list. Each action item should begin with a verb: "Attend every class," "Review notes with study partner before major tests," "Finish homework each night."

General goals are important, but students should also focus on goals that are specific to their classes. When I return corrected papers to my students, I make a list of three action items for improvement, such as: "Proofread to catch run-on sentences," "Provide literary evidence to support your claim," and "Point to broader implications in your conclusion." A student can create similar action items to improve in any subject.

2. Plan strategically and tactically. The strategic part of goal-setting asks students to plan with the big picture in mind: "Get an A in English," "Write an accurate lab report," "Complete 26 hours of community service," "Join the track team."

The tactical part of an action plan asks students to break that big picture into smaller, doable increments. If the student's action plan includes "Get an A in English," his/her action items need to include the steps to achieve that goal: "Read 10 pages each night to finish my book on time, "Annotate each soliloquy," "Attend extra help sessions."

3. Recognize when help is needed. Sometimes students aren't able to accomplish their goals without help from other people or sources. For example, if a student's action item is to earn a 700 on the Math SAT, he or she may need to get a tutor or use the College Board's My College Quick Start program in order to reach that goal.

4. Stop and reassess. About once a month, stop and reassess action plans with students. Sometimes circumstances and variables change, and those changes can affect students' goals. Make both you and the student ask questions like, "Are you still going down the right path?" "Have any variables changed that will affect your plan?"

5. Review action plans regularly. It's also important for students to regularly check in with their action plans. I used to tell students to keep their action plans in the front of their binders so they could see them and think about them often. Now I encourage students to keep their plans in the Notes section of their iPads or smartphones where they can be reminded of them frequently.

6. Include a timeline. Some action plans and action items may be ongoing, while others have specific time requirements. For example, for seniors applying to college, action items with deadlines are critical. Make sure students include timelines when applicable, and encourage them to sync those timelines with their calendars to achieve the best results.

7. Identify obstacles to success. Creating action items is key-but identifying what stands in the way of students' success is also an important piece of the puzzle.

A student may articulate a goal of raising a grade from a D to a B. If the student determines the grade is low because he or she isn't doing enough homework, dig deeper to find out why. Is it because they have a boyfriend or girlfriend who is distracting them? Is the student is spending too much time on social media or playing video games? Is it because the student has to take care of younger brothers or sisters or work outside the home? Once students identify obstacles, you can help them determine how to eliminate or circumvent roadblocks.

8. Include parents and families. Having student action plans with strong action items can help offset the negative feelings and anxiety that parent-teacher conferences sometimes cause (for both parents and teachers). Focusing on an action plan allows students and parents to work out action items and fosters a true collaborative spirit. It also restores power to the student, lessens resentment, and gives hope.

9. Aim for progress-not perfection. Sometimes improvement takes time. Students may not be able to accomplish all the action items on their action plans. Aiming for progress-rather for than for perfection-will allow students to maintain perspective, celebrate achievements, and continue persevering towards their goals.

10. Have fun! Not all goals have to be academic. Students can create action plans for relaxation and fun, too. One of my students included the goal "Learn to moonwalk." I think I'll add that to my action plan for 2015!

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10 Tips for Setting Successful Goals With Students (Opinion)

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We've all heard the acronym SMART for goal setting. You may have even used it with students in helping them create and achieve their own goals. But I've found that effective goal-setting needs a little something more. I have a close friend who works in the corporate world, and I frequently turn to her for advice in my own decisionmaking and goal setting.