Setting Classroom Goals

Setting Classroom Goals

 I don't know how many teachers in my school actually do so, but it is *supposedly* a requirement at my school to set classroom goals.  I always do it, and I find it really helps my students.  They have a target to shoot for and they have a measuring stick by which to see their individual progress.  I have an overall goal for them, and they set goals for each of their unit tests.

I teach almost exclusively sophomores.  As they are high school students and able to do so as a class, I actually have the students set their own goals.  Now, I do tell them that my ultimate goal is for ALL of them to pass the end of course exam.

How do you get tenth graders to set realistic goals for their progress on unit tests?  I share the class's overall average score and the percentage of students who passed the previous test.  I give a pre-test during the first week of school and I use that to start off the goal-setting.  Then I ask them what they think a reasonable goal is for both the class average and percentage of students passing.  They are surprisingly hard on themselves and choose steep goals.  (At least they do that first time around!)

I then ask them what they would like for a reward if they make their goals, and I give them some options like a homework pass or extra bathroom pass (I only give them six a semester) or I offer to dress up in an embarrassing/silly costume.

Then, when they take their unit tests and I have them graded and the data collected, we review as a class and see if we made our goals.  If we did, then they get their reward and we set new goals for the next unit.  If we didn't, we reassess and try to figure out why and shoot for the goals next time.

My students don't question "Why are we doing this?" any more.  They seem more motivated and they even like to compete with other class periods so that they aren't the "lowest" class.  I post their goals on a board in the room for them to see and I bring up their goals often as a reminder of what they are working toward.

I had three classes want me to dress up this last time.  It was a hoot.  They loved that I followed through and looked ridiculous for them.  Some even took their pictures with me.  I'm sure there are now crazy photos of me all over Facebook.  I even, sadly, had some teachers giving me weird looks, shaking their heads, talking badly about what I was doing behind my back (they thought I wouldn't figure that out), and saying things to my face like "I would never do that," or "You're too nice."  Umm...it's called POSITIVE BEHAVIOR SUPPORT.  I am rewarding their GOOD behaviors.  That's what teachers do.  They MOTIVATE students in any and every way they can.  And dressing up like a ridiculous goofball is something I can do for FREE.  I am guessing some teachers are just jealous that I have the courage to be silly in front of my students.  But I'll tell you what, I have a great rapport with my kiddos and they love me and my silliness anyway.

                                                                

                                                                                 Clown/Caveman/Batman

Caveman

Rapper

Using Memes to Review

Last semester, I tried a different approach to reviewing before a test.  I found a bunch of blank memes and had the students use characters and texts to provide the phrase that would go on the memes.

For example, I gave this image:

And the following:
CHARACTER: The Council    TEXT: Anthem    MEME: One does not simply…

The students each got a sticky note and had to complete the meme using the information.  I used about five different memes in each class and, because I teach four different sections, I was able to use different memes with each class.  We had read three different texts in this particular unit, so there was a lot to choose from in terms of characters from the texts.

Once the students wrote on each separate sticky, I hung up the pictures and had the students place their individual sticky notes under the corresponding image.  Finally, each student got a highlighter and, for each meme, they got to place a tally mark on the sticky note they felt best showed information from the text.

For example, the winning response for the image above was:  One does not simply create a light bulb.  We just got through figuring out the candles!  I then made a nice poster for each winning response and had them up in the room for a few weeks.

The students got to review the texts and characters, synthesize information from the texts, evaluate the best answers, and had fun playing around with memes.

A Different Way to Do Socratic Discussions

When I came across this idea for Socratic seminars, I knew I wanted to try a version of it in my classroom.  It is called a BRAWL (Battle Royale, All Will Learn).  It is a way to set up text discussions that, while slightly competitive, gives students an opportunity to really think about the text.

I started with a reading schedule:

I wanted to students to come up with their own questions to lead the discussion, but I didn't want questions about just anything.  That is where the book Notice and Note by Kylene Beers and Bob Probst was helpful.  I took their signposts, and made each a category of question.  I also added Author Purpose as a category, as that was one skill where my students needed extra practice.

I put students into groups of about five after they had read the particular section and had each group come up with one question per category.  They wrote these on index cards and placed them on a big whiteboard in my room, under the correct category.  To keep track of which questions went with each group, I color-coordinated markers (Pink group, Purple Group, etc).  At the end of the day, I typed up the questions in a color-coordinated chart, gave a 1-2-3 score for each question, and gave this list back to the students the next day.  The 1-2-3 score coordinates with Jim Burke's Levels of Questioning, which my class had used before.  The chart looks like this:

This is where the competitive factor comes in.  Groups were competing to earn the most points.  Group points came from 1) Each student coming into class with at least 5 questions over the section read.  2) The levels of questions each group had.  3) The students participating in the group discussion later.

Students had a class period to look over the questions and discuss answers with their groups.  They took notes and used sticky notes to find text support for their answers.

The next day, the students had a modified Socratic.  Each group had one representative chosen to be in the inner circle to represent the group (this was done randomly).  The inner circle responses were worth more points.  Each inner circle member had to answer one question and had the opportunity to add to another group's answer (but could only do so two times).  I pulled the questions from the ones the students created in class.  After the inner circle got to respond to a question, the outer circle members could respond.  Each outer circle member got two talking chips to use for the entire conversation (to prevent a few students from overtaking the discussion).  Students got points for participating and for the caliber of their responses.

Because the students didn't know who would be chosen for the discussion, every student had to be prepared.  Because they got more points for referring to specific examples in the book and referring to page numbers, quoting the book, etc. they were more likely to use specific examples and to use the book to guide the discussion.  Because the groups were tracking points, it allowed for students to be a little competitive and to try and outwit other groups.

The depth of analysis and the range of discussion skills my students were able to show definitely made this time-intensive preparation worth it.

Data Folders Presentation

I gave a presentation in February at the Write to Learn Conference 2015.  It was a fantastic experience.

I presented on my classroom research over the use of data folders in the high school ELA classroom.


I received feedback on my presentation recently.

Overall, this was a very positive response.  While there were things I would have liked to fix about the presentation, I feel it was well received and showed that many teachers are wanting to know how to incorporate and use data effectively in their classrooms.

The Beginnings of Data Tracking (2013)

Tracking Student Progress

Hand in hand with goal setting comes tracking your students' progress.  I mean, how do you know if your students have met their goals unless you check?

The school already requires the teachers who teach similar classes to give common assessments and to track the students' scores on them.  We keep track of average scores, % of students who are advanced, proficient, close to proficient, far to go, and missed the boat (our own terminology for it).  I have been doing this for each of my classes, as well as keeping a running total.

I have also been keeping track of how well my students are doing on certain standards.  I chose a handful of standards my students need that go throughout the entire year.  I call them power standards, although I'm not sure I'm necessarily using the phrase correctly.

How do I track the power standards?  Well, for each of the common assessments (we make our unit tests our common assessments, as well as our final exams), I figured out which questions matched up with one of my power standards.  I then tracked how many students in each class missed these questions.  I could then keep a running total of the accuracy percentage of my students on each standard.

It sounds difficult, but it's really not.  It's just a little time consuming.  For example, on our Short Story Unit Test, question #s 1, 7, 12 and 15 were on characterization.  I tracked how many students missed each of these particular questions.  If 12 out of 23 of my students in a particular class missed question #1, 15 of them missed #7, 2 missed #12, and  none of them missed #15, then my students in that class had a 68.5% accuracy (meaning the amount they got correct) on characterization.

I could then track how each class did on each of the standards for each of the tests.  This way I could track their progress over the semester.  Again, it was a lot of math, a lot of tic-marks, and a bit time consuming, but it was well worth it.  I find it absolutely fascinating to see how my students are doing.  My students find it absolutely fascinating as well (no lie--they want to see their progress).  Plus, it's super motivating for them.

Want to know what it looks like?  Well, here are some of the graphs I made just by entering the data into excel and having it create some for me.

This is an example from one of my classes, tracking how many students were at each level on each test. 

This is what it looks like when I track test score averages for each class on each test.

This is the tracking on all of the skills that were on the final by each class.  This way I can see which classes did better on the skills.  Maybe then I can pinpoint WHY one class did better than another on a skill.

This is an example of the power standards proficiency levels on each test for a particular class.  This way I can see improvement (or not) on each power standard.  The hope is to see improvement over time.  This isn't always the case, though, especially since the tests get increasingly more difficult over time.

My Version of Discussion: The Not-So-Socratic Seminar

My Version of Discussion: The Not-So-Socratic Seminar

To alleviate trying to get through a class discussion (or Socratic Seminar), I have created a way to encourage my students to have group discussions. I took a few different ideas from other places and put them together into one strategy.

After reading a section of the assigned text, I discuss levels of questioning with my students.  I got this idea from Jim Burke.  Then, I have my students each ask one inductive or analytical question about the reading.  They will write these questions on individual white boards or on either half-sheets of paper or sticky notes instead.

Then I get the students into groups of four.  They have two minutes to read each question the group members have created and decide, as a group, which question is the best question, or the question they are most interested in answering.

Once each group has decided on a question, they get a notecard; they write the group question on one side of the notecard.  Then they get time for each individual to write their answer to the group question on their whiteboards--about a minute or so.  Then they are given time to share their answers in their groups.  As a group, they have to synthesize everyone's answer into one "BEST answer," which they place on the back of their notecards. I give about three or four minutes for this.

I collect notecards and disperse them out to the other groups (this way each group will get a new question).  I hand out four sticky notes to each group and one regular sized piece of paper.  The group reads the question and, without turning over the card to see the answer, each group member writes his/her answer on their own sticky note.  After a minute or so, I call time and have the group members each put their sticky notes on one corner of the paper.  This way all four corners have a sticky note with an answer to the question on it.  Like this:

Then the group members synthesize their answers into the best answer (like in the picture).  They can then compare their answer to the answer on the notecard. If it is the same, great.  If it is different, the group needs to explain why their answer is the more correct answer on the back of their sheet of paper.  This may take five or more minutes to complete.  Groups then turn all their work back in to me.

In this way, groups are writing, discussing, analyzing, inferring, synthesizing, and evaluating.