Please post thoughts, comments, & questions regarding Module 2: Establishing and Communicating Learning Goals and Module 3: Designing & Using Formative Assessments.
*Remember to check back to see others' comments and you can also reply to someone's comment.
*This is all of Design Question 1, pages 9-46.
I found both of these modules to be interesting, but I did have some questions about what they recommend for students as to if it would work with our students and time.
ReplyDeleteModule 2: Establishing and Communicating Learning Goals
I believe that I have effectively used learning goals/objectives in my classroom. Given I'm better at the beginning of the year and taper off as the year become busier and busier. I don't use the "SWBAT" term but more "I can" statements. This way when we discuss if we met our goal, students say "I can" do this or "I can not" do whatever goal we had listed. Within my goal, I do list "how" they will be working on that goal for the day since our goals last more than one lesson.
Writing and using a scale for the learning goals is something new to me. We discuss our goals as a class or individually (learning statements in agendas) but we do not have a formal scale to make assess how we did with our goals. I think this is something that would be helpful to facilitate discussions about their learning and better help them get used to speaking the "why" which our student have difficulty doing anyways. This is something that I think would be fun to incorporate in my room.
My question for this module was about having students identify individual learning goals and having them rate themselves on how successful they were. I wonder how this would work in our schedule. How would we do it effectively and timely? I see this as more of a secondary aspect then of an elementary aspect. Or maybe for our enriched students learning?
Module 3: Designing and using Formative Assessments
I like the idea of bumping up my formative assessments. I usually fall into only giving summative assessments. When looking at how to design them and scoring them, I'm leaning more towards the different levels are assessed separately. I fell like that lends itself to more of a scaffolding approach. I think it'll be easier to reteach the goal at that point as well. If the class or group of students are successful at the 2.0 scale, then you know you need to reflect on how to reach the students in a different way or a deeper approach.
I enjoyed reading the variety of types of assessments as well. I noted that the probing discussion would be something I'd use with my Sped kiddos or those who are not good at the written form but can articulate what and how they solve the question. Then on the other end use the student-generated task for the students who needed enrichment or an higher order thinking process.
For the grading aspect, I think I would stick to how I do my grades already - based on homework and classwork. I would add the formative assessments to it though, but not base their entire grade on those.
My questions for this section was based on the student tracking progress and celebrations. I think I need more clarification on the ending final score. The way I read it, it was like they could choose their ending point. Wouldn't it be the end of the unit? Or when the last formative assessment was given?
As to celebrations...I like how the school referenced had "honor roll". I think that would be something fun we could incorporate at Irving or at least in the intermediate grades (primary not sure how often you'd have data). Or do them during the celebration assemblies?? This would give us great data for the STAT nights though. :)
I found the part about students choosing their own learning goal intriguing, too. In 2nd grade, it's hard to have kids come up with their own learning goal related to the learning. I was thinking that this could be very powerful in connecting student learning to something they find relevant. I also thought that we (well, I know I don't) don't take time as teachers to give students the opportunity to make related goals. Something for me to try next year.....
DeleteAmy I like how you referred to the learning statements in our agendas. So often my kids would try and just repeat what I already had written on the board, but I really wanted them to reflect! This is something I need to explicitly teach, I think.
DeleteMuch of what I read seemed like it would take quite a bit of time. Working it all into our schedule would be quite daunting I presume.
Jessica - Yeah I was feeling a little overwhelmed with everything they mentioned we should be doing with our students when it came to the learning goals. I'm wondering about time as a factor as well.
DeleteAfter reading Modules 2-3 I'm not sure how much I will be able to implement in my room since I mostly teach reading protocol programs. But there were some things I did like and wonder if I can use somehow. I agree that we don't seem to have time for some of the things discussed.
DeleteI can be sure to clearly articulate learning goals to my students and I need to do a better job of this. I'm not sure that I would create a rubric or scale for the learning goals. For some programs, we add or change skills every 2 days, sometimes it's 5 depending on the program. I don't think rubrics would be valuable for our programs.
Module 3 talked about formative assessments. I can see that this would be valuable with my math groups (maybe I'll have more next year!). And I agree with Amy-I like the probing discussion idea. That would be easy for me to use in math groups to check for understanding. When students are working with a partner or individually, I would also be able to use the unobtrusive observation.
I think the part bout the rubrics being in student friendly language is very powerful. It made me think of the ARG 6 trait writing rubric and how wordy it is. I knew a 5th grade teacher who went through that rubric with her kids and they changed the words and illustrated to give visuals for each area. It was amazing, and so much more clear for the kids to understand what was expected of them.
DeleteAs far as individual learning goals that was overwhelming to me. I kept wondering how are you going to find material that is on their level for them to work with???
In module 3, Amy I like the idea of incorporating the honor roll theme into the celebration assemblies. I think we would have to be careful not to say their actual grades, just maybe how much growth they had. AIMS Web increases in math and reading would be good places to celebrate. On a weeky basis, I always have the kids chart their scores so they can see where there goal is, in comparison to where they are at, and they have an awesome visual for them to see their growth.
Yeah, I think it'll take a lot of explicit instruction in his to make personal learning goals upfront. It'd be interesting to see if that helps the motivation of some students at the end of the year and holds off the spring fever.
ReplyDeleteI am still quite a bit behind in my reading...I do state my learning goals but I haven't posted them for several years. When thinking about this the last several years I really have only focus on decoding. Pre Decoding I was much better at posting the goals for the week in all subjects and then changing them as needed during the week, if needed. That is something that I think I will work on this year,
ReplyDeleteAs for identifying their own learning goals with the little ones this can be a bit hard. BUT I think maybe it could be done with their AIMS PM. I had several last year, (and they were LOW) who were very interested in what their scores were and when they could move from PSF to NWF.
I think the scales for grading were an interesting idea. I do a lot of observational data collection as it is, and sitting down and actually making one for what I am looking at would definitely provide some clarity to my grade book, and help my firsties know what I am looking for.
I still have to read Module 3... That is on tap for today's work out reading. Well maybe... :) I might just read for enjoyment and finish #3 later at acting class! LOL.
It is frustrating (for me) that so many of these types of books are written towards secondary educators. I realize it's easier to give examples for with chapters of novels and parts of history ect... But IMHO it's often an area of PD that gets left out, and primary teachers are forever modifying it to it our age group! Not that we don't all do some modifying to fit our situations but I have become a master at in 20 years.
I'm glad you mentioned discussing & setting goals with your firsties for PM. I was really diligent about that this year and I think it made a BIG impact! I kept my students' weekly progress monitoring (PM) passages in a notebook and before they would read the next week, we'd look at the previous score and find that word on the new passage. Nearly every time we did this, they would go farther than the word pointed out on the new passage. I started last year with 8 kids being PM on NWF and 3 more at 1st grade, and everyone moved up; only 3 were on 1st grade passages by the end of the year and all the rest of my students were being PM on 2nd grade passages.
ReplyDeleteI think that is a great strategy Kim.
DeleteThis conversation is exciting to me to hear. I get the overwhelmed feeling you may have. I have had it when I was first learning about these expectations. My overwhelmed feelings were for you and how you could make sure this happens. I have some background knowledge from videos that I have watched of Marzano's that show the goal setting with elementary students. It will become fluent and easy. Remember they will only occur with each unit. So if you are beginning a unit on measurement you would set the scale for the whole unit. You may go back and check during the unit and see how students are feeling about their learning. I keep trying to think about how I can implement this learning with adults. How can we set goals for our learning this year on Marzano, on the Comprehension toolkits, etc. How can we challenge ourselves to learn? Great thinking and great conversation. I am excited to see how I can incorporate this learning.
ReplyDeleteI am sooo behind! But trying to catch up. I have had many of the same thoughts and questions that have been mentioned here. The time factor is a big question. I appreciated the differenciation between learning goals and activities. I think it is easy to get focused on the activities, especially in primary. The learning goals seem to line up with our content/language objectives that we already use. I see the benefit of rubrics, but I don't see creating one for everything. I don't know if kinder students need to see them. It could be useful for key skills,perhaps but again the question is how to fit it in with what we are already doing. I like the goal setting idea, but it would definitely need to be adjusted and simplified for kinder. I see setting goals for each quarter or semester. I thought of also having some year-long goals that we could check up on each quarter. I don't see kinder students setting their own goals, but we could begin introducing this idea somehow.
ReplyDeleteThis is the third time I have tried to comment. UGH! Computer and Google issues .
ReplyDeleteI love the idea of goal setting but with only 45 minutes a week it becomes difficult. I have so much I want to share and teach with the students that it is hard to chose to do less so you can do it better but that is probably what I should do. I also think at the beginning students will have trouble coming up with their own goals but with practice and experience that should become easier.
valerie davisJuly 1, 2015 at 3:51 PM
ReplyDeleteModule 2: I know effective instruction begins with clear learning goals. I preview the whiteboard/schedule each day with students after the bell rings. We look at what we will accomplish in each subject area and the methods we will use to accomplish the goal. Students are required to write 2 sentences setting daily goals. I noticed they use the whiteboard to help them write their goals. These goals are written in their agendas. At the end of the day I select a few students and question if their daily goal was met/not met and why. I'm interested in how the Irving agenda and the AVID notebook will be used together. Looking at the section discussing scales and rubrics helped me realize that many of the district rubrics are not written in kid friendly terms. It is difficult for students to achieve a goal if they can't understand the scale being used.
Valerie--do you find that your students have a difficult time making up their own daily goal? I know that is the case for my 2nd graders. I am wondering just HOW to teach students to formulate goals in a way that the goal won't be too easy nor to difficult to accomplish.
DeleteI agree that many of our district rubrics are not in kid friendly words!
Kim- At first, some students wrote goals that were not actually SMART goals. They would write things such as, "Have fun with my friend at recess." After providing examples, students became better at writing academic related goals. (Although having fun at recess is important!) I would get goals such as, "Write a paragraph summarizing the differences between Plains Indians and Nomadic tribes spelling difficult words correctly." I would discreetly put a piece of candy on their agenda where the goal was written. I wouldn't say anything to the class as they came back from specials. ( I read their goals when they were gone to specials and randomly gave treats when I had time.) Students would come back into the room and say, "Hey! I wrote a goal. Why did so and so get candy?" I would read the goal that was rewarded and talk about why it was a measurable goal. It didn't take long for the students to catch on to what I expected. Last year, I hadn't read the section about learning goals in Marazano, so I'm sure I will initially do a better job explaining expectations this year.
DeleteOoh, that is neat, Valerie! Glad to hear that your student did get better at goal writing, so it IS possible! (wink) And perhaps as we do have students write their own goals more often in primary years, the upper grades will do even better and you need to do so much instructing on goal writing.
DeleteSorry I am slow on being a part of the Blog. I got locked out of my other account so I am not jlallison85. I won't tell you why the 85 is important to me because then you will know how old I am! :) I learned today a Principal Academy that they have hired someone in the Elementary level to help write the learning goals and objectives to make sure they are focused on the Common Core Standards and they realize this is going to be a big tasks for all teachers. Thought that was a interesting thing. Hope is helps everyone!
ReplyDelete