On Friday, I was fortunate to spend most of my day with the 6th grade team, our coaches and Billie Donegan getting good at Hattie’s top two instructional practices: specific learning goals focused on skills and tracking progress with kids. Over and over again, I keep hearing that “we do not ‘cover curriculum’, we ‘coach up’ skills”. Ask our 6th grade team about our “cheerleader” move; it even has sound effects.
Our 6th grade team, with specificity and enthusiasm, began to design progress monitoring charts and learning experiences within the classroom that would help kids get from their current level of understanding to the next level. Three questions are driving our design focused on specific content and learning skills:
- What are we getting good at?
- What does good look like?
- How do you keep track of your progress?
The graphic below is keeping us focused on when the real teaching starts ~ after kids have tried it the first time. Think Austen’s Butterfly.
I can’t wait to go out to 6th grade classrooms and hear our 6th graders answer with enthusiasm and pride the aforementioned questions. I can’t wait to hear kids talking about moving from their current level of learning to the next with pride and enthusiasm. I can’t wait for students to share evidence of their growth with specificity, pride, and enthusiasm.
