3/9/2026
Teacher Clarity
Pages 24-31
Take a moment to review the Best Practices Checklists on pages 27, 29, and 31. Choose one item you would like to improve on. Which item, why, how? :)
This week, we will continue with thoughts on moving students from Surface to Deep Learning (pages 34-39). Let’s discuss the challenges and the tools or resources we could use to overcome those challenges: 1-Post a high-impact teaching strategy you know your class needs, but you're struggling to implement effectively. Tell us about the specific challenges that are getting in your way; and 2-try to respond to others’ challenges with ideas, tools, or resources to help them.
Best Practices for Making Learning Relevant (all items!) piqued my interest most this week. I typically explain WHAT they are learning and why it is important (globally…not so much individually), and HOW to be successful using scaffolding, check-lists, rubrics, etc. I think I need to focus more on how/why it is important to them INDIVIDUALLY in order to build that intrinsic motivation. I really like the idea of addressing relevance on the continuum: Personal Association, Personal Usefulness, and Personal Identification. In the blogging format I am revamping…I would like for students to respond to each ‘level’ to “invite students into learning” and “help students [find a purpose or] reach a personal goal” and “recognize that the task or text aligns with their identities and ability to impact others”.
ReplyDeleteBest practices for making learning relevant is right up my alley. That is what I appreciate about health and PE lessons. I give lots of consideration to the lesson's relevancy. So I chose the statement, “relevancy is provided so students recognize that the task or material aligns with their identities and ability to impact others.”
ReplyDeleteAs a middle school health teacher, this idea reminds me that health education should go beyond simply sharing information. Students are more engaged when they can see how the content connects to their own lives, choices, and relationships. To improve in this area, I want to be more intentional about designing lessons that allow students to apply health concepts to real-life situations, such as setting personal wellness goals, analyzing how their daily habits affect their well-being, or discussing how healthy choices can positively influence their families and peers. I want to continue to improve on the health projects that I assign so they help students see themselves in the learning and the project becomes more meaningful and empowering.
When reading this week’s pages, the Best Practices for Making Learning Relevant Checklist caught my attention. While going over the daily agenda each day in my classes, I let students know the “gameplan” of what we will be doing that day and how it relates to where we currently are in a unit of study. I try to make sure they understand how we are continuously building on what we are learning. I use “I can” statements in my lesson plans to help remember what I want my students to be able to do, and while they are on student notes and some assignments, I need to do a better job of talking with students about these goals. This would help them be better able to self-monitor and reflect on whether they are both learning the content and able to explain, describe, analyze, categorize, identify, etc. what they are learning (“support students moving from declarative to procedural and conditional knowledge” on the checklist). One other thing I would like to be even more intentional about is making sure students understand how the content we are learning in SS relates to and connects to them personally. I find this easier to do in 8th grade since it covers Georgia history, and would like to do better when talking about other regions of the world with 7th grade.
ReplyDeleteI think the most applicable for myself is quality success criteria. I try and evaluate my success criteria, both what I determine and checklists given by the GaDOE, but feel like the actual progression between each success criteria needs more smoothing so each moves incrementally instead of in jumps from standard to standard. Several of the science standards seem to skip needed information that was assumed to be known or jumps widely cover the basic material across the subject. Often science standards cross each other and students need part of one substandard to start a second before finishing the first for true mastery. Often you cannot teach purely standard by standard without crossing between the sub-standards and success criteria. To help with this endeavor, I have been using Notebook LM to synthesize my materials, the GaDOE notes, standards, and given success criteria/checklists to break down the information into more cohesive increments. I also check with high school teachers to make sure I am setting my middle schoolers up for success in high school by teaching all needed materials.
ReplyDeleteI can find a connection and area to work on in each "Best Practice" checklists, but one that stood out is "Best Practices for Quality Success"! Key Question: How Will I Know That I Learned It? I want students to be able to answer the following: What am I learning today? Why am I learning this? and How will I know that I learned it? Typically, the third question is crucial!! Many students think, because they passed the test that means they've mastered learning. Often it can mean they've mastered memorization or they are good test-takers. I often try to focus more of the learning aspect of the entire lesson (The Why) vs. the end outcome such as the test. I get questions like: What's on the test? How many questions? Can I use the book or Google? They are more focused on the score than the learning process. This is an area that I really want my kiddos to have an "Ah Ha" moment and realize that they learned the skill or made growth; and not just a passing grade on the test. Lately, we have been working on a Writing Curipod where it gives the students a certain amount of points that they need to make to be successful, but unfortunately, the students aren't making the full amount of points. They are given a second chance to select an area they need to work on, and then revise the rough draft to gain extra points. At the end of the lesson, they are able to see how much growth they've made and many are proud and realize that they just needed to add more details, or cite evidence etc... They have that "Ah ha" moment in learning after they've tried their best!
ReplyDeleteAfter reviewing the instructional best practices checklists, the specific area I want to focus on is ensuring "students are asked to monitor their progress using the learning intentions." Too often, the daily goal is stated at the beginning of class and then forgotten. Having students actively check their own understanding against that goal shifts the ownership of learning directly to them and keeps them focused. To implement this, I plan to build simple, mid-lesson check-ins into my daily routine. For example, I will pause halfway through a task to have students quickly rate their current progress against the stated learning intention, helping them see exactly where they stand before the lesson ends.
ReplyDeleteI think I need to work on giving students time to reflect, ask questions and discuss. When we are working on an assignment in class, sometimes we are limited in time and having time to reflect and discuss can be a challenge. In my teaching, I like to ensure students have as much time as they need on any given assignment. I think through Study Hall, Ms. Hayes and I are able to really dive and analyze what the students are struggling with thoroughly. I will continue to work on this and try to maximize time with my students, so they are learning/practicing as much content as possible.
ReplyDeleteAfter reading this week's pages, I think the area I would benefit focusing on the most is "making learning relevant". I try to spend time going over the learning intentions especially at the beginning of a lesson but often I am in a hurry to get to the lesson. I would like to incorporate time as we are learning a lesson to help the students understand the relevancy and purpose of what they are learning. I believe the students would benefit from knowing the "why" instead of just trying to complete a task to get a grade.
ReplyDeleteI try to use relevance for my math lessons, but sometimes it's hard. I can always say you need to know this because it's on the state testing; however, that is not going to motivate most of them to learn the material. Having them understand the relevance to the everyday world is critical for the student to be motivated to learn the material. So, I intend to share and ask what the relevance for the lesson and/or unit. It's the old adage "When will I ever use this?"
ReplyDeleteI want to focus on the "what" am I learning. I want to ensure my students truly understand what I am teaching them. With the younger students, many times they do not understand the basics of what they are learning. I use weekly checklists so students know what needs to be completed by the end of the week. The students are able to monitor their progress throughout the week and hopefully this increases their engagement of the lessons.
ReplyDeleteI have been successfully including learning goals in the math assignments. I have them read the goals and then we break down what is expected of them in the lesson. We then refer back to the goals after we have completed the math assignments. I feel I can do better in other subject areas and I would like to be more mindful of including the written learning goals for each lesson. After the students get batter at the "what", I can focus more time to the "why" of the best practices of making learning relevant.
I'd like to work on asking students to use the success criteria to self-assess their own progress. Right now, I usually just tell them what the goals are, but I want to get better at making them actually look at those goals while they work. I think this is important because it helps students take more responsibility for their own learning instead of just asking me if they’re doing it right. Most of my students require constant prompting while completing assignments and do not normally have self motivation to complete assignments on their own. I think it would be helpful if they self asses their own progress.
ReplyDeleteFor 2nd and 3rd grades, I definitely feel like discussing learning intentions at the beginning, middle, and end of each lesson would be an area in need of improvement. This would help students stay focused, understand the purpose of what they are learning and know what they are expected to learn.
ReplyDeleteIn addition, students need time to reflect, ask questions, and discuss the learning intentions. Making more time for this would allow students to take ownership of their learning, identify any misunderstandings, and ensure all students are engaged and supported in reaching the learning goal.
I really like the learning intention statements. The example given on page 27 is, "Today, we are learning about the theme of a story, so that we can summarize what we read." Giving the what and the why together directly builds the relevance and success. Revisiting that learning intention statement throughout the lesson and then using it for students to monitor their progress towards the goal gives a more seamless progression for students and teachers to monitor learning.
ReplyDeleteThe best practice that I would like to work on is Quality Success Criteria. I want to be more intentional about planning dedicated time in my class for my students to reflect on and self-assess their learning progress, so they can better understand their growth and take greater ownership of their learning. I plan to do this by adding this extra step into a current podcast project I am working on with middle school students.
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