3 minute read
Summary
• Sample hooks for learning from the “Helping Students Create Hooks and Connections to Learning” activity • Metacognitive goals • SMART goals with a goal-setting process plan • A transcribed “Grit” interview • The “Turning Disappointments Into Opportunities for Growth” strategy example • A graded assignment analysis using the strategy presented in “Analyzing Graded Assignments”
Adding the preceding items to their strategies binder will keep the binder a relevant and current resource for their independent learning journey. The strategies binder will be valuable to educators as comprehensive reports on how individual students are progressing in their goals and classwork.
Academically and in life, motivation is the force that helps propel students forward. Setting goals and determining values will guide and direct their efforts and give students a reason to try and a destination to move toward. These goals and values help students develop the motivation required to put forth the effort to plan, monitor progress, and continue to persist despite obstacles, roadblocks, and bumps in the road to academic success. Self-efficacy and mindset affect whether students believe in their own ability and think their efforts have an impact on their academic outcomes. Students who lack self-efficacy and a growth mindset will have trouble maintaining motivation and momentum toward achieving their goals.
When students challenge themselves, negative thoughts can distract or prevent them from reaching their goals. Learning to talk back to our negative thoughts with a more positive response helps students maintain the motivation and momentum necessary to keep moving forward. Instead of accepting everything they think as truth, students learn to engage in a practice of challenging their own negative thinking. Developing a growth mindset makes it possible for them to choose a response and a thought process that maintain their motivation to continue to work toward goals.
Lastly, it’s hard to stay motivated when you cannot see your progress or do not feel like the results that you achieve are under your control. When students develop strategies for evaluating learning through feedback, reflection, and revision, they gain the insight necessary to continue to grow toward their vision and goals. Practicing strategies for positive mindsets, goal setting, cultivating grit and resilience, and evaluating their own output and learning help students have more control over their level of motivation as they work toward becoming a more self-regulated learner. In the next chapter, we will consider how emotions affect a student’s ability to stay motivated and persist toward their goals.
© 2022 by Solution Tree Press
THE INDEPENDENT
LEARNER
Students must feel both engaged in learning the curriculum and empowered to pursue their own goals and interests. The only way teachers can achieve this is by making students partners and eventually leaders in their learning process. In The Independent Learner: Metacognitive Exercises to Help K–12 Students Focus, Self-Regulate, and Persevere, author Nina Parrish provides K–12 educators with practical strategies for teaching students how to learn and to practice metacognition. These research-backed teaching strategies equip students with intrinsic motivation, emotional literacy, and problem-solving skills, all of which will be invaluable in their classrooms and future professional lives. By reading The Independent Learner, educators, no matter their grade level or content area, will discover how to create a classroom environment that promotes engagement and self-regulation. “The introduction clearly states the purpose of the book is to provide useful strategies along with the research that backs them up. Throughout the book, the author does just that. The descriptions are clear and examples ensure that teachers can literally take strategies from this book and implement them the next day.” —Whitney Freije, Seventh-Grade Teacher, Windsor Central School District, New York
Readers will: » Learn the benefits and components of self-regulated learning » Encourage students to take ownership of their learning by providing authentic, challenging learning experiences » Discover numerous research-based strategies and activities they can use across grade levels and subject areas » Create an engaging classroom culture that promotes student agency » Receive reproducible tools and templates for maximizing student learning “The comprehensive content is appealing to educators who serve multiple grade levels and content areas, or to make available to school campuses as a professional learning resource.” —Nancy Petolick, Instructional Coach and Interventionist, Savannah Elementary, Aubrey, Texas
“This book is easy to read and follow, and the external links and the reproducible materials are excellent.” —Nathalie Fournier, K–5 French Immersion Teacher, Prairie South School Division, Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan, Canada
