Phase 2 Implementations
Re-Introducing and Teaching Goal Setting
After phase one I created an outline of planned steps for phase two; some of which I followed through with and others I was not able to. The first big plan I had for phase two was to teach my students more about goal setting. Although I had met with my students and had discussions goal setting with them, I never formally taught them about goals. We would casually talk discuss what goals are, why we set them, and which ones apply academically. One of the reasons I set goals for them in phase one was because they were not understanding the goal setting process or what kinds of goals they should set. I wanted my students to be able to set their own goals last semester but when I talked to many students about it they did not know what types of goals to work on or wanted to work on goals that we're not applicable. I should have realized at that point that I needed to explicitly teach goal setting; however I did not.
So in attempts to give my students more autonomy in phase two, I taught them more about goal setting and how we can specifically use goal setting in the contexts of school. By giving them more information they will have a better foundation for setting their own goals. I presented the students with the PowerPoint you see below at the end of the first Monday of phase two. As I went through the slides we talked about each of them and I really engaged students in a more formal discussion. At the end of the PowerPoint I asked the students for some goals that they think the class should work on.
I purposefully asked students about class goals not personal goals because I realized after phase one that it is easier for primary grade students (2nd graders) to think of goals for other people than themselves. According to Erikson's Psychosocial Stages, “children begin to refine their conceptions of self in primary school, in part because they increasingly engage in social comparison, the process of comparing aspects of one’s own psychological behavioral, or physical functioning to that of others in order to evaluate oneself.” (Bignell, S. 2010) Second graders are in the heart of this stage of development. Therefore they are very good at being aware of and judging other students actions while they are still learning to do this with their own actions.
We ended up condensing their ideas into a list of seven things the students could work on which I added to the PowerPoint (slide 7) during the discussion. (Raise hand, choose the right times to talk, THINK, control our bodies, remember our glasses, take care of our things, and share our ideas) After we developed this list, I had students write on a sticky note what goal they think best works for them. I wanted to see what my students thought they needed to work on. I will go into further detail about this in the data and findings section.
So in attempts to give my students more autonomy in phase two, I taught them more about goal setting and how we can specifically use goal setting in the contexts of school. By giving them more information they will have a better foundation for setting their own goals. I presented the students with the PowerPoint you see below at the end of the first Monday of phase two. As I went through the slides we talked about each of them and I really engaged students in a more formal discussion. At the end of the PowerPoint I asked the students for some goals that they think the class should work on.
I purposefully asked students about class goals not personal goals because I realized after phase one that it is easier for primary grade students (2nd graders) to think of goals for other people than themselves. According to Erikson's Psychosocial Stages, “children begin to refine their conceptions of self in primary school, in part because they increasingly engage in social comparison, the process of comparing aspects of one’s own psychological behavioral, or physical functioning to that of others in order to evaluate oneself.” (Bignell, S. 2010) Second graders are in the heart of this stage of development. Therefore they are very good at being aware of and judging other students actions while they are still learning to do this with their own actions.
We ended up condensing their ideas into a list of seven things the students could work on which I added to the PowerPoint (slide 7) during the discussion. (Raise hand, choose the right times to talk, THINK, control our bodies, remember our glasses, take care of our things, and share our ideas) After we developed this list, I had students write on a sticky note what goal they think best works for them. I wanted to see what my students thought they needed to work on. I will go into further detail about this in the data and findings section.
Student Individual Goal Choices
Opening Powerpoint
Counselor Connection
Conveniently, our class had a visit from the school counselor to talk about participation the next morning. In the counselor's presentation she worked on building confidence and showed students the many ways to participate. She also explained how to be a good participant which connected with the students’ thoughts on what goals the class should work on from my lesson the day before. These included sharing ideas, raising your hand, listening when other talk, not to call out and other similar goals. By the end of her lesson, my students wanted to set a goal to participate more, which was the councilor's desired end result as well. This set the perfect platform to show students the goal sheet they would be using and model it by setting a class goal.
Our First Class Goal
I asked students what the class should work on as a whole. I explained that even if they don't think they personally need to work on anything, they can think about something that the class could work. Such as things that would help them learn better like less talking or more sharing of ideas. Almost the whole class shared ideas.
Many students talked about how students talk on the rug and it makes it hard for them to learn. Some students specifically said that while they are trying to pay attention people bother them. A couple students even admitted to talking to much as said they wish they could work on that.
A couple students even suggested that more students need to share their ideas. Maya who often does not volunteer answers because she fears being wrong, admitted that she should share her ideas more.
To make it easier for the students to decide on a goal for the class I combined the most popular ideas into two goals: raise our hands and pick the right times to talk or control our bodies and keep hands to ourselves. Then I had the students vote on which one they wanted to work on. About 3/4 of the class chose, “We will raise our hands and pick the right time to talk.”
Many students talked about how students talk on the rug and it makes it hard for them to learn. Some students specifically said that while they are trying to pay attention people bother them. A couple students even admitted to talking to much as said they wish they could work on that.
A couple students even suggested that more students need to share their ideas. Maya who often does not volunteer answers because she fears being wrong, admitted that she should share her ideas more.
To make it easier for the students to decide on a goal for the class I combined the most popular ideas into two goals: raise our hands and pick the right times to talk or control our bodies and keep hands to ourselves. Then I had the students vote on which one they wanted to work on. About 3/4 of the class chose, “We will raise our hands and pick the right time to talk.”
I had the student read their goal so they would know that they were trying to accomplish for the next 50 minutes of the lesson. If the class began to lose focus of their goal during the lesson I reminded them, "Don't forget you're working on not calling out and raising your hand." I did this to help the students stay on track and really focus on achieving the class goal. Additionally this is showing the students how much they have to be aware of working toward new goals they set. I wanted students to know that achieving a goal is not always easy and takes constant thought and effort. Looking back however, I realized I did not explicitly explain this to the students. This could have been a strong learning and teaching point.
After the lesson I asked the students to stop and think about how the class did with the goal. I read it again and reminded them, "this is not how you think you did this how you think the class did all together, so even if you think you did a perfect job, did the class?" Students then voted on one of the three options (I forgot my goal, I remembered my goal but didn't achieve it, or I achieved my goal. I was surprised at the students’ honesty and accuracy of the classes' overall performance. None of the students said they forgot their goal, 10 said they remembered it but did not achieve it and 12 thought they achieved their goal.
After the lesson I asked the students to stop and think about how the class did with the goal. I read it again and reminded them, "this is not how you think you did this how you think the class did all together, so even if you think you did a perfect job, did the class?" Students then voted on one of the three options (I forgot my goal, I remembered my goal but didn't achieve it, or I achieved my goal. I was surprised at the students’ honesty and accuracy of the classes' overall performance. None of the students said they forgot their goal, 10 said they remembered it but did not achieve it and 12 thought they achieved their goal.
Group Goal Two
Since setting a goal as a class worked so well, I did the next goal in the format of class goals as well. We started by reviewing our previous goal. Next I asked students to think about class behaviors they wanted to work on or though the class should work on. This time more students thought it would be a good idea to control their bodies than when they set the first goal. Students also brought up choosing the right time to talk and participation as good class goals.
When the students voted for which goal they would work on it was split three ways between controlling bodies, participating and choosing the right time to talk. Participation and choosing the right time to talk had almost equal number of student votes while controlling your body had a few more votes than the other two goal options. Because I wanted to be able to compare results between this goal and the first goal, I leaned more toward the goal of choosing the right times to talk. As the teacher I thought that choosing the right time to talk included making decisions about when it was good to share their ideas. I tried to explain this to the students but they did not see it that way. Therefore we decided to go with a goal of "Choose the right time to talk. We will participate/ share our ideas and raise our hands."
Even though I saw these two ideas as related the students saw them as separate, therefor making this two goals. I wanted the students to focus and put their energy into one goal. However, I really wanted to stick to my focus for phase two and give the students ownership over their own goals so I let them work on both goals.
It was a bit more difficult for me to track behavior during this lesson, so I did not get as many specific notes as I did with the first goal. I noticed overall that the students did a great job with controlling their talking. were not sitting together during this lesson.
Immediately after picking the class goal, I saw that Angel and Antonio, my two student who always talk to each other, were sitting together. I asked them, "Do you think it is a smart choice sitting together?" To my surprise, both students shook their heads no and there was not much delay before Angel got up and moved to a different spot on the rug. With this small change I noticed a huge decrease in amount of off topic chatter that happens during the lessons. Many students chose to raise their hands before talking. Lucy, Tiffany, and Tatiana who are great at participating, often call out their ideas. During this lesson they called out their ideas even more frequently than normal. I believe this may be because I was calling on other students more than usual because we had so much participation.
After the lesson, we briefly discussed student behavior during the lesson and how the students thought the class performed. Next, I reminded students of the three voting options. Then they voted on how they thought the class performed in achieving their goal. Three students thought the class forgot their goal, fourteen students said the class remembered it but did not achieve it and only four students thought the class achieved their goal. These results were quite different from goal one's results. Please read the Summary of Findings section for more analysis on this and phase two overall.
When the students voted for which goal they would work on it was split three ways between controlling bodies, participating and choosing the right time to talk. Participation and choosing the right time to talk had almost equal number of student votes while controlling your body had a few more votes than the other two goal options. Because I wanted to be able to compare results between this goal and the first goal, I leaned more toward the goal of choosing the right times to talk. As the teacher I thought that choosing the right time to talk included making decisions about when it was good to share their ideas. I tried to explain this to the students but they did not see it that way. Therefore we decided to go with a goal of "Choose the right time to talk. We will participate/ share our ideas and raise our hands."
Even though I saw these two ideas as related the students saw them as separate, therefor making this two goals. I wanted the students to focus and put their energy into one goal. However, I really wanted to stick to my focus for phase two and give the students ownership over their own goals so I let them work on both goals.
It was a bit more difficult for me to track behavior during this lesson, so I did not get as many specific notes as I did with the first goal. I noticed overall that the students did a great job with controlling their talking. were not sitting together during this lesson.
Immediately after picking the class goal, I saw that Angel and Antonio, my two student who always talk to each other, were sitting together. I asked them, "Do you think it is a smart choice sitting together?" To my surprise, both students shook their heads no and there was not much delay before Angel got up and moved to a different spot on the rug. With this small change I noticed a huge decrease in amount of off topic chatter that happens during the lessons. Many students chose to raise their hands before talking. Lucy, Tiffany, and Tatiana who are great at participating, often call out their ideas. During this lesson they called out their ideas even more frequently than normal. I believe this may be because I was calling on other students more than usual because we had so much participation.
After the lesson, we briefly discussed student behavior during the lesson and how the students thought the class performed. Next, I reminded students of the three voting options. Then they voted on how they thought the class performed in achieving their goal. Three students thought the class forgot their goal, fourteen students said the class remembered it but did not achieve it and only four students thought the class achieved their goal. These results were quite different from goal one's results. Please read the Summary of Findings section for more analysis on this and phase two overall.