About Chuck Brickman Expertise I can assist with questions about classroom management and discipline, practices and procedures, special education, lesson plan development, proactive teaching strategies, researched based teaching methodologies, instructional methods, integration of technology, standards based learning, mainstreaming, ADD, ADHD, IEPs, parent involvement, team teaching, staff issues and professional development.
Experience College, middle school and elementary school teacher. Certified teacher in special education and elementary comprehensive. Educational consultant.
Education/Credentials A.A. University of the State of New York
B.A. Indiana University
M.A. California State University
Awards and Honors Current candidate for National Board Certification in Exceptional Needs
Question I'm the level head of the school and would like to ask for advice as to the process of setting targets for academic subjects. My students are in secondary 1 to 5 (13 to 17 years of age). Most of them are not self-motivated & I would to bring them through a thorough & meaningful target setting process in order to help them achieve their expected results. Most of the time, they give up on their studies when they do not attain good results. Right now, I've been talking to them about the importance of target setting & set targets with individual students.
Answer Hi Tang,
Thanks for the note. I know how challenging students of this age can be. I also remember how much I enjoyed working with them.
I understand you want to set up mutually agreed upon standards and targets for each student. In theory, the process is fairly straightforward:
1. Conduct a benchmark assessment for each area that you want to cover. As an example, math. The benchmark test will show you the student's current academic readiness level, or mastery level.
2. Based on the results of the student's performance on the benchmark test, you must then establish clear and realistic goals for the student to achieve based on the amount of time available for instruction.
3. Next, you set interim goals for the student to achieve and develop lessons to address the goals and objectives. If you find the student is not achieving mastery of the goal you must go back and reteach.
Now, a couple of thoughts. I'm assuming your teaching in a country other than the United States. In the United States the majority of students aged from 13 to 17 are unmotivated to learn. We as teachers must find what motivates them and use that to initiate learning. Last year I taught in China. I found that Chinese students are much more motivated to learn and that changes how and what you teach.
Is their a standard test/goal or academic objective that should be achieved by the end of each grade level? If so, it would serve as your benchmark.
I'll give you an example. I have a student who is 12 years old. In the United States a student who is 12 years old is normally in the 5th grade. I tested the student using a 5th grade end of year test and he got 8 out of 30 questions right. I then tested him using a grade 4 end of year test and he scored 16 out of 32. I then tested him using a grade 3 end of year test and he scored 25 out of 32 which would equate to a 78%. My thoughts are that the student is academically at the beginning of the 4th grade level. I then used the goals and objectives for achieving mastery on the end of the year 4th grade test as my starting point. I developed learning objectives for the student to meet the goals need to master the 4th grade test. Once he accomplished this, I would then move on to 5th grade goals.
I'm assuming that you want to define academic goals and not necessarily social goals?
I find that the following helps keep students interested and challenged with their work:
1. When you design lessons use "real life" scenarios. As an example, when you teach the students about finding percentages and discounts in math use examples of something the kids buy...jewelry, computer games, clothes etc.
2. Student motivational level is contingent upon how well you engage their interests. There are many teaching strategies available that can help with this. They are commonly referred to as "active teaching strategies."
3. Don't limit your teaching to lecture. In my classroom I lecture for 12 minutes, then we do an activity together to reinforce their learning, then the students do some work with the new information on their own. Then we check it. then I repeat the cycle. We are constantly transitioning. Research has shown that the middle school student's (age 11-15) is 13 minutes - after 15 minutes you begin to lose them. To remediate this you must transition before you lose them. The more you engage the students the quicker they learn and keep their interest.
