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| YOU CAN LEARN! and be patient with them when they are having a bad day.” • “I will make contributions to the learning of our class by asking lots of questions when I am confused or when I have made a neat discovery.”
Like the chants, mottos, and slogans we introduced earlier in this chapter, the development of student promise statements must be something more than a one-time event. If student promise statements are going to strengthen the shared commitments of your classroom, students need to have regular opportunities to reflect on whether they are living up to the promises that they have made to their peers. To encourage this reflection, start by having students record their promise statements in the front of their notebooks. Then, have students design small posters sharing their individual statements to hang on a promise wall in your classroom. Finally, throughout the school year, ask students to stop and reflect on their promise statements. Start these moments of reflection by asking, “What are some things that you need to start doing— or stop doing—in order to better honor your promises to our classroom?” Use the reproducible tools “Developing Student Promise Statements” and “Self-Reflecting on My
Fill Classroom Walls With Evidence of Learning
In The Data Coach’s Guide to Improving Learning for All Students: Unleashing the Power of Collaborative Inquiry, Nancy B. Love, Katherine E. Stiles, Susan E. Mundry, and Kathryn DiRanna (2008) suggest that collaborative teams working with assessment results should turn data sets into large charts to display on data walls for all to see. “Go visual with your data,” they argue, “to help construct meaning, make sense, and prepare to engage in meaningful dialogue” (p. 7). We argue that “going visual” with data is also a great strategy for reinforcing a culture of learning for students. One simple way to go visual with data in your classroom is to post simple achievement charts displaying the classroom average on both pretests and post-tests (figure 1.4). As you post new achievement charts, take a few moments in class to point out the changes from pretest to post-test. Explain to your students that this difference is not an accident. Ask students probing questions such as the following. • “What is working for us as a class?” • “How are your participation and collaboration impacting your peers and our results?”
PROOF THAT WE ARE LEARNERS Our class average on our place value pretest:
Our class average on our week-two place value quiz:
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Figure 1.4: Sample classroom achievement chart.
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• “I will help our classroom to be safe, happy, and successful by always showing respect to my classmates—even when I disagree with them.”
Promise Statement” on pages 27 and 28 to integrate student promise statements into the regular work of your classroom.
