The Handbook for Poor Students, Rich Teaching. Eric Jensen
Later in this chapter, I’ll show you how you get students to believe (with even more strategies in chapter 16, page 173).
In this chapter, we begin our implementation of the achievement mindset with the baseline tools you need for creating gutsy goals that lead to mastery, look at the practice of setting those goals, establish ways you can get buy-in from students (give them a reason to believe), and then use micro goals to help close any gaps.
Creating Gutsy Goals for Mastery
Gutsy goals are jaw-dropping, nearly impossible, shoot-for-the-stars milestones. Why would you set goals you might not reach? James Cameron, director of two of the highest-grossing films of all time (Titanic and Avatar), said we should set impossibly high goals so that when we fail, we will fail above others’ successes (as cited in Goodyear, 2009). For teachers, this means setting goals of mastery, not merely basic understanding or proficiency. Setting goals for mastery is what leads all students to graduate (see part seven, page 199).
Figure 4.1: List and support three ideas for classroom goals.
Visit go.SolutionTree.com/instruction for a free reproducible version of this figure.
The mastery process is one where a teacher says, “I don’t just want them to get it right. I want them to become so proficient that they can’t get it wrong. Only then will we move on.” In mastery, there is no personal best or just good enough. Remember, even modest, achievable goals have a positive 0.52 effect size (one year’s gain), but mastery as a goal has a huge 0.96 effect size (two years of growth) for disadvantaged and lower-ability students (Kulik & Kulik, 1987). High-performing, high-poverty schools have this core achievement driver (mastery, not basic or proficiency levels) in common, and it’s a must for your classroom (Johnson, Uline, & Perez, 2014).
Understand, the big-picture goal is the process as well as the destination. This means gutsy goals are those you cannot meet until you grow into one who can reach them. To that end, the best gutsy goals are revised SMART goals (Conzemius & O’Neill, 2014): specific and strategic, measurable, amazing (rather than attainable), relevant, and time bound.
Consider the goals you outlined in figure 4.1. Now, use figure 4.2 and the SMART system to clarify your vision for making these goals masterful. Don’t worry about creating final gutsy goals at this point. Use this instead to think about the qualities that will make your goals gutsy. We’ll take that final step in the next section.
Figure 4.2: Make your goals SMART.
Visit go.SolutionTree.com/instruction for a free reproducible version of this figure.
In the next section, you’ll use your explorations in figure 4.2 to set some truly gutsy goals.
Setting Gutsy Goals
Growing up in the digital generation, most students feel like anything they need to know is just a quick google search away. The gratification is split-second fast. However, becoming a good learner requires the capacity to dig deeply into a topic, which requires having persistence, thinking about it, clarifying it, analyzing it, and developing a complex, yet clear, understanding. This is hard work, and most students don’t know how to do it. Yet, in higher-performing urban schools, the deeper, mastery learning is a key part of the solution (Johnson et al., 2014). To truly have a consistent achievement mindset, you must have something special worth doing.
In your classroom, student goals should produce something of value—something that is personally or culturally relevant—and be part of something bigger than themselves. Second, the goal must have specificity for a big impact (0.94 effect size; Marzano, 1998). Third, you must tell students why they can believe in you and the goals you have set for them. Finally, you’ll need to set micro goals (see page 48) so they can get concrete evidence that the gutsy goals are happening.
Let’s learn how to create high class expectations with high goals to get students to the promised land of consistent high effort. Following are elementary and secondary examples of gutsy goals as well as an opportunity to rethink your own goals and write them down. After that. I offer some examples of gutsy goals students can set for themselves.
Elementary Teacher Examples
Let’s say that last year a teacher had 50 percent of her students reach proficiency in mathematics. I have heard those teachers set what seems like lofty new goals for class like, “At least 80 percent of my students will be proficient in mathematics, and 20 percent or more will get to mastery level.” These might be higher goals than you’ve ever had before, but sorry, they are not gutsy goals. Here’s a gutsy goal: “My first-grade students will read, write, do mathematics, and behave so that by the end of the year, they are ready for third grade, not second.” This goal makes two years of gains with your students.
I have also heard teacher goals like, “This year, all my students will reach their potential.” Unless you have a specific way to measure your students’ potential, how would you know what their potential is? Remember, if you work in a school with high-poverty students, getting one and a half to three years of academic progress per year is just basic progress. Without very aggressive goals, you increase the likelihood for students to drop out or fail. Make your own goals jaw-dropping, amazing, and unlikely (but possible) to reach. Here are examples of teacher gutsy goals.
• A process goal: “This year, I will engage my students every nine minutes or less for the entire year.”
• A relational goal: “This year, I will learn at least three things (outside of a name) about every student, and I’ll do a One and Done (from chapter 6) with my two class leaders in the first thirty days.”
• A result goal: “My second-grade students will read, write, do mathematics, and behave so that by the end of the year, they are ready for fourth grade, not third.”
Secondary Teacher Examples
If you teach at the secondary level, let your students know about your own gutsy goals. You’ll want to set goals so high that you’re unlikely to (but maybe you might) reach them. That sends a message to your students to shoot for the stars.
• A process goal: A science teacher’s goal might be to teach students how to rebuild a city from scratch when disaster strikes. A middle school English teacher might ask her students to write a paper to change the world. Their final papers could be read to community leaders, and the feedback would be life changing. A mathematics teacher’s goal might be, “My students will write a handbook of tips for ‘How to succeed in math,’ during the last month of the semester.”
• A relational goal: “I will complete a One and Done with one or two students in every class and do name-learning activities until every student knows every other student by first name.”
• A result goal: “I will get two years of academic progress for every year I teach” or “I will become a top 50 finalist for the Fishman Prize for Superlative Classroom Practice.”
Your Own Examples
Now that you’ve looked at some examples