Tag: Student-Centered Learning

Posted on by Imagine Learning Corporate

June 28, 2023 2:09 pm

The Science of Learning a Second Language

Learning a new language is not easy. Trading outdated instruction for science of reading-backed techniques can help give English language learners the skills they need for biliteracy.

“English is HARD.”

This was my students’ (and my) mantra whenever we encountered something about the language that just didn’t make sense. I was teaching English language development, or ELD, for newcomers in grades 9–12, most of whom were native Spanish speakers.

As anyone who’s taken a language class in high school or college knows, it gets more difficult to learn a language the older you get. That’s what I always assumed was the reason behind my students’ struggle to acquire English. That, and the fact that I agreed that English is “HARD.”

I agreed that

English is “HARD.”

Without a background in linguistics (and as a first-year teacher), I couldn’t quite explain why it was hard, though. I just knew there were exceptions to every rule I taught.

But 10 years later, the science of reading is helping me understand — both why it was so challenging for my students and what kind of instruction would have helped them. The science of reading is “the converging evidence of what matters and what works in literacy instruction, organized around models that describe how and why.” Research tells us that systematic instruction in phonological awareness, phonics, and vocabulary, combined with fluency and comprehension is what builds foundational literacy skills and sets students up for a lifetime of reading success.

Here are 3 ways the science of reading can help improve instruction for ELs:

What I did:
Encouraged (okay, begged) my students to only speak English in the classroom
My district’s ELD curriculum recommended only allowing students to speak English in the classroom. Though I knew it would be a tough sell, I found some merit to it. If there were students with different native languages, English became the unifying language in the class — keeping students from feeling excluded. And the more you immerse yourself in a language, the faster you learn it.

Why that didn’t work:
At any given point, 90 to 100% of my students were from Spanish-speaking backgrounds, and that was how they communicated with each other — regardless of how convincing I thought I was. As teenagers feeling singled out in remedial ELD classes at a high school in a new country, it made sense that they defaulted to the language they felt comfortable speaking.

But the main reason this didn’t work wasn’t because of their noncompliance. It was because what made learning English especially hard for my students was a lack of literacy skills in any language. Inconsistent schooling led to their Spanish reading and writing skills being far below grade level.

1

What the science tells us: language skills transfer from one language to another

In my professional development for the ELD curriculum, the trainers assured teachers that a student’s proficiency in their first language had no bearing on their ability to learn English. Though that felt wrong to me, I didn’t have the confidence to question it as a new teacher. We now know this isn’t accurate.

Because research shows that students use the same sound/letter correspondence skills within and across languages, we can assume that their ability to map letters with sounds transfers from literacy instruction in one language to another. So, while the intention to focus on acquiring English via complete immersion was logical, it was unrealistic for my students who needed a basic foundation of language skills in their first language. Without that, learning another language would require more than just avoiding Spanish (actually, quite the opposite).

What I did:
Focused on grammar over vocabulary. My grammar-based direct instruction curriculum emphasized understanding the structure and syntax of English over the meanings of individual words. I was teaching my students to identify the parts of speech of words they didn’t know based on their placement in a sentence they also didn’t understand. It was frustrating for all of us.

Why that didn’t work:
When you’re first learning a new language, you naturally gravitate to the words and phrases that are important to you. If you’re traveling, “please” and “thank you” are useful. If you are learning a new style of cooking, you’ll want to learn the names of foods. And if you’re a baby, your first word will be the most important object in your world (usually ‘dada’ or ‘mama,’ or in my son’s case, ‘panda’). Once you learn those words, you can then build the understanding needed to notice how they are placed in a sentence.

My students showed me this as they repeatedly asked me what words meant, while I unsuccessfully tried to reroute them back to the grammar concept we were learning. Finally, I gave in and started “What does it mean” Wednesdays. They collected English words and phrases they encountered in their daily lives — at work, on the bus, at the doctor’s office — and we spent 30 minutes crowdsourcing the definitions. This was easily the most engaged my students were all week — because it mattered to them.

2

What the science tells us: vocabulary supports comprehension and fluency, especially when incorporating syntax instruction

In other words, if grammar and syntax are the structure of language, vocabulary is the building blocks. This is not to say we should throw out grammar instruction entirely (though students might celebrate). Evidence shows that increasing vocabulary boosts students’ reading comprehension and fluency, requiring less decoding and allowing them to read for meaning. But when you combine that vocabulary practice with explicit syntax instruction, emerging bilinguals show increased comprehension — able to unlock meaning not just from the words themselves but also from how they are organized in the sentence.

What I did:
Practiced English letter sounds individually. During our daily language warm-up, we practiced “saying” a few different letters at a time. Without much more direction than that in the teacher’s guide, this was challenging. When faced with the letter “a,” it seemed like I discovered another pronunciation with each practice attempt. There are the long and short sounds like “make” and “cat,” of course, but then also “want” and “many.”

Why that didn’t work:
Decoding demands are different in English and Spanish. Focusing on single letter sounds in English was confusing for my students whose first language was Spanish. That’s because Spanish is a phonetically regular language, with 27 letters mapping to 22-24 phonemes, while English, with 26 letters and 44 possible phonemes, is not. Native Spanish speakers expect the letters to make the same sounds wherever they are placed in a word, and that’s just not the case.

3

What the science tells us: English requires more intense explicit phonemic awareness

Learning to read in Spanish requires an emphasis on syllable awareness. In fact, once students learn the basic sound-symbol correspondences, they can easily decode and read most Spanish words with a high degree of accuracy. But in English, phonemic awareness is crucial — especially when coming from a language where sounds and letters make more “sense.” Activities like rhyming, segmentation, and blending help students to understand all the different sounds English letters can make, by themselves and when combined with others.

While it’s hard to look back at all the things I should have done differently as a teacher, it’s promising to know that first-year language arts teachers now will start teaching with all of my science of reading hindsight as their basis of instruction. But I would still love to travel back in time and give my students exactly what they needed: English language instruction grounded in the science of reading combined with high-quality Spanish language arts (SLA) to reinforce literacy in their first language. Maybe then our class mantra could have been more like “English is hard, but we have the skills and support to learn it.” (Even if the last part was just in my head because high schoolers would never say that.)

About the Author – Ally Jones

Ally Jones is a California credentialed educator who specialized in teaching English language learners at the secondary level. Outside of education, she is passionate about fitness, literature, and taking care of the planet for her son’s generation.

The Science of Reading Applied

Imagine Learning’s solutions make it easier for teachers to apply the research.

Learn How
Posted on by Imagine Learning Corporate

May 22, 2023 11:18 am

Creating a Framework for Impact

Today’s schools are measuring success by more than test scores and graduation rates. That’s why Imagine Learning built an Impact Framework: to collaboratively set goals and chart student progress as partners in success.

There are as many ways to make an impact in education as there are students in school. By ‘zooming out’ from only measuring impact the traditional ways – retention, test scores, graduation rates – educators can explore how comprehensive their impact is and could be.

Some days, seeing a student show empathy toward another classmate is evidence of a well-implemented social and emotional learning program. On other days, you can hear the impact of comprehension lessons as you listen to a small group literature discussion. A school’s growth can look like: more languages being heard on campus, math and science bowl awards in the trophy case, connecting courses to career paths, and the student-led pursuit of ‘what’s next.’

The success of a school or district’s impact is often all in how it’s measured.

How can we help?

More educators – from the classroom teacher to the superintendent – are adding metrics like student agency and engagement to how they track positive impact. With that in mind, Imagine Learning set out to determine how we could help chart success as we work closely with them.

Elizabeth Lehnertz, Vice President of Marketing, explains: “We really want to work in partnership with our customers to set a growth trajectory. Growth is the ultimate outcome for our products, but the road to get there isn’t something that happens overnight. That’s why we’ve been thinking about the metrics that lead up to growth.”

After discussion and consideration, the Imagine Learning team identified the metrics of its Impact Framework, as well as questions to consider and examples at each step:

  • Engagement
  • Progress
  • Achievement
  • Growth

Each metric builds on the one before it, so setting goals according to each one provides a strategic road map to growth. Lehnertz states, “The use of these performative metrics can vary by the [Imagine Learning] product you’re using and by the year of implementation, which is why we’re interested in working collaboratively with our customers to set goals that will drive growth.” 

“Each metric builds on the one before it, so setting goals according to each one provides a strategic road map to growth.”

Are students engaged?

It all starts with engagement. Students who aren’t engaged are significantly less likely to achieve the measurements of success outlined by their school and district. For Imagine Learning, questions around student engagement include ‘Are administrators monitoring and encouraging program use?’ ‘When are students actively working?’ ‘Are the students spending enough time in the program?’

Assessing things like logins, active time, the number of student users, and students’ use of motivation features helps measure engagement and inform the next steps in the educator/Imagine Learning partnership.

Are students progressing?

Determining student progress requires assessing the number of activities and lessons completed and checking students’ pacing and grade level progression. It also means asking if teachers ensure students have content to work on and examining how teachers monitor progress. By considering these questions, we can target areas of the program’s implementation that need more connection between our customer success team and partners. When we can ensure teachers are able to use the program at its fullest capacity, everyone is better positioned for progress.

Are students achieving?

This is where scores take their turn as key examples of a metric:

  • Grades
  • Activity Score
  • Lesson Score
  • Quiz Score
  • Pass Rate

When focusing on student achievement, we examine whether students are mastering the content and where they struggle. Looking at whether teachers are providing challenges or support based on individual and small group needs also helps. The more in-depth our understanding of teachers’ and students’ experiences, the better we can provide support and develop programs that equip customers for success.

Are students growing?

Finally, the big question. Pulling insight from what we learn about students’ engagement, progress, and achievement, we look at demonstrations of growth on benchmarks and pre- and post-quiz growth. We also explore how our partners’ students’ growth compares to the expected growth rate to determine our programs’ impact.

Imagine Learning Impact Framework

Look back to look forward

Thanks to the Impact Framework functioning as a roadmap, we can look back through the metrics to troubleshoot any development gaps and generate solutions. As Lehnertz explains: “We’ve identified these metrics – engagement, progress, achievement – as ways to lead to growth. We’ve been looking across our products and across the stages of implementation to really work with our customers to identify goals for each. We then use those goals as a formative way to adjust the implementation and the approach, ultimately leading to growth.”

Combined with the often-immeasurable, personal impacts educators are making every day, the potential is nothing short of exciting. 

Elizabeth Lehnertz

Elizabeth Lehnertz

Vice President, Marketing

Elizabeth brings over 25 years of experience in education, first as a classroom teacher in Texas before moving into educational publishing and technology. She has held leadership roles in product marketing, product management, and corporate marketing at Pearson, Renaissance Learning, and McGraw-Hill.

With the passion to improve education for teachers, students, and families alike, Elizabeth brings the insight and experience to build and lead industry-leading teams to solve complex problems in a dynamic market.

About the Author — Kallie Markle

Kallie Markle lives in Northern California with her family of humans, house plants, and dogs. The humans take up the least amount of space. Before joining the education world, she wrote her way through national parks, concerts, tourism, and brewing.

Posted on by Imagine Learning Corporate

May 2, 2023 2:21 pm

Why Teachers Teach

A teacher’s job is challenging. From classroom management to individualized instruction, we ask teachers to accomplish much with minimal resources. So, why do teachers teach?

Most of us can reflect on our school years and think of a teacher who inspired us: one who made a difference in our learning, changed the way we saw the world, or even the way we saw our own potential. Yet, a teacher’s job is challenging. From classroom management to individualized instruction, we ask teachers to accomplish much with minimal resources. So why do teachers teach? And what motivates an individual to become a teacher?

Why teachers become teachers

If you ask a teacher why they became a teacher, they’ll often say, “I had a teacher…” as they share the story of an educator who inspired them. Today’s teachers hope to have the same impact on their students, making a difference for each unique learner and making a social contribution for an entire generation. Some love the subject they teach and want to share their love of math, literature, art, music, language, science, or history with others. Some come from a long line of educators. When a person has a parent who was a teacher, they are more likely to become a teacher.

“I teach for future generations of teachers, plumbers, electricians, law enforcement officers, nurses, military personnel, pastors, welders, servers, engineers, drivers, firefighters, tellers, mechanics, and all of the endless possibilities ahead.”

Why teachers teach

There are numerous demands and stressors on today’s teachers, and many of these demands continue to increase each year. So, how and why do teachers remain motivated to continue when they have so much asked of them? Teachers share that the reasons they stay motivated to continue teaching despite the challenges include their desire to “enhance student motivation, advance educational reform and fulfill teachers themselves.” Some teachers note their relationships with students motivate them to continue. Other teachers cite knowing their work matters and valuable colleagues as a few reasons they continue to teach. At the bottom of this page, you can read a poem by Ava Littlefield, Virtual Teacher at Imagine Learning, sharing her reasons for teaching.

Supporting teachers

Research acknowledges that today’s educators are at high risk for stress and burnout from the demands of their job. Teachers recognize this risk, even providing teacher-to-teacher suggestions to conquer burnout, such as setting daily intentions, updating their workspace, utilizing motivational quotes, and trying new approaches or changes to routines. Other sources suggest teachers can avoid burnout and feel supported by reaching out to inspiring colleagues for inspiration and mentorship, self-care, utilizing organizational systems, preparation, and reflecting on moments of meaning and connection with students. Providing respectful and equitable places of work, increasing teacher pay, and offering comprehensive mental health support are strategies teachers say will greatly help to alleviate burnout.

Appreciating teachers

May is Teacher Appreciation Month, and teachers share that being acknowledged and valued by their principals goes a long way to feeling appreciated, as well as gifts of time and having fun together as colleagues. Others say a note of gratitude, school supplies, gift card, or small gift from students and parents are appealing tributes of appreciation.

We have each been impacted, instructed, and inspired by teachers. This spring, take some time to thank the educator in your life. You might give a teacher just what they need to continue to educate and encourage others.

Why I Teach

By Ava L., Virtual Instructor at Imagine Learning

I teach for…

The students who want to participate in a rigorous and quality curriculum need alternative platforms to achieve educational success.

I teach for…

The students I have had for several semesters are now more confident in their own abilities because they were (and are still) encouraged to do their best.

I teach for…

Students who will be first-generation high school graduates (like me) who wish to move beyond the barriers.

I teach for…

The students who make what I do so rewarding because their accomplishments are what it is all about.

I teach for…

The parents, guardians, families, colleagues, support staff, and stakeholders who are also investing and supporting our mutually shared students.

I teach for…

Future generations of teachers, plumbers, electricians, law enforcement officers, nurses, military personnel, pastors, welders, servers, engineers, drivers, firefighters, tellers, mechanics, and all of the endless possibilities ahead.

I teach for…

Imagine Learning and the opportunity to be One Team!

I teach for…

Selfish reasons because I get to be a part of something beyond myself that makes a difference in the lives of others, and I find so much joy in doing so.

About the Author

Sherri Walker

Sherri Walker is an Employee Communications Manager at Imagine Learning who comes from a long line of teachers. Sherri taught Public Speaking and End of Life Communications classes at The University of North Carolina in Charlotte and loves writing, editing, reading, hiking, her four boys, and the incredible views of the Utah mountains right out her front window.

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August 5, 2022 9:30 am

Your Roadmap to Student Engagement

TEDx speaker and author Weston Kieschnick discusses his new book, The Educator’s ATLAS — a simple, five-point roadmap for capturing student engagement.

The art of student engagement can feel elusive, undefinable. Some teachers seem to have “it” — students with rapt attention, hanging on their every word. Others struggle to capture and maintain student attention throughout a typical seven-step lesson plan. I definitely struggled as a first-year teacher. Researchers (and my administrators!) often told me just how important engagement is to academic achievement. But how do we get it?

Weston Kieschinck’s new book, The Educator’s Atlas: Your Roadmap to Engagement, takes the typical lesson plan and reimagines it — focusing on how students are feeling and giving it a true arc, similar to that of a good story. With five easy steps, he creates a roadmap for teachers to spark engagement and carry it throughout the lesson, making learning not only possible but memorable, too.

image of Book "The Educator's Atlas"

In your book, ATLAS, you write, “It’s time to put student engagement first and hold it as our most important objective.” Why student engagement at this moment?

I think kids are more disengaged from school than they ever have been in the history of the modern schoolhouse. There are a couple of reasons for that.

One, during COVID, a lot of kids got to experience what school felt like from home. They liked things like voice and choice and self-pacing. I don’t think they liked the notion of, ‘Hey, all my instruction is the teacher in front of slides talking.’ Then, we brought all of our kids back to school, and they lost the things that they liked. They lost voice and choice, pace and place, but they still retained the thing that they disliked, which was: teacher in front of slides talking. They’re like, ‘Wait, wait, wait. I can do this from home in my pajamas.’

Two, a lot of us viewed school as a vehicle for upward mobility. We bought into the notion that you go to school, work hard, go to college… get a good job, and you get to live a good life. I think a lot of the kids who are currently in school watched the generation before them do exactly that, except they came out with massive student loan debt. Many of them aren’t able to buy houses, and we’re kidding ourselves if we don’t think kids are paying attention to that.

You also point out that “student engagement” is a widely used term but lacks an agreed-upon definition. What is student engagement?

So many people use the word engagement as a synonym for fun. I have no interest whatsoever in helping people become the ‘fun’ teacher. We’re not in the business of entertainment. That’s not our work. Now, do I think learning should be really joyful? Do I think there can be certain elements of teaching and learning that are really fun? Of course, I do, but that’s not the main event. The main event is engagement, and we can’t keep using engagement and fun as though they are synonyms.

Here’s how I define engagement. We know kids are engaged if they are curious, if they are participating, and if they have a desire to persevere, regardless of the level of rigor associated with the task. Those three things have to happen for kids to be engaged.

Tell us the story behind ATLAS.

It was 15 years in the making. In my time as a classroom teacher, people said all the time, “Hey, be more engaging.” I couldn’t help but think, what the hell does that mean?

We know engagement when we see it. It’s very recognizable — like, wow, these kids are wildly engaged. But my question was, how do we understand what makes engagement happen? So, I’ve been doing thousands of observations, just trying to figure out: what do engaging teachers do differently? And I noticed that they do very similar things.

Then, I started looking at other places we seek engagement: in the books that we read, the movies that we watch, the music that we listen to… I noticed that… all of these things follow specific formulas for engagement. Whether it’s joke structure, whether it’s like a Disney movie, whether it’s a really great song… so, why do we not have a formula for engagement?

When we ask a teacher to sit down and design an engaging experience, we’re asking them to do that blank slate every time. That’s not how a person writes a song. It’s not how a person crafts a joke. It’s not how a person tells a great story. It’s not how a person does a screenplay.

So, I started to piece together what engaging teachers were doing differently, and it led me right to the ATLAS model.

“We know kids are engaged if they are curious, if they are participating, and if they have a desire to persevere, regardless of the level of rigor associated with the task.”

Really great teachers start by capturing and holding students’ attention. They’re masters of the transitional phrase. They know how to teach a very clear and very concise lesson. Then, they always follow that lesson with some sort of activity. They understand that it’s not enough just to lay information at children’s feet. Then, there’s a summation. What does that mean? They understand that learning is sticky when it’s tied to emotion, and they are really, really cognizant of how kids feel on the front end and the back end of their lesson.

They understand that the feeling kids feel when they walk into the classroom cannot be boredom, and the feeling they feel when they walk out cannot be failure. Because if those are the two prevailing emotions, they’ll forget everything that happened. The brain will self-select it out. It doesn’t want to remember times when we felt bored and like a failure.

ATLAS model

The layering of emotion with the arc of a lesson was the most surprising thing about the book. You’re not just talking about what’s happening cognitively for kids. You’re talking about how they feel throughout the lesson and how that impacts their learning.

It’s profoundly impactful. Learning is sticky when it’s tied to emotion. If you just try to recall your profoundly memorable experiences, they’re all tied to intense emotions — when we felt joyful, when we felt sad, when we felt grief, when we felt surprised, like those things are memorable. Let’s capitalize on that… not ignore it.

You write that the ATLAS method, “Puts teachers in the driver’s seat.” Tell us what that means.

I have always been and will always be a firm believer that the single greatest thing that we can give children is a relationship with a highly qualified teacher who believes with relentless tenacity in their ability to succeed. I think one of the things that we need to do as a collective, both inside and outside education, is seek out ways to empower our teachers.

The ATLAS model puts them first because it recognizes that you can’t outsource engagement to a thing. No matter what it is, no matter what the technology tool, no matter what the product, it will never be as valuable at engaging kids as a really great teacher.

If an engaging teacher is the answer, if it’s the antidote to the problem of disengagement… then we have to help our teachers understand how to be more engaging. ATLAS is a support for the problem of engagement.

One of the more provocative things you write in ATLAS is, “Long live the lecture.” I thought we were supposed to be done with the whole “sage on the stage” thing.

Hell yeah! Long live the lecture. I stand by that statement.

Here’s the thing. Anyone who’s seen a really great TED talk, anyone who’s a church-going person and sees a really great sermon… there’s something profoundly moving about that experience. We like it. We like it when it’s done well and when it is a part of a larger catalog of experiences.

I am pro blended learning. I am pro collaborative learning. And at the same time, that doesn’t mean that the pendulum needs to swing so far that we leave lecture behind completely. Every single one of these things has a place. A person who can give a really great lecture or a really great speech—that person is excruciatingly valuable. We’ve all seen them when they’re garbage, and we’ve all seen ’em when they’re really good. And when they’re really good, there’s profound resonance in that. There’s something about it that rings the tuning fork deep down inside of us.

But a lot of educators will tell you they’re good at lectures, and guess how many for whom that’s actually true? A very, very small percentage. We have to take an honest look and ask ourselves, is this a thing I’m actually good at?

In your earlier book, Bold School, you talk about technology in education. Where do you think the future of edtech is headed now that we’re back in the classroom with all those devices from the pandemic?

When you’re looking at technology and whether it has value in the classroom, it has to do two things. It has to first improve efficacy—improve the quality of what’s happening in your classroom.

Second, it has to improve efficiency. This is the one that gets ignored. We often say, ‘We need to use this tool because this will make us better.’ Well, is this going to add hours upon hours of planning time to an already packed schedule? Because if that’s the case, there’s not a snowball’s chance in hell I’m using any of this technology. It’s why so many teachers have resisted and continue to resist.

What about blended learning? Where is that trend headed?

Honestly, I think I’m done saying “blended learning.”

I remember when Jurassic Park came out, it was a profound experience because they were using CGI in a way that had never been done before. Other movies started to use CGI in that way, but nobody distinguished the difference between a CGI movie and one that is not. You know what they all were? Just movies. It’s this weird thing that we’ve done in education where we’re just like, oh, if there’s technology involved, this is blended learning. But if there’s no technology involved, this is just regular teaching and learning.

I think any good teaching and learning that happens from this moment forward is going to include elements of technology.

I cannot tell you the number of ‘Tech Tuesdays’ I’ve seen in schools around the country because teachers have been encouraged to use technology. You can trace that back to how we talk about blended learning as though it’s a separate thing, and it’s just not. It’s just great teaching.

About the Author – Weston Kieschnick

Weston Kieschnick is considered one of the world’s most recognizable and sought-after speakers and educational leaders. He is an award-winning teacher, best-selling author, TEDx speaker, coach, husband, and father. He is the author of, Bold School, Breaking Bold, co-author of The Learning Transformation: A Guide to Blended Learning for Administrators and the creator and host of Teaching Keating; one of the most downloaded podcasts in the United States for educators and parents. Weston has worked in collaboration with innovative tech and publishing companies (Google, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, Apple) to redefine teaching and learning in schools. As such, he’s advised educators from every state in the US and more than 30 countries around the world. Districts where Mr. Kieschnick has designed content, implemented initiatives, and trained educational leaders have been recognized by the Learning Counsel as being among the top ten in the nation for their work in blended learning. You can find Weston’s work published in EdWeek, EdTech Magazine, The Spark, and featured on TED, the 10-Minute Teacher, Teaching Tales, Kids Deserve It, and LeadUp Teach. Connect with Weston on Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn, or at WestonKieschnick.com.

About the Interviewer & Author – Carolyn Snell

Carolyn Snell started her career in education teaching first grade in San Bernardino, California. A passion for the way technology and stellar curricula can transform classrooms led her to various jobs in edtech, including at the Orange County Department of Education. Her knack for quippy copy landed her a dream job marketing StudySync—an industry leading ELA digital curriculum. Now, as the Senior Content Marketing Manager for Imagine Learning, Carolyn revels in the opportunity to promote innovative products and ideas that are transforming the educational space for teachers and students.

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June 9, 2022 8:00 am

THINK Points Add Up to Make Change

Imagine Math’s THINK points program allows students to earn rewards for themselves, their class, and charities by completing lessons.

What motivates you to work harder? I knew I was getting closer to middle age when I realized the harder I worked, the better I’d sleep — motivation level 10: unlocked. Sometimes motivation comes in the form of little bonuses (ahem, dessert), sometimes it’s a healthy sense of competition, and sometimes the prospect of a warm, fuzzy, ‘do-gooder’ feeling is what gets us to tackle a challenge.

It turns out that kids and adults aren’t that far apart in this respect; Imagine Math has demonstrated as much with its THINK points program. This innovative motivation system inspires students to learn by helping develop problem-solving skills, perseverance, and confidence. As students work through their Imagine Math lessons, they earn THINK points. THINK points are awarded for completing lessons, with additional points awarded for performing well. Students can use their points to design and accessorize their Imagine Math avatar, contribute to classroom goals (pizza party, anyone?), or donate money to students in need.

$83,060.00 Donated to Charities

Earn, See, Spend

The points students earn by working through lessons are applied to their total number of points after they have completed the entire lesson, which helps keep them motivated to finish the full lesson before spending their points.

They can view their points on their home screen and the Class Leaders dashboard. Students can see the number of THINK points they’ve earned in the current lesson, the total of the points they’ve earned this year, and the number of points available to spend at the moment (grand total minus points already spent).

557,000 Avatars Created
867 Average THINK Points Donated Per Student

The points leaderboard shows a hierarchy of who has earned the most THINK points that week and who has completed the most lessons. It updates every 15 to 30 minutes and resets every Saturday evening, only displaying the number of points each student has earned for the current week. It’s designed to continually motivate students and give each student a fair chance to be at the top for that hour, day, or week.

As a reward and part of what makes Imagine Math so engaging, students get to choose how they’ll spend their hard-earned THINK points. Some like to build out their avatars, expressing themselves with different skins, features, and accessories. Others are motivated to contribute to the teacher-established classroom goal, and an inspiring number of students opt to transfer their points into monetary gifts to charity. The charity calendar changes month to month, exposing students to a variety of opportunities to make a difference in their world.

“I wanted to be the No. 1 on the leaderboard in the state of Texas, so I had to do a lot of lessons – and that’s how I racked up the points. It makes me very proud that I can be of some help to the people in need.”

Yash Anand

Imagine Math student, Vista Hills Elementary

29 Beneficiary Charities

THINKing of Others

Imagine Learning is proud to report that 2021–2022’s students donated to 29 beneficiary charities, choosing to transform their math achievements into an impressive $83,060 for worthy causes! (Cue Whitney Houston because we, too, believe ‘the children are the future.’) It’s an incredible testament to their characters and their efforts to advance their learning, and as a bonus, it gives teachers a morale boost.

Tracy Gonzalez, a 4th-grade math teacher at W.C. Andrews Elementary in the Gregory-Portland ISD, says, “it makes me so happy, and I’m so proud of my students when they enjoy donating their THINK points to charities! They are helping towards a great cause every time they do so!”

The American Red Cross Tornado Relief Fund was one of the partner charities this year. Vista Hills Elementary student Yash Anand was the top donor in the nation, earning a remarkable 1.6 million THINK points to contribute to the fund.

“I wanted to be the No. 1 on the leaderboard in the state of Texas, so I had to do a lot of lessons – and that’s how I racked up the points,” said Anand. “It makes me very proud that I can be of some help to the people in need.”

Find What Drives Them

Students should be celebrated for working hard, whether they’re in it for the avatar, the parties, the competition, or the good karma. Their motivation can be as personal as the learning path they’re on, just as long as they also have a meaningful exploration of (and growth in!) mathematical understanding.

About the Author — Kallie Markle

Kallie Markle lives in Northern California with her family of humans, house plants, and dogs. The humans take up the least amount of space. Before joining the education world, she wrote her way through national parks, concerts, tourism, and brewing.

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April 28, 2022 8:00 am

Four Ways We Design for Students

We know your students are always at the center of your lesson planning. They’re at the heart of ours, too.

Trusting us with your students — and keeping their best interests at heart — is a privilege that we don’t take lightly. You want to know that when students log in to one of our programs, they’re receiving the absolute best instruction and an equitable user experience. Most of all, you want to know that it works.  

We share each educator’s mission to foster student growth. 

Still, when we say we create dynamic, student-centered digital curricula, what exactly do we mean? Here are four ways we design for students: it starts with research (efficacy and foundational), we take the time to talk to students and teachers like you and incorporate feedback, we prioritize equity, and we’re always searching for ways to better engage students in their learning. This way, when you’re using one of our programs, you can focus on what you do best: connecting with students and, you know, teaching.

1. It starts with a strong foundation in research

Our research team at Imagine Learning geeks out on a wide body of peer-reviewed research. So, you can know that when students complete lessons, they’re going to receive instruction steeped in what works. Two types of research are incorporated: foundational (what we build our products on), and efficacy (how we measure the effectiveness of what we’ve created).

Foundational Research  

Imagine Learning incorporates well-accepted research into its work at every opportunity, drawing from a wide range of inquiry and analysis to inform the instructional design of our solutions and ignite learning breakthroughs. 

Let’s take a quick look at how this works for one of our products, Imagine Math. We know conceptual understanding is critical for math success… but what method of instruction supports this best? Dr. Heather West, the Principal Foundational Research Specialist at Imagine Learning shares, “To effectively support students’ conceptual understanding of mathematics, it is important that we draw on research to determine what students need to learn to master grade-level content and how to best teach these concepts. Our Imagine Math lessons incorporate the concrete-representational-abstract framework to help students make meaning of the concept, make connections across representations, and understand the underlying concepts behind the procedures.”  

Additionally, research has found that students who are intrinsically motivated perform at higher levels (Lemos & Verissimo, 2014; Skaalvik et al., 2015), are more inclined to persevere when faced with challenges (Huang, 2011), and develop a deeper understanding of content (Zainuddin et al., 2020). Therefore, Imagine Math aims to intrinsically motivate students by incorporating real-world situations that are interesting and relatable. These lessons also encourage choice and promote self-directed learning by encouraging them to choose from a variety of reward environments and skills-based games. 

Discover how we translate critical research into smart instructional design for all or our products to propel learning outcomes for students.  

Efficacy Research 

We continuously measure the impact our programs have on student success and school communities. “Our evaluative studies,” said Andrew Berrett, PhD, Director of Efficacy Research at Imagine Learning, “are designed to meet the level of research rigor required by the Every Student Succeeds Act (2016) in demonstrating evidence of effectiveness for a diverse population of students across the nation. Insights obtained from these studies are used to inform the instructional design of our solutions and ignite learning breakthroughs.”

Here are a few recent examples:  

Credit Recovery Students Using Edgenuity Recover 26 Percent More Credits and Graduate at a Higher Rate than Their Peers: A research brief showing how Cypress-Fairbanks Independent School District students enrolled in Imagine Edgenuity’s online English I, English II, Algebra I, U.S. History, and Biology credit recovery courses obtained more credits and achieved higher course grades than an equivalent group of students enrolled in a face-to-face credit recovery course. 

An Evaluation of the Effectiveness of Language & Literacy for Improving Reading Skills: An independent research study that shows how fourth- and fifth-grade students who used Imagine Language & Literacy showed significantly more growth in reading skills than comparable students who did not use Imagine Learning. 

You can browse the entire library of efficacy research here. 

2. The most important feedback comes from students (and teachers!) 

Real students give us real feedback, and their reactions and opinions are integrated into design choices such as minimizing distractions on the page, the addition of micro-celebrations and opportunities to motivate students, and more. 

Once we’ve got a prototype of a desired program, or updates to an existing one, Imagine Learning’s Product Experience Design team form a test group of students (and educators!) that use the product for a set amount of time. There are two main questions the team asks when doing user research. First, can they design for specific students’ needs and wants? Empathy is the keyword here. Our products should be designed with empathy for what both educators and students want and need.  

The second question they keep in mind is, do our ideas translate into something meaningful for students and teachers?  

“We want to test specific aspects of our designs or ideas and understand whether or not they actually work for users,” said Imagine Learning user experience researcher, Michael Richard. “I think it’s the Hippocratic oath — which is ‘do no harm.’ If you are trying to build something new and exciting and interesting, you also have to evaluate whether or not students and instructors are able to effectively accomplish the tasks that you think are critical. Because you can make something beautiful but if nobody understands how to use it, that’s kind of a huge problem.” 

3. Diversity, equity, and inclusion are important

Diversity and inclusivity strengthen our team, enrich our lives, and help us better serve our students with materials in which they not only see themselves reflected but also learn about diverse people, cultures, experiences, and perspectives. Our materials fit into practices like Culturally and Linguistically Sustaining Teaching and Universal Design for Learning – where each student’s unique learning journey is valued.  

Here are the principles we follow when creating content:  

Inclusion: Create content reflective of our users so that students see themselves, their family members, and their communities in the content. 

Representation: Show people and groups the way they want to be shown via terminology, visual and cultural representations, and more.  

Perspective: Include more diversity of perspectives to create more complete and accurate materials, including centering of viewpoints outside of the dominant culture.   

Accuracy: Be fact-based, provide context, and talk about impacts.  

A quick example of this can be found in Imagine Math, which promotes learning through lovable characters, songs, and stories. The characters are intentionally designed to be culturally inclusive and to inspire students to dream big. STEM-driven careers are highlighted throughout the narrative; Ruby wants to be an engineer when she grows up, Maya is a scientist in the making, Oliver likes to build robots, and Sophia is on her way to becoming a doctor. The narration fosters feelings of relatedness and inclusivity between students and Imagine Math’s friendly characters.

Another example of diversity in our products can be found in Imagine Español, a K-5 Spanish Language Arts curriculum:

4. We engage students with relevant content

At Imagine Learning, we are focused on constantly updating our content to make it more relevant and engaging for students. For example, we’ve added new video content to Imagine Edgenuity this year that features student actors talking to and explaining key concepts to students.

Imagine Edgenuity — Integers and the Number Line Math Lesson

Using a real-life example, students are led through a small exploration of how integers impact their lives. Through this video they learn examples and non-examples of integers and can apply it to the learning that lies ahead.

Additionally, Imagine MyPath K–12 is a supplemental curriculum that utilizes Smart Sequencer™ technology to prioritize essential skills and create individual learning paths (ILPs) in reading and mathematics. However, if a fifth-grade student is reading at a first-grade level, they do not receive the same examples and instruction as a first-grade student would. A student’s chronological grade determines their experience in the program and the presentation of information, but their skill level determines the types of questions presented, humanizing their experience.
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Designing for students is our commitment not just to the younger generations, but to educators like you as well. With a well-crafted curriculum, you don’t have to search endlessly on the internet for relevant materials. You can focus on what matters most: your students.  

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March 22, 2022 8:00 am

Humanizing Personalized Learning with Paul Emerich France

“The key to personalized learning is seeing and honoring the humanity in every student.”

Personalized learning is in high demand as schools navigate the uncertainties of a pandemic. While web-based, adaptive tools allow us to individualize learning for students, we can’t forget the need to humanize models for personalization and center students in our instruction. 

In a webinar on March 3rd, Paul Emerich France elaborated on four pillars of the Humanized Personalization Equity Framework, and teachers left with tangible steps they could implement the next day to humanize personalization in their classrooms.

High School student sits at desk playing with a pencil

Center Humanity

“Make space in your teaching for identity work, storytelling, and discussions of belonging.” 

Paul emphasized the importance of exploring identity, not just as a beginning of the year “get-to-know-you” activity. Revisit the topic of identity throughout the year because “when students know and see one another, we create cultures of belonging which are critical to equity work.” 

Redefine Success 

“Humanize assessment through qualitative assessment, interactive portfolios, and journaling.” 

While learner agency is key to the success of personalized learning, he cautioned that it’s not a “free-for-all.” Teachers should focus on actions and activities that cultivate agency, like validating students’ journeys and promoting student self-evaluation. 

Using a simple structure focusing on celebrations, challenges, and next steps, teachers can use qualitative assessments to get an understanding of the whole picture of a students’ learning journey. Though these assessments are qualitative, Paul emphasized that they should still be standards-aligned.  

Teach in Three Dimensions 

“Make learning personal in whole-group, small-group, and individualized settings.” 

Paul touted the workshop model’s opportunities for both convergence and divergence as a prime learning model to incorporate all three dimensions. Convergence allows for interpersonal connection, he said, while “divergence allows for both learner- and teacher-driven personalization.” 

The Three Dimensions: 

1. Shaping the collective conscious

“Personalized learning can happen in the whole group with the right techniques.” 

  • Short mini lessons 
  • Universal content 
  • Competencies and habits 
  • Encouraging student voice 

2. Small groups and partnerships 

“Small groups and partnerships allow for building a collective consciousness in smaller, more intimate settings.” 

  • Leverage formative data to make flexible groupings 
  • Mix heterogeneous and homogeneous groupings 
  • Make all learning a conversation 

3. Nurturing the inner dialogue 

“Individualization can occur in the classroom, just not necessarily in the way you might think.” 

  • Conference efficiently by providing one compliment and one suggestion
  • Document conferences in student journals using sticky notes 

Prioritize Connection 

“Keep students connected to one another through complex instruction and EdTech Minimalism.” 

Complex instruction is composed of three elements: multiple-ability curriculum, human-centered instructional strategies, and culturally aware pedagogy. Paul showed an example of an open-ended math activity and provided a downloadable resource to plan for a similarly complex activity. 

In order to practice EdTech Minimalism, Paul suggested asking yourself these four questions when planning to incorporate technology into instruction: 

  • Will the technology minimize the complexity of personalization?
  • Will the technology maximize individual power and potential?
  • Will the technology reimagine learning?
  • Will the technology preserve or enhance human connection? 

Reflecting on these answers helps us to see the difference between humanized and dehumanized personalization. Humanized personalization is powered by humans, while dehumanized personalization is powered by technology. Humanized personalization connects learners, while dehumanized personalization isolates them. By working toward always centering students in instruction, we are on the path toward humanizing personalized learning. 

Free Resources

Download Paul’s Identity Unit and Planning for Complex Instruction guide.  

Watch the webinar recording:

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February 15, 2022 8:00 am

Building Agency in the Student-Centered Classroom

Foster independence both inside and outside the classroom by encouraging students to take control of their own learning.

A classroom of students raising their hands

In an effort to increase engagement and promote student agency in their classrooms, teachers are encouraged to provide options, or “voice and choice,” to their students. A “choose your own adventure” learning model, if you will.  

This is all very exciting, but, as a former educator, I understand the sheer panic that comes with handing over the reins to your students. 

I know you know what I’m talking about. You’d been planning a unit for months, but nothing was clicking. Then, in the middle of the night (or while washing your hair in the shower), it hits you — the perfect culminating project. Equal parts engaging, rigorous, and (most importantly) student-centered, it will be the piece de resistance of your unit. With excitement, you create the project instructions, giving students just enough information that they know what is expected, but not so much that you stifle creativity. Perfect! 

Now I’m sure you already know where I’m going with this, but suffice to say, the roll-out and end results don’t go quite as planned. First, you’re peppered with questions like, “Is this for a grade?” and “What are we supposed to do?” Then, once you’ve answered those by reiterating the open-ended nature of the project, you look around at your students and see stares as blank as their Google docs. The project then becomes onerous, with you explaining and re-explaining the goals daily. And then when it’s time to review the projects, you think back to that initial spark of excitement when creating it and can’t help but wonder what you did wrong in the execution. Some students totally got it! But the majority did not. 

You conclude that the project was too open-ended. Student-centered is great in theory (and you absolutely want your students to be independent thinkers), but you need to give more thorough, step-by-step instructions with examples from now on.

For a classroom to be truly student-centered, for the projects and the choice boards to have their desired effects, students need to have self-regulatory skills — in other words, they need to have agency. Some students walk into your classroom with this already, but most don’t. The students who “have it” are the ones who make us believe this is an innate personality trait. While some people may be “born with it,” that doesn’t mean the rest of us are out of luck. Self-regulation and agency can be taught. 

Before we get to that, we need to examine what we’re asking students to do. Are we requiring agency from our students with the assignments we give them? Or are we providing them with step-by-step instructions and exact criteria for the final product? Dent and Koenka found in their 2016 study that “highly structured tasks provide more detailed requirements, have a clearer linear procedure, involve more identifiable answers, and often include more precise assessment criteria. Taken together, these features may require less self-regulation of learning because a strategic plan, subgoals, and way to monitor performance are already embedded within the task structure.” 

So, by reverting to painstakingly detailed instructions with step-by-step teacher support, we are not fostering autonomy. Instead, we are promoting the idea that students need us to tell them how and what to learn. But the whole point of agency is that students can thrive when we are not there to guide them. 

During the transition from in-person to virtual learning, teachers became acutely aware of the results of this handholding. No longer in the same physical space, it was nearly (or completely) impossible to cajole reluctant students into completing their work. Students you’d normally be able to win over with “cringy” teacher humor and help along could now turn off their cameras and walk away from their computers. 

It comes as no surprise that one of teachers’ chief complaints after a year of distance learning was the lack of accountability. 

“Students are not as honest or engaged remotely. Many cheat because they can. Some pretend to be in class and aren’t. There is less accountability now, which only hurts them.” 

But what do we mean when we talk about accountability?

Based on this quote, we can put together a working definition of accountability, or at least how this particular teacher sees it — present, engaged, and possessing academic integrity. But virtual instruction adds another layer to this. Students must motivate themselves to be all of those things. They need to self-regulate — accountability is just another term for agency.  

The initial transition to online learning was so sudden that teachers were forced to try to fit the lessons they had planned into a virtual model. What the Christensen Institute found in their study was that “online learning used only to support conventional instruction made teachers’ jobs more complicated.” 

Everyone had to pivot, but it seemed like the teachers who managed to truly embrace online learning for the personalization it offers students shifted out of panic mode more quickly. Implementing things like choice boards, playlists, and drop-in office hours, students were not always working on the same thing at the same time. When they let go of the need for all students to be on the same page and learning in the same way, they saw an increase in engagement. Students became invested in their learning when it was at their pace. 

So, it seems that giving students voice and choice in their learning does welcome a larger number of students into the group that has “it.” But there are still many students who need more than six different formative assessment options to regulate their own learning. 

How do we support student agency? 

Dent and Koenka note that “for students in elementary and secondary school, academic performance is significantly correlated with both the cognitive strategies and metacognitive processes of self-regulated learning.” 

Cognitive strategies are the skills we are already helping students to develop — setting goals, creating assignment plans and outlines. These are tools students can use to monitor their progress. But that is where the tough part comes in: they still need help with the monitoring piece. “While cognitive strategies help students learn, metacognitive processes ensure that they have done so” (Dent & Koenka). 

You might be thinking that you’re pretty sure your credential program didn’t cover how to teach metacognition. But actually, there are some strategies you are probably already using in your teaching that can help support students’ metacognitive skills. 

1. Model your thinking 

Now, not the kind of modeling where you plan it out ahead of time to be exactly what you want to show students. The kind of modeling that promotes metacognitive development is when you authentically demonstrate your thought process — the successes, struggles, and everything in between. Show students not only that you get stuck on a word or a problem, but the way in which you work yourself to an understanding. 

2. Reflect on learning 

“Reflecting on experiences (whether behavioral or academic) helps students move forward from a setback and furthers their growth toward student agency. Encourage students to reflect on their learning experience by simply asking the question, ‘What did I learn from this?’ after completing each lesson, unit, and project. Doing this will help students start to gain a sense of awareness so they can make appropriate changes in their lives and learning to achieve better outcomes.”

3. “I don’t know, let’s look that up” 

As teachers, we often feel self-imposed pressure to always have an answer when a student asks a question. Even if you tell yourself you are going to be forthcoming with what you don’t know, it’s hard to get past the impulse to have a response. But by showing your students that you know the gaps in your knowledge (and you have the tools to fill them), you are teaching them that they can do the same. 

The ability to monitor comprehension, or “self-check,” could be the key to student agency. Dent and Koenka observed that “students who are more vigilant for gaps in their knowledge of learning material should perform better on academic tasks requiring it.” 

So, if we want students to embrace the open-ended projects and move along on their self-paced checklists, let’s show them it’s okay to not understand. In fact, let’s celebrate that awareness as the first step on the path toward autonomous learning.  

About the Author — Ally Jones

Ally Jones is a California credentialed educator who specialized in teaching English language learners at the secondary level. Outside of education, she is passionate about fitness, literature, and taking care of the planet for her son’s generation.  

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June 10, 2020 8:00 am

Understanding the Mindset of a Struggling Student

When we see failures and frustrations as opportunities, and reinforce the principles of self-efficacy, we can better support our struggling students.

Working with struggling students requires mounds of patience and a steady course of perseverance and sometimes creativity. Most learning isn’t easy; it’s hard, messy work, and as educators, we deal with the downsides and difficulties of learning every day, especially now. But we also see our student’s failures and frustrations as opportunities, and we can help by understanding the mindset of a struggling student, and by reinforcing the principles of self-efficacy.

What is self-efficacy? The definition is straightforward: “a person’s perception that he or she has the skill and capability to undertake a particular task.” If students believe they can succeed, they can. Yet, many students come to our classes lacking this belief, and with no growth mindset. Retired Penn State Professor Dr. Mary Ellen Weimer has several ideas to keep in mind when working with struggling learners.

teacher at desk

Understanding the Mindset of a Struggling Student

They lack confidence. A student’s self-esteem has a direct effect on their academic performance. Students who struggle with confidence may believe there is no point in trying, and that where they are now is where they will always be. When asked to write a paper or work through a challenging math concept, they are often convinced they’ll do poorly before they even begin. When teachers ask if they need help with a difficult assignment, they may say no, or not respond at all. We can help these students by praising small steps in the right direction. Let them know what you like about their work in specific terms: “You’re on the right track with that equation. You got this.” And try to show them tangible proof of their growth by comparing early classwork to what they are doing now, which can help build self-efficacy in a concrete way.

They fear failure. When given a rigorous task, students can be too afraid of making a mistake to try. They can take failure personally, lacking the understanding that failure is a part of the learning process. Creating autonomy with these students is still possible, though; take, for example, The University of Montana’s Best Fail Ever campaign. The University aimed to “increase students’ resilience and convey the message that it is okay to fail sometimes.” Here, students became more comfortable with acknowledging their self-efficacy by sharing their own “best fail ever” stories publicly across campus. Programs like this demonstrate to students that failure can be a path to growth. When teachers find ways to alleviate students’ anxiety of failure, students are more likely to focus on learning.

They are easily distracted. Life is always distracting, and students (and adults) are dealing with more distractions than ever now. Often, students struggle with separating their study time from their lives, and that became more difficult as schools closed, forcing learning to take place at home. According to Dr. Weimer, “these students are easily distracted by their work, their friends, their social life, and even perhaps responsibilities at home. They respond to what’s pressing at the moment, and that’s often not studying, which can be done at the last minute with the phone on and with text messages coming in.” However, research has continually demonstrated that doing too much at once can be overstimulating for the brain. According to John Sweller’s cognitive load theory, “working memory has a very limited capacity. When too much information is presented at once, we feel overwhelmed, and much of that information is lost.” As educators, we can help redirect our student’s cognitive capacity to the right place by providing students with proactive tips on how to be productive when doing school work.

They’re in the course to get the grade, and learning is not the primary objective. Often, students will choose to do the minimum. They are often satisfied with less than their best—if the course is a requirement, and the content is not interesting to them, they see no reason to put forth much effort. They may view assignments as things to complete as quickly as possible. They can prefer easy learning. According to Dr. Weimer, “they don’t want courses or assignments that tax their ‘mental muscles’ too much.” These students prefer specific directions with little room for interpretation or critical thinking. They would rather work on worksheets than answer open-ended questions, and they steer clear of assignments where they could be wrong and it might be their fault.

As educators, we often have to find unconventional ways to reach kids that lack a desire to learn and may not see the potential for their future that comes with authentic learning. If we focus on showing students how achievements can benefit their lives, we can instill hope.
teacher icon

How Can Teachers Help Students Become Better Learners?

By understanding the mindset of a struggling student, educators can become more aware of how to help all students become better learners. The tips below offer a good starting point for all educators:

  • Help students develop metacognitive awareness (or being aware of how you learn/creating autonomy).
  • Cultivate your love of learning by sharing past experiences and values with your students.
  • Strive to make the material relevant to applicable real-world scenarios.
  • Provide regular, ongoing in-class review and teacher feedback.
  • Expect failure and frustration, be prepared with plenty of patience.

School psychologist Dr. Allen Mendler wrote, “hope must precede responsibility because kids who lack hope have no reason to act in responsible kinds of ways. There’s no reason to be motivated unless [the student] is hopeful that this particular class is somehow going to improve [his or her] life; that coming to this school is better than not coming.” As educators, it is our job to help give students—especially struggling students and especially now—this hope that learning is the key to a better future. And giving that hope starts with understanding the mindset of a struggling student.

Sources

Bartimote-Augglick, K., Bridegmen, a., Walker, R., Sharma, M., & Smith, L. (2016). The Study Evaluation and Improvement of University Student Self-efficacy. Studies in Higher Education, 14(11), 1918–1942.

Brooks, a. (2019, February 25). 7 Tips to Create the Perfect Study Environment for You. Rasmussen College Life Blog. Source

John Sweller’s Cognitive Load Theory. (2019, January 14). Exploring Your Mind. Source

Mendler, a. (N.d.). Motivating Students Who Don’t Care. Ascd. Source

Ni, C. (2019). Designing for Learning Growth: Encouraging Metacognitive Practice to Support Growth Mindsets in Students [unpublished Master’s Thesis]. Carnegie Mellon University School of Design. Source

Saks, N. (2016, October 4). ‘Best Fail Ever’ Asks Student to Talk Failure and Resilience. Montana Public Radio. Source

Shore, K. (N.d.). Classroom Problem Solver: the Student With Low Self Esteem. Education World. Source

Weimer, M. (2018). What Are Five Methods to Help Students Become More Effective Learners? Source

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March 24, 2020 8:00 am

Setting Online Learning Goals with Students

Figuring out learning goals can help to both offer internal motivation to students and show students the value of learning (because who hasn’t heard the question, “When am I ever going to use this?”).

Happy student on laptop listening on headphones

Regardless of how a student learns — in a traditional setting, online, by doing—a great first step for ensuring success is setting learning goals.

Because everyone is different, figuring out learning goals can help to both offer internal motivation to students and show students the value of learning (because who hasn’t heard the question, “When am I ever going to use this?”).

When learning is self-directed, setting goals is even more important because students have to rely more on themselves to ensure they’re learning.

For every student who chunks out the work involved in a semester-long project, 10 more students wait until the week before the project is due to start it. (Guilty!)

And because online learning is often more self-directed, setting online learning goals can be critical to student success.

How to help students set good goals for their online learning?

It’s not that different than it is for traditional learning. It starts with offering guidance, monitoring progress, reflecting, and celebrating achievements.

To start, make sure students know what a goal is and what it means to have one (or more).

This is particularly important for younger students.

If a student doesn’t understand what a goal is, they’ll struggle to work toward meeting it and being successful.

Fortunately, goal-setting is a skill, which means it can be taught, so start by teaching your students about goals, the same way you might teach reading or math.

No matter their age, your students will have already met some goals, so look for examples from their own lives that you can use to explain goals and goal-setting.

Next, teach students how to set good goals.

There’s a world of difference between easy, “gimme” goals and impossible-to-achieve goals, so make sure students understand this. Students should be setting online learning goals that offer some degree of challenge, but aren’t impossible to meet.

One way to help ensure students are setting good goals is to have one main end goal with several progress-related goals that they’ll meet throughout the process of meeting the main one.

And consider teaching students about SMART goals, which can help them create clear and reasonable goals.

Once goals are set, monitor and document the process of meeting them.

It’s possible goals will need to change after students have begun working toward meeting them, so it’s best for both student and teacher to monitor progress.

This way, goal adjustments can be made if needed so students can still be successful even if something has changed.

If students are not meeting goals, reflect on possible reasons for that.

This could be happening for a number of reasons. Maybe the student is struggling to understand a concept and can’t move forward without assistance.

Or they don’t understand the expectations placed on them for online learning.

Whatever the case may be, there’s a reason why they’re not meeting their goals, so do some digging to figure that out.

And as students meet goals, celebrate!

Though most experts would agree that the feeling of accomplishment is more valuable than a tangible reward, there’s nothing wrong with strategically rewarding students with praise and/or goods.

This can be especially useful for younger students, and when larger goals are met.

Utilizing classroom webpages and social media accounts, you can create a tracking system, like a chart with stickers, so that students can see their progress. And since celebrating achievements virtually requires some creativity, we’ve shared some tips for doing so.

At the end of the day, it’s most important that students understand why and how to set goals, as well as how to monitor progress toward achieving those goals.

Making progress toward meeting goals is really important, so if goals aren’t met, make sure students understand that they have not failed, and that making progress is its own goal. 

To start, make sure students know what a goal is and what it means to have one (or more).

This is particularly important for younger students. If a student doesn’t understand what a goal is, they’ll struggle to work toward meeting it and being successful. Fortunately, goal-setting is a skill, which means it can be taught, so start by teaching your students about goals, the same way you might teach reading or math.

No matter their age, your students will have already met some goals, so look for examples from their own lives that you can use to explain goals and goal-setting.