ESU 10 Summer 2010 SETTING OBJECTIVES & PROVIDING FEEDBACK

Participant Outcomes Participants will: Understand the purpose and importance of setting objectives Identify ways to implement goal setting in the classroom Understand the purpose and importance of providing feedback to students about their learning Review examples of providing corrective, timely and specific feedback

Personal Learning Goals for the Workshop Record your answers to the following questions in Google docs: What are YOUR goals for this workshop? What do you need to do to reach YOUR goals?

SETTING OBJECTIVES Provide students a direction for learning.

Generalizations from the Research on Setting Objectives 1. Setting instructional goals narrows what students focus on. 2. Teachers should encourage students to personalize the learning goals the teacher has identified for them. 3. Instructional goals should not be too specific.

Behavioral Objectives Given 5 practice sessions, students will be able to make an organized list of 10 items of information with 80% mastery.

Recommendations for Classroom Practice: Setting Objectives 1.Set learning objectives or goals that are specific but flexible.

Understand how the main organs work individually & as a system. What I Know What I Want to Know How I Plan to Find Out What I Have Learned Organizer

Sample Parent Letter

Formats for homework that clarify purpose: Assignment Notebook Language Arts Assignment: Due: Learning Goal: As a result of doing this assignment, I should: Math Assignment: Due: Learning Goal: As a result of doing this assignment, I should: Science Assignment: Due: Learning Goal: As a result of doing this assignment, I should: Social Studies Assignment: Due: Learning Goal: As a result of doing this assignment, I should: Assignment: Due: Learning Goal: As a result of doing this assignment, I should Know more about…? Understand better…? Be more skilled at…?

2.Contract with students to obtain specific learning objectives or goals. Learning Contract Maker

14 Example of a Learning Contract Understands the ways in which technology influences the human capacity to modify the physical environment. I know ____________________________________ I want to know ______________________________ I will show this by ___________________________ Teacher Signature ________________ Student Signature ________________

Planning Questions For Setting Objectives How will I encourage students to personalize objectives? How will I communicate my objectives to students and parents? How will I use contracts with students? How will I monitor how well students are meeting the learning objectives? What will I do to help students who are not meeting objectives?

Recommendations for Classroom Practice on Goal Setting a. Communicate Learning Goals to Students Provide in writing (i.e. on board, handout) Provide orally b. Help Students Set Learning Goals Model process for students (i.e. sentence stems) Provide support along the way Short term and long term goals c. Communicate Learning Goals to Parents Keep the message simple Avoid educational jargon

A well written goal should… establish direction and purpose be specific but flexible be stated in terms of knowledge rather than learning activities provide students opportunities to personalize

Think, pair, share… 1. Write an effective classroom goal for your students. 2. Share with a partner. 3. Provide feedback.

PROVIDING FEEDBACK Provide students information about how well they are performing relative to a particular learning goal so that they can improve their performance.

Your Turn Think of a time when feedback made a difference in your learning. What did the feedback look like and what difference did it make?

Generalizations from the Research on Providing Feedback 1. Feedback should be corrective in nature. 2. Feedback should be timely. 3. Feedback should be specific to a criterion. 4. Students can effectively provide some of their own feedback.

1. Should be corrective in nature. gives an explanation of what the student is doing correctly gives an explanation of what the student is doing that is not correct promotes working on a task until the student is successful

2. Should be timely this is a critical point! immediate is best the longer the delay that occurs in giving feedback, the less improvement there is in achievement

3.Should be specific to a criterion to be the most useful Referenced to a specific level of skill or knowledge (criterion referenced) NOT in reference to other students – (norm referenced). Only giving the percentage of correct or incorrect answers is not usually very helpful in correcting a skill.

4.Can also be effectively provided by the students themselves. Students keeping track of their own performance Chart or graph of accuracy Chart of graph of speed Or both accuracy and speed Teach students how to give feedback

Recommendations for Classroom Practice: Providing Feedback 1.Use criterion-referenced feedback.

Create Your Own Rubric RubistarRubistar

Recommendations for Classroom Practice: Providing Feedback Use criterion-referenced feedback. 2.Focus feedback on specific types of knowledge.

29 Bulletin Boards for Providing Feedback

30 Games for Immediate Feedback BBC Skillswise ExploreLearning iKnowThat iPod Touch –iReward –Word Warp –Reading Game

31 Classroom Response Systems (Also Known as Clickers) eInstruction ® Promethean Poll Everywhere iPod Touch Apps –eClicker

Recommendations for Classroom Practice: Providing Feedback Use criterion-referenced feedback. 2.Focus feedback on specific types of knowledge. 3.Use student-led feedback.

What thoughts, questions, challenges, or ideas do you have?

The work of a teacher... exhausting, complex, idiosyncratic, never twice the same... is at its heart, an intellectual and ethical enterprise. Teaching is the vocation of vocations, a calling that shepherds a multitude of other callings. Teaching begins in challenge and is never far from mystery. William Ayres