Assignment #8: Complete the 4 part assignment format as you read, reflect, and respond to Chapter 8: Setting Objectives & Providing Feedback.
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A. Self Assessment of Current Beliefs and Practices: This component asks you to reflect on how and why you currently use the instructional strategy of Setting Objectives and Providing Feedback in your classroom. The intent of this is to activate your prior knowledge of your strategy use so that you can make comparisons as you read the chapter. Below are the questions to help you complete your self-assessment.
• What is your purpose when you set objectives and/or feedback in your classroom?
• How do you set objectives in your current classroom instruction?
• When and how do you communicate classroom objectives to your students?
• What kind of feedback do you provide for your students?
B. Read & Reflect “Research & Theory”: This portion of the assignment asks you to read Chapter 8 and reflect briefly on your thinking after reading the “Research and Theory” section for Setting Objectives and Providing Feedback.
C. Practice: Choose one of the specific “classroom practice” strategies or techniques shared in this chapter to try out with your students (If you are not currently teaching, you may share how you would use this strategy in your classroom).
D. Final Strategy Reflection: Use the following sequence of questions/prompts to reflect on what you’ve learned about both the strategies presented in the chapter and what you’ve learned about yourself as both a teacher and a learner. Please post your brief reflection to the posting labeled Week Eight: Setting Objectives and Providing Feedback by clicking on the “comment” link below.
How has the information you read in this chapter on Setting Objectives and Providing Feedback effected your thinking about teaching and learning? What have you learned about yourself as a teacher and learner? Use the following questions to assist you in writing a brief strategy reflection:
• The generalizations related to setting objectives explain that goals should be clear and specific, but also flexible enough for students to personalize the goals. Consider the objectives you are expected to use, that is, those provided by your school, district, or state. To what extent do you feel they meet the criteria of clarity, specificity, and flexibility?
• How does the information in Figure 8.3 about "Corrective Feedback" shed light on your own experiences with giving and receiving feedback? For example, does it surprise you that research indicates that simply telling students whether an answer is right or wrong can have a negative effect on their achievement?
• How might you change how you communicate objectives to students and parents?
• How will you monitor how well students are meeting their learning objectives?
• How will you engage students in the feedback process (consider use of rubrics?)
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5 comments:
Setting Objectives
I’m pleased with the district learning targets that have been established in my district. For a long time, each of the five high schools in my district had their own set of targets. Over the past two years, English teachers from across the high schools have come together to establish one set. They used the state guidelines that came from the federal guidelines. This common set of learning targets has one main target with sub categories listed below making them clear.
While I remember that Marzano wrote, “instructional goals narrow what students focus on,” I wish that my department would collectively add details and specificity to the targets for each class (94). It feels like each teacher has their own “thing,” but one student’s experience in my class might be drastically different from another’s experience with a different teacher. I’m not sure how to balance these ideas.
The goals, however, are not flexible for students’ personal needs and desires. While I agree with the theory that students will learn more if it’s self-directed and if they’re topics of interest for the student, I have a hard time imagining how this would work logistically. I’m not sure how I could manage and monitor every student’s learning. In addition, there are simply things they MUST know before they leave my class. Sometimes they may not like it, but it’s my job to ensure that they’re proficient in all areas – not just the ones they’re interested in. I guess I’m not sure how to balance these ideas either!
Providing Feedback
I’m much more in agreement with the “providing feedback” part of this chapter. I’ve recommitted myself to doing a few things differently.
1. I’m going to give work back to students more quickly. While I’m not too bad at this, I do have moments of procrastination! However, knowing that “the more delay that occurs in giving feedback, the less improvement there is in achievement” is push enough to get me to pick up my pace (97).
2. Also, I’ll be sure to provide the correct answer to students after they’ve taken a test. In the past, I’ve not given the tests back until all the absent people have made it up. This often causes quite a delay. Then, since so much time has gone by, I’ve just skimmed over the answers because it’s no longer that relevant to what we’re currently doing in class. (Shhhh . . . don’t tell anyone! I feel terrible even just putting this down on paper!)
3. Third, I provide rubrics for essay writing. This makes my objectives for each essay clear for students. Under each category (ideas, organization, sentence fluency, and conventions), I’ll be sure to do a better job circling areas that need attention in addition to putting stars next to areas that were done well. Also, I can take the time to make specific comments and explanations in the margins of their essays.
4. Finally, I will recommit to asking the students to provide feedback. It’s probably one of the skills that I’m most happy to have. During my student teaching days, I remember my professors consistently asking us to review and write about the lessons we were teaching. At the time, it seemed like such a time suck – I had to get ready for the next day, not think about the one that I just survived! However, it’s a skill that I still use in my job today, and it’s a skill that I think makes me a good teacher. This can be applied to students’ learning experiences as well. I’m not the only one who can read a rubric – students can learn to use them too.
Question
My district is working towards proficiency grading. This chapter seemed to emphasize the importance of personalizing goals. However, this personalization issue seems to go against proficiency grading. I’m not sure what to do with proficiency and statements like these:
“Instructional goals narrow what students focus on.”
“Instructional goals should not be too specific.”
“Students should be encouraged to personalize the teacher’s goals.”
“Provide students with some flexibility.”
However, the feedback portion seems to work well with proficiency.
“[Ask] students to keep working on a task until they succeed.”
“Feedback should be specific to a criterion.”
Do you have any thoughts about this?
I will admit it- I am awful at communicating objectives with students. I have tried and failed, multiple times. Two years ago as a school we were working through the book “Teach Like a Champion” by Doug Lemov. One of the techniques he has is to write the lessons objectives on your board daily and discuss them with the students. I did this for about a month, didn’t see much of a difference, and then got out of the habit of it. I will verbalize why we are starting a new unit and what I want them to learn during the introduction of units, but other than that I do not set many objectives within my classroom. I definitely do not have first graders set their own learning objectives, not because I do not see the value, because I am not sure how that would look.
I do try hard to offer immediate feedback on most of our classroom activities. We do not have a lot of tests or papers, but students do meet with me throughout the week to discuss what they are learning, what questions they have, and what I can do to help them succeed. I also go around to each student during math centers at some point during the week and have a discussion with them about what they are doing and I try to challenge them to go beyond where they are currently working at. I try to offer feedback verbally to every student, every week.
Hi Sarah,
I don’t think that your districts movement towards proficiency grading and personalizing goals are mutually exclusive. I think you could have conversations with the students around what the goals are that the district/school/department have set for the students and then talk about where they are and what they need to do. So for example if they are having a difficult time with _____ they could plan to focus on ____ or say that they are going to improve their quiz average by 15 points. I know this gets specific…but I think you have to balance what you believe as beneficial with what the data suggests.
I’m not sure if this is making sense to you, but I believe there could be many ways to adhere to what your district and administration want you to do and involve students in discussing where they are and where they need to be and how they can achieve this.
The high school that I worked at had the students have two other adults read and comment on their writing after the teacher did. We needed to sign it and then the reviewed piece was handed in with the new version. Maybe you could do something like this and/or require that another student read a draft before you would edit the piece.
Hi Amy,
Have you tried writing the goals in your newsletter for your parents? My sons’ teachers were sharing last year how hard it was to make learning goals kids friendly, especially for Kindergarten and first grade. Actually, now that I think of it, I don’t believe I’ve seen the goals outside the room this year. :D
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