Ownership, Goal Setting & Feedback

One of my goals this year is to help develop in my students' ownership of their learning. Everyone wants to be successful; we just need to find a method.

I wanted to provide my students with tools that would help them monitor their progress, identify areas of growth, and areas of need in Math.

I want them to see their performance, recognize their strengths and weakness to be able to address them. I decided to start with multiplication facts and spiral skills reviews. These Progress Tracking documents will allow students to see their improvement in using Xtramath and Give me 5.

I've been using Xtramath for several years. It's a web-based free program that helps students recall arithmetic facts with a timed practiced, and usually, kids love it. In the past, although I've seen it work, I have also seen how some students wouldn't put effort into it. Since we've been annotating our weekly progress, I've noticed how they are more motivated and are achieving their goals faster! Also, everyone has grown, even if just two more facts, some of them have doubled their fluency, and we celebrate every step!

The second document focuses on is Give me 5, a daily skills and operation review. It consists of 5 spiral questions to be done in 5 minutes; the objective is to get 25 points by Friday. I modify the questions according to the class needs. They can be about decimals, fractions, addition, subtraction, multiplications, or strip diagrams. My goal with this document is that my kids observe what skills they struggle with, so we can work on them. For example, a few students had problems with subtracting or adding decimals because they didn't line them up when they are setting up the operation. Once we identified the mistake, practiced how to do it, and placed a reminder in their folder, I saw their improvement.

I believe these tools will help them be aware of their strengths, progress, and areas of need. I believe my students can, want and will be successful.