Self Regulated Learning
Professional Goal
My goal is to teach and apply self-regulated learning strategies in my writing group to improve their writing. The focus will be on meaning and form, writing 5-6 sentences with a group of 4 grade four students by November 12th. Click on the above Blog button for reflections on my journey of Self Regulated Learning.
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First revision:
1. Teach self-regulated learning strategies.
a) compile resources for this group to provide a framework for SRL strategies
b) involve students in goal setting, planning, task completion, adaptations, assessment
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2. Apply strategies in a writing group consisting of 4 grade four students who find written output a challenge. Students will choose the trait to focus on from 6+1 Traits of Writing by Ruth Culham.
Adding on:
1. work with students 4 times a week for 40 minutes
2. set a goal prior to each draft they write. review this goal and how they plan to reach their goal each day
3. check in with student's self monitoring of their individual goal
4. twice a week write in my blog reflecting on effectiveness of teaching strategies and SRL
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This goal resonates with me for a number of reasons
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As our school works towards a growth mindset, I can empower students to set specific goals, monitor, and self-assess their work
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The students and myself will have a clear picture and motivation to reach their goal
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Within the small group, the students and I can adjust goals so they are attainable yet high, based on the writing samples demonstrating their current level
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Develop intrinsic motivation for these students by framing a realistic goal and working towards a challenge
The achievement of this goal will reinforce what I have learned and am excited to implement about self-regulated learning. It will give me a clear focus on what the students are to achieve and I will be able to monitor my goal. Students will follow through on assessment and self-reflection to help my teaching strategies. I am hoping that it will give distracted students a focus towards a specific goal and self-satisfaction leading to a feeling of efficacy and intrinsic motivation.
Upon completion of this goal, I will be able to reflect and adjust self-regulated learning strategies to instruct other small group of struggling students. These students need the belief in themselves and the motivation to challenge themselves. Goal setting and self-assessment may be the missing pieces towards advancing the skillset of students who appear to be unmotivated. Success in this inquiry would lead to motivation to engage in more goal setting with other students and sharing with colleagues. Increased job satisfaction would be a result as my long term goal is to make a difference in the lives of these students and foster development of lifelong learners.
Resources
The resources I will be using to develop writing skills are the 6+1 Traits of Writing by Ruth Culhan.
As well Adrienne Gear's Writing Power.
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Research Articles
Help with self-assessment
I revisited the above articles and searched for more. I came across a website with a simple layout of how to help students accurately assess their writing.
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Give students direct, explicit and step-by-step training before they carry out self-assessment exercises and include practice time.
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Help students develop a clear understanding of the aspects of writing they are self-assessing such as tone, attention to purpose, etc. In order for students to evaluate their writing for each of the different aspects, they need to have a clear understanding of the concepts.
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Use writing models to demonstrate specific writing skills and to give students the opportunity to practice assessment. Writing models can be used independently of self-assessment to reinforce learning of concepts. When they are used as practice for self-assessment, teachers can correct student miscomprehension and modify the exercise as needed.
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Invite students to participate in developing the criteria for self-assessment exercises. This process helps develop a shared understanding of good writing in the classroom.
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Increase student motivation in self-assessment by making the self-assessment part of the grade. Positive verbal prompts and guidance also support student motivation. Motivating students is a challenge, but for self-assessment to be meaningful students must be committed to the task.
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Use self-assessment for formative rather than summative evaluation and not to determine a final grade on an assignment.
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Provide sufficient independent time and space in class to complete self-assessment exercises. Self-assessment works best in your classroom where you can reinforce a sense of quiet, focused time that students may not have outside the classroom. You can also provide support and corrective feedback.
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Engage students in dialogue during self-assessment to provide feedback, answer questions and provide clarification. Some students will need more scaffolding and guidance than others. One of the great benefits of self-assessment is the opportunity to work one-on-one with students.
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Self-assessment should include tasks that address specific components of writing as well as prompts that ask for a global response to their writing. Students should work to improve specific aspects of their writing as well as the overall content.
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Nurture students’ sense of self-efficacy and self-esteem through positive feedback, reinforcement and modelling. Student writers tend to think writers are born not made. They need a sense of self-efficacy to persevere in writing.
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Give students the opportunity to revise their work after self-assessment so that they can transfer what they’ve learned to the task of writing.
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Regularly evaluate your teaching methods. How are students responding? Conduct student surveys to find out what’s working well.
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“Self-assessment methods in writing instruction: a conceptual framework, successful practices and essential strategies,” by Kristen Nielsen, Journal of Research in Reading, Volume 37, Issue 1, pp. 1–117.
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Self Reflection on midgoal
What is going well for you?
Having a clear focus to provide writing strategies and SRL strategies with my group of students led to working towards a goal with more effective teaching. The time limit to reach my goal has led to better planning for students as each day and lesson matters.I was surprised that the use of a blog held me accountable and led me to constantly reflect monitor and assess my lessons.
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Where are areas where you are struggling?
A struggle I had as I started working towards my goal was the link between my goal and my students' goals. I was concerned that if they didn't make their goal, that my goal wouldn't be accomplished. This was clarified as I reflected on the structures, strategies and supports that I put in place. Three weeks in, around Halloween, I felt the energy of the students rise and my motivation decrease. I had to revisit research to help me meet my goal. Patterns of thinking were interfering but with self reflection, collaborating with the classroom teacher, and the accountability of the blog helped me overcome this dip.
-What supports would assist you?
Supports of colleagues as well as research articles provided feedback to reach my goal. Collaborating with the classroom teacher provided motivation and self-efficacy for myself as she shared that she has seen improvements in the students' motivation and writing skills. Positive feedback is rewarding!
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How are your SRL skills increasing?
Looking back at my initial responses to my use of SRL strategies, I found that on the whole, I was aware of how to regulate my learning and teaching. I have always been goal orientated as I work towards closing the gap of learning. Written monitoring lead me to be more focused with strategies. Self assessment became essential so that time didn't slip away. Feedback from students, colleagues and experts provided motivation to continue and adjust my goals and strategies as I worked towards my goal.
Final Reflection
​To what extent did you achieve your goal?
*I achieved my goal but it is still not complete! I implemented SRL strategies in the context of writing with my grade 4 group of students with success for both myself and students. It is not complete as this will be an ongoing area of growth as they need to apply SRL strategies independently.
The easiest aspects:
*motivation to teach SRL strategies to these students and the schedule of time with the students was already in place.
The most challenging aspects.
*returning to research and not falling back on past practices.
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What were the reasons for how your inquiry turned out?
*concise time frame, set schedule with the students
*accountability for the goal
*continual reflection
Upon final reflection, what might you do differently if you were to do it again?
*choose a personal goal that was evident that I made it, writing is an ongoing process that requires continual growth and is somewhat hard to assess, there is no clear end
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What effect has working toward this goal had on your own feelings of self-efficacy as an SRL learner?
My self-efficacy wavered. At the beginning I was energetic, ready to take on the goal. Midway I had feelings of accomplishment as well as feelings of being overwhelmed. With that, upon completion of a challenging task my self-efficacy increased. Research provided me with confidence to share with colleagues.
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What effect has working toward this goal had on your own feelings of self-efficacy in the domain in which you were working toward your goal?
In the domain of writing, I am confident. We were able to assess what strategies worked for each student, some liked different brainstorming sheets and writing templates. Rather than providing general writing instruction, I was able to individualize and teach what each student needed as we reflected on their goal area.
What are your next steps? Where has learning taken place that you can transfer beyond our course.
I will continue to teach SRL to my different learning groups. I have found that although my focus was on this grade 4 writing group, I have used SRL in a variety of groups. It was powerful in my grade 2 readers as they worked to accomplish a goal of reading a list of grade 2 sight words. At the beginning, we reflected on our goal of mastering the list and how it is hard work but to break it down, into manageable steps. The transference of this learning strategy is all encompassing.
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On a personal level I am beginning a goal with my daughter to help her overcome a challenge she is facing. As it creates a large amount of anxiety for her, I have found myself procrastinating. I have strong motivation to help her yet find each day escapes us. I have accessed research and strategies. When I reflect on how I could improve, it would be to track my goal, have a clear time frame and a schedule. The transfer of learning about SRL and inquiry can be transferred to every aspect to become the best a person can be.
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brief SUMMARY OF SRL learning
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