What is most central and important for your classroom to accomplish?
As an administrator myself, I know that time is valuable. The PD days prior to welcoming students back in to the building are never enough time when you consider getting classrooms ready, teaching about new district mandates, and the culture building that goes on. My school is a title I school that has made big gains in proficiency and student growth. I want to share with you the e-mails and summer requests that ensure teachers come back prepared with the best practices and preparations to push students to make more than a year and a half growth. Feel free to forward the whole e-mail or copy-paste below the line to your whole staff.
Teachers, Students, and Parents need to know where they are going.
A teacher that knows where they want their students to be at the end of the year will take their class further. Follow the steps below to create a classroom goal that will push your students to mastery.
Figure out what mastery of the most important standards look like
It is tremendously helpful to identify what is most central and important for your grade level and course as you begin to set a big goal. There are a lot of learning goals for your grade level or course, so it’s critical that you know which of them deserve particular focus.
As you read through your Common Core or your State Standards ask yourself the following questions:
Endurance?
Will this learning goal provide students with knowledge and skills that will be of value beyond a single test date?
For example: Writing proficiency will endure throughout a school career and professional life.
Leverage?
Will this learning goal provide knowledge and skills that will be of value in multiple fields of study?
For example: The ability to create graphs and charts as well as draw accurate conclusions from them will help students in math, science, social studies, and language arts.
Readiness?
Will this learning goal provide students with essential knowledge and skills that are necessary for success in the next grade or level of instruction? (Don’t overthink it)
For example: A third grader must be proficient in 3rd grade level reading comprehension to enter the fourth grade and pursue 4th grade-level studies with success.
District/State Priority?
Sometimes the answer just lands in your lap. Your state or district may just declare, here is the priority standard; and that trumps your list.
Set Big Goals
Without knowing your students, you won’t be able to set a final bar that you’re sure is the right bar. However, before the school year starts, you can use historical data to help you set the best possible bar as an initial goal. This will allow you to plan for assessment, create your instructional plan and invest your students in your goal from Day One—allowing you to save valuable instructional time in the beginning of the school year. After the school year starts and you give your students a diagnostic assessment, you will adjust and differentiate your goal for your students based on what you learn about their actual starting points.
Your Goals (Choose One that makes sense for your school)
Growth Goal
Students in [Mr. Appleton’s] class will grow 1.5 years based upon the [reading assessment: DRA, STEP, IStation, etc…].
This represents a significant amount of growth to catch your students up to their peers, and secondary level should shoot for two years growth.
Gap-Reduction Goal
Students in Ms. Cottengim’s class will score a proficiency rating of 65%* on the PARCC exam for mathematics.
*Oh boy! It is time for a formula to calculate the proficiency goal you should be shooting for! The students you serve are behind their higher economic status peer. This gap will not be closed in a single year, but big gains can be made. (1) Take the difference of the past proficiency rating for your students and the top school in your district or state. Multiply by 0.2 and then add that to your schools previous proficiency rate. For example: Your school had a sore of 45% proficiency AND TopSchool had a score of 95% for 7th grade mathematics. The difference is (95 – 45= 50) and then you multiply by 0.2 to get 10% growth needed. Add that 10% growth needed to your schools original number of 45% to get a goal of 55% .
You wouldn’t want to say 55% of students will be proficient in math by the end of the year (that means about half are not), so you say “Students in Ms. Cottengim’s class will gain 20% proficiency on [Top School] by the end of the year.”
Mastery Goal
Students in Ms. Withrow’s class will master 80% of the learning goals for Biology I.
The 80% target means students are ready to move on to more complex content because they can master the learning goals four out of five times.
If you don’t know where you’re going, you’re not going to get there.
Take Action:
Take some time now and write out your Classroom Goal. This will give you focus though the summer and as you come up with great ideas for your classroom.
Would you be able to explain to a friend or teacher of a different subject, in words they would understand, what your students should know, understand and be able to do by the end of the year? If not, you’ll likely want to spend even more time getting familiar with your learning goals
Manage Behavior
Use your Classroom Goal to manage behavior in your class by using these powerful phrases.
Is that type of behavior going to get us to our goal?
I expect that right now you are exhibiting behaviors that show me that you are working towards your goal. What does this look like?
What was our objective today and how is it connected to our big goal?