Investing Students in their Growth
InTASC Standard 6: The teacher understands and uses multiple methods of assessment to engage learners in their own growth, to monitor learner progress, and to guide the teacher’s and learner’s decision making.
Introduction
This final step of assessment is investing students in their own growth. We live in a culture where it is fairly typical to learn information for an assessment and then immediately forget it. This is a problem that starts at a young age and persists throughout our educations. I have been guilty of this tactic to get a good grade and I have seen my students do it as well. If we develop these habits early, they are difficult to break down the line, and may persist through college and beyond. The following techniques have been designed to have students take a more active role in their education and their assessments. I encourage frequent self-reflection to make my assessment system as authentic as possible for students.
Learning Target Logs
It is important for students to take a role in their education and to reflect on their progress. Self-reflection is a valuable skill that I strive to help my students develop. Learning target logs serve a dual purpose in my classroom—they allow students to reflect on their progress towards content mastery while also providing a tool that I can use for planning how to allocate time and provide additional support to students who feel like they need it.
Students' learning target logs for Unit One
Whiteboard configuration with daily learning targets (objectives), agenda, and standards
I utilize learning target logs to clearly outline academic expectations from the BOY, MOY and EOY. Students rate their understanding of each learning target we have covered so far on a scale of 1 through 4. This allows them to determine which targets they have met and which they need more practice with, to meet the standard, before the end of the unit. Students store these learning target logs in their binders—which are stored in a file cabinet in the back of my room—see below for elaboration. This allows me to easily flip through the binders and see if students feel they have mastered each learning target. These self-reflections by students help me determine how to allocate time of instruction during the following lesson. Also, unfortunately, with average class sizes of over 40 students, it is not possible to have deep conversations with every student, every day. Checking the learning target logs is a way to get an understanding of how each student feels they are doing in the course
Furthermore, giving students a list of all learning targets on day one of a unit allows them to know exactly what they are expected to know and when they need to know it. During a unit nearly every lesson builds on the previous one—I want this to be as transparent as possible to students. By allowing students to see where we are going in the unit, they see the need of each lesson and how they all link together to build towards our end goals.
Students are provided a new learning target log at the beginning of each unit. By providing students a learning target log at the beginning of the unit they are made aware of the unit goals and outcomes. This gives them an idea of why each lesson is necessary and how it connects to the larger unit of study.
We discuss daily learning targets at the beginning of each lesson and reference them frequently throughout the class. After the catalyst activity, we take a few minutes to discuss the learning targets that will be addressed during the lesson and talk about how it builds on previous content. The learning target is written on the front board—the bottom left corner of the picture below—and is referenced frequently throughout the lesson so students are reminded of what the goal is by the end of the lesson.
This form of assessment has a slight modification for English Language Learners and students with IEPs. Students in these categories are required to get my initials next to their learning target log self-assessment scores at the end of each class. This ensures that we have a brief, daily check-in to discuss their progress if necessary. If a student has very low rankings, this individual check-in allows us to schedule a time for them to come in and work on improving their understanding. I also frequently have additional resources on hand that I can give to students who do not feel as if they understand.
Binder Checks
Binder check reminder sign that hangs above my desk
Binder storage cabinets in my classroom
While we have textbooks at my school for compliance reasons, they not aligned with the Next Generation Science Standards and thus we do not use them in my classroom. Instead, every student has a three-ring binder that we use to store all guided notes, class work, labs, homework, and assessments to create our own reference guide. These binders serve multiple purposes for myself and for students.
As stated on the sign on the left, which hangs above my desk—every Wednesday I check students’ binders. Students bring their binders up to my desk and I flip through to ensure they have all notes and other handouts organized correctly. Binder checks are a completion grade and students score either zero or five depending on if their binders have all the required handouts.
Organization is an incredibly important skill. It also happens to be a skill in which many of my students do not excel. For this reason, I made learning organizational skills a focus of my class. Every student having a binder that we organize together enables us to quickly flip back and reference old material as needed. I briefly flip through all the binders every Wednesday to make sure students are keeping up with their organization. Students score points for having properly organized binders with all notes and papers. This allows me to assess students and hold them accountable for making up missing work and keeping materials for the class neatly organized.
When I first began this system, many students would leave their binders at home—rendering the system useless. To remedy this, I assigned each class period a drawer in a file cabinet in the back of my classroom. Students leave their binders in my room so they do not have the excuse that they left them at home. This also allows me to easily access student work if I need to check a student’s progress. Students need to ask permission to take their binders home—unless we are approaching a summative assessment.
Finally, a weekly verbal binder check provides a built in time to do one-on-one check-ins with each of my students. With average class sizes of over 40, I do not get to provide as much individualized attention as I would prefer in an ideal world. This system allows me to speak to each student about his or her progress every Wednesday.
Remediation
When I first started teaching, I utilized the grading methods I was familiar with from my own journey through the US public education system. I was given firm due dates for homework, labs, classwork, and quizzes. These assessments were graded and entered into the grade book. Students were penalized if they were not able to master a certain aspect of the content by the due date for the activity. I realized this was not the best method for assessment and began looking for alternatives. Students should be held accountable for mastering the standard, not the amount of time it takes them to reach that understanding. Each student has a different learning style and the approach to their education should reflect their individual needs.
Absent work/notes box to get work to redo
Section of my course syllabus that discusses remediation
In my classroom, students are allowed to resubmit homework, classwork, labs, etc. until the end of the unit. This allows more room for students to feel comfortable making mistakes and learning from them. If a student turns in an activity, I will provide feedback and return it promptly. If they are happy with their grade, they can organize the handout into the appropriate section of their binder. If they want to improve their score, they can look over the feedback and reattempt the assignment. I have a "absent work/notes" box in the front of my classroom—shown in the picture on the left. There are extra copies of every set of guided notes, labs, classwork, and other materials. Students know they can go to this box at any time to get papers for assignments they missed or they wish to redo. This allows for increased student investment in their learning because they are consistently given the choice to grow and improve.
Furthermore, students at my school tend to wait until the last possible minute before going to teachers to see how to raise their grades before the end of the semester. When I first started, I noticed that students who were failing would come to me the last week of a semester asking how they could get their grade up to passing. Many times there was nothing they could do—it was too late. By implementing a system of remediation from day one that students are familiar with I avoid this question. Students know exactly what they need to do and when they need to do it to improve their grade in my class.
Finally, if a student wants or needs additional support or practice they know they can come to my office hours every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday during lunch or ask me to schedule a time to meet that works for both of us. Allowing students to make up work in this environment, until the end of the unit, enables students to work at a pace that fits their learning needs and allows them to work to improve their grades if they desire. The section of my syllabus on the left outlines part of this remediation plan.
Growth Mindset
Slides used to introduce growth mindset to the class
Chemistry is a difficult topic. Many students come into my classroom with a fixed mindset based on their past experiences with math or science and they assume they will not do well. Being one of these students myself when I was in high school, I know how counterproductive this feeling can be for success. I wanted to address these concerns as early as possible. To make sure no student has the same negative experience I had in high school chemistry, I have worked to create a classroom climate where all students are comfortable to learn, have fun, and be themselves. It is OK to be wrong in my class. If you answer a question wrong, the worst thing that will happen is you will learn from your mistake. If a student answers a question incorrectly they should not feel embarrassed. Rather, we use it as a learning experience to grow together. “I can’t” statements are not allowed in my classroom. This culture of positivity has greatly increased my ability to teach. We have worked frequently on developing growth mindsets and tackling problems with a positive outlook. Students have seen that—while chemistry can be difficult—it is manageable with hard work and persistence.
I begin each school year with the lesson on growth mindset—located in the slides on the left. We reference back to this frequently throughout the year.
Annotated student sample of growth mindset introduction activity
The document on the left shows the activity that students completed during our class discussing growth mindset to become more familiar with the concept. Students had the option to complete the activity electronically—and submit it via our online grade book, Schoology—or fill out a paper copy. Reflecting on this activity, I have identified several areas for improvements. For the past two years, I have done this lesson and activity for half of the class period and content for the other half. In the future, I would like to amend this plan and implement the growth mindset lesson for the first half of the period and a goal setting lesson and activity for the second half. While discussing growth mindset is beneficial, I think adding in an additional explicit time for goal setting would fully round out the activity and increase student investment in their own growth even further.
Individualized Motivation Techniques
Establishing a positive classroom climate and culture is another method I use to invest students in their own growth. While some students are intrinsically motivated by the desire to master the content and others are motivated to succeed by the desire to get good grades, it is also helpful to increase student investment in their own growth by using unconventional and individualized techniques. Students in my classes are allowed to create challenges and rewards for themselves to motivate growth. Several of these individualized motivation techniques are displayed in the images below.
Advisory Pizza Party
Every semester, students in the small learning community in which I teach complete a cross-disciplinary project-based learning (PBL) assessment. Students must research a topic aligned to the semester-long theme, incorporate information from multiple core content areas, and create a project and presentation. These projects are graded on a scale of one to four. Last spring, I challenged my advisory students to all receive scores of three or higher on their PBL. I allowed them to vote on their prize if they accomplished this goal. Students decided they wanted a pizza party if they obtained the desired outcome. This additional piece of motivation drastically increased student investment in their own growth. Typically, my students do not enjoy PBL, however, they used this reward as an additional driving factor to motivate them. Engagement was the highest I have ever experienced for PBL. All of my students scored three or higher—with all groups except for two obtaining the highest score possible. They definitely earned their party. We ended up getting a piñata, purchasing pizza, playing music, getting a Snapchat geotag, and having a great time. Students also included their families in the fun. Many parents and families cooked food and students shared various dishes. This method showed me how powerful incorporating a secondary goal, alongside academic goals, can be for investing students in their own growth.
Me with the students who thought of the tiara challenge to increase investment
Another student-generated motivation technique, shown in the picture on the left, had to do with written summative assessment scores. The Big Goal for my course is for all students to pass with a grade of “C” or higher. My sixth period typically did not do well on written assessments. I asked them to create a challenge and reward for our acid/base unit. Eventually, after several rounds of voting, I agreed that if all students scored a “C” or better on the unit written summative assessment I would wear a tiara at school for an entire week. I still do not know why this motivated students but it definitely did. Many students from my sixth period came in for additional support during office hours and during lunch. Several students were very invested in getting me to wear the tiara and used this motivation to encourage their classmates to pay attention during class, review and to help their peers study. As evidenced by the picture on the left, all students in that class scored a “C” or better and I upheld my end of the deal. While these techniques are slightly unorthodox I have seen significant gains in student achievement through implementation of these challenges. I look forward to seeing what challenges students think up in the future.
Reflection
Investing students in their own growth is an essential part to helping my students develop into well-rounded individuals who will succeed in life beyond my classroom walls. I could spend countless hours planning lessons and implementing learning opportunities for students but this time would mean nothing if students did not care to learn the information. Effectively implementing strategies to invest students in their own growth requires knowing the actual groups of students in my classroom and the specific techniques that will work to motivate them. I consistently try to change and adapt my system and personal philosophy to incorporate methods that suit the needs of each new set of students.