We are finishing our first month here and school is in full swing. Committees are starting, weekly meetings have initiated, homework is being dished out like candy and the assessments are already being printed and ready for distribution in many classes.
Just the other day I heard a group of five or six of my students talking after class about an assignment that was given to them by a colleague of mine. Apparently, it was not to their liking. From what I also gathered, the expectation of what was wanted in the short time allowed was a little too high. According to this group, there was not one of them, or any of their classmates, that were anywhere near meeting the completion point of this assignment. I know I should take this sort of talk with a grain of salt...BUT...with each comment like this, there lies a little truth. This conversation got me thinking. Are we, as teachers, being clear and honest about our expectations with our students?
Sometimes I think we as educators get wrapped up in "The Curriculum" as if there is some sort of secret agency that is going to come arrest us for not being on Day 8 when the pacing guide (that was probably made up by someone that has never stepped foot on your campus) says we should be. We talk about wanting to make connections with our students and their families. We talk about looking out for the social/emotional well-being of our students. We talk about working with students to help them self-regulate. The problem is that most of the time, it is just talk. There is very little follow through.
This year, I am committed to getting to know my students. Not just their names, faces, likes & dislikes, but the real them. We all make these connections, at least at some superficial level. I want to go deeper. I want to improve my effectiveness as a teacher and getting to know my students better is the first step. Why? What will this accomplish in the above situation? Quite a bit to be honest. Teaching, and education in general, is a two way street. Or at least it should be. If we really want our students to learn what we are trying to teach them, then we need to make sure we are learning from our students when they are trying to teach us as well. Keeping an open mind about where our students actually are in their learning and where we think they should be is important. Not only for us in planning future lessons and assessments, but for our students as well. Yes, set the expectations high, but make them attainable. An unattainable high expectation is just as harmful to students as setting the expectation too low.
Let your students find success and then build on that success. I have had this mindset in my math classes for a very long time but I have only in the past few years started thinking outside of my classroom. In the traditional grading systems (and yes, I have to confess I am guilty on occasion), these expectations get hidden in percentages, the occasional curving of grades, extra credit or giving points where points were not earned. Now that I have been in SBG schools for the past four years, I have realized that focusing on the Learning Targets and not all of the other extras that sometimes get put in the gradebook help me to focus my assessments...and therefore my expectations. I still hold high expectations of my students and push them just as hard as before, but now we both are clear about the path we are traveling on together. It is not just me leading the way and hoping my students follow like little sheep.
So, this year I have set a challenge to myself. I will completely re-write each of my LTs into "I can" statements for all of my classes (including my IBDP courses), change my gradebook to be based more around these LTs and have each of my students fully aware of where they are in their learning with each of the LTs we cover this year. I have made small steps toward each of these challenges in the past year, but I am ready to take it all to the next level.
Will this bring more ponderings? Of course. So, I guess I will have more material to write about soon. Until then, I challenge you to review your expectations you set for your students, align your assessments to your LTs, and help your students to find success by reaching each of the new expectations you set for them.
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