The Handbook for Poor Students, Rich Teaching. Eric Jensen
on the micro goals (the method) necessary to make them happen. (If you need a refresher on goal setting and micro goals, refer to chapter 4, page 48.)
Guide Students to Improvement
A key benefit of the 3M strategy is developing student autonomy. They will quickly figure out their milestone and mission but often need help with their method—how to improve their learning. Post a list of “How I Can Get Better at Learning” tips on the classroom wall to encourage students to try various ways of learning and to figure out, on their own, how they learn best. See figure 5.9 (page 60). You can make your own developmentally appropriate list of student-learning tools.
You can also have students draw the list and post it. Imagine the powerful effects when students can take their milestone data (like “Eight of fifteen words correct”), reaffirm their mission (“100 percent on my next vocabulary test”), and decide for themselves how to improve their learning (“Maybe I should ask more questions in class”). See figure 5.10 (pages 60–61) for a goal tracker students can use to set their milestone, mission, and method.
Students can keep their goal tracker in a folder or digital file, or teachers can post them on the wall as ongoing student work. I love empowering students to know and be able to act on the results of their own learning. They’ll know their milestones and their goal (mission), and they’ll choose their next step to get better (method). Finally, it’s most effective when classrooms use the 3M process at least once or twice a week. Use the four-week planning sheet in figure 5.11 (page 61) to help you do this. To empower your students to become better learners, help them learn the tools to do the work, then connect the dots for them. Students learning to regulate their own growth is the heart of the 3M feedback system.
Figure 5.9: Poster of student-learning tools.
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Figure 5.10: 3M feedback tracker.
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Figure 5.11: 3M planning sheet.
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MIC Feedback
MIC is an acronym for micro–index card feedback. It is a fast way to help students get unstuck and move ahead. In many classes, students with less confidence dread taking on challenges, creating, producing, completing, writing papers, or doing projects. One issue they have is starting off on the wrong foot and never quite catching up. MIC feedback deals with that issue. It is a way to get inside a student’s head to discover his or her thinking paths (and stuck areas) that might hurt his or her chances for success.
As you start the year (or semester), gathering MIC feedback is simple. Ask students to write their name on the back of an index card. On the other side, ask students to write on one specific topic. This portion of the card will look something like figure 5.12 (page 62).
The prompts that could appear here are infinite, but consider using one of the following.
• Two things about themselves that you (the teacher) should know but most don’t know
• Past experience in the subject area (in five sentences or less)
• How the week has been (what they liked and what they’d change)
• Goals for the class
• About parts of a paper (introduction, theme, thesis, evidence and support, argument rebuttals, summary, and conclusions)
• Three friends in the classroom (to learn how much social glue each student has)
• A five- to ten-word outline of what they are currently working on
• Advice for another younger student about how to approach most mathematics problems
Figure 5.12: Notecard for MIC feedback.
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For the first two weeks, ask for students to do one of these activities every other day. Read and sort these cards. You will quickly identify which students need which types of differentiation.
With this method, you can learn about specific topics that you would never have time to ask for individually. Over time, students realize they can get help from you (privately, if needed). Initially, this seems like more work. But quickly, students (and you) get the early information correct, and they can move forward in larger chunks faster.
On the social side, you can use the class time to have students work with just the right partner or in a small group to talk about what they put on their card and what they will do next. (Review chapter 2, page 21, for some groupwork strategies.) With peer support, students’ assignments and projects will fit basic proficiency requirements and then you can focus on moving to mastery levels. Each time you use this process, the students will get just a bit better at using the MIC strategy. See figure 5.13.
Figure 5.13: Track MIC feedback responses.
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Student Feedback
Perhaps surprisingly, the all-time best feedback is student feedback to you, the teacher (Hattie & Timperley, 2007). Getting feedback from students is simple. Consider the following four student feedback strategies and use figure 5.14 to record which forms you use, record key points on the feedback you receive, and reflect on how you will use that information.
Figure 5.14: Student feedback tracking sheet.
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1. Nonverbal information: Observe students during seatwork time. Look for signs of physical or emotional distress during the task so you can stop and ask what your students are experiencing (“Can I check in with you for a moment?”).