(Term 2 2018) Goal Setting By Students

High expectations is one of the eight principles set out in the New Zealand curriculum document.  

"The high expectations principle means holding high expectations for all students relative to achievement. This means a genuine belief that all students can achieve much higher levels than they currently are, and then putting the learning and action plans in place that make sure that students actually get there."  Professor Christine Rubie-Davies

Goal setting is an important way of ensuring that I have high expectations of my students and that these goals are created and communicated with/by students and their families.

High expectations help to motivate my students’ learning when they are created together with the student and me and their family.

“When students are encouraged to take responsibility for their own learning, goal setting is a logical step in the process.” (ERO 2014-ish)

My role is to help my students set relevant goals, to scaffold their next learning steps and to help celebrate their achievements.  This year we were asked to make this process more visible in our classrooms. This would help whanau and family to help support their children’s learning outside of the classroom.  It would also have the benefits of students staying motivated to work hard to set an achieve new goals. In particular students working below the expected standard to try and make accelerated progress.

So the question became how do I do this without creating a competitive class... or worse having students (who are achieving well below the expected levels) from feeling judged by everyone who looked at the display of learning goals?  Not only are the NZC levels quite broad and in teacher speak. They didn’t offer the level of progression within the level that could show progress in the short term.

This has taken me ages to sort out to this point.  There really should be something prepared by the MOE.  But I digress…. In writing this has seemed a bit easier to manage so I’ve started here.  We use e AsTTle rubrics to make judgments about a piece of writing our students produce.  Clevedon School then created a student speak version. So the goals students set are based on this assessment.  Mini lessons are taught, or in some cases whole class teaching - depending on the needs of the class that term, week or day.   When planning, I will create writing tasks that highlight the need to strive to reach the goal. At other time groups of students will help co-create a success criteria to help them independently work towards their goal.  When they have gathered evidence that shows they are meeting that part of the writing process they can move on to another goal.

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So this will continue to be refined and improved in light of effective teaching practice and what works in my class.  

As a teacher, I am committed to trying new things when students aren’t progressing.  This is the backbone of my teaching inquiry. It is important to try to use a range of deliberate strategies to accelerate and sustain improvement of my students’ learning.