The Middle School Must Prepare Students for the Last Day of Ninth Grade
How many middle school educators have heard, “The middle school’s job is to get you ready for high school!” As a middle school principal, I can understand and appreciate that perspective. In fact, we have shared an added responsibility to our Lake Fenton Middle School team. Our job is not to focus on the preparation of our students for the first day of ninth grade, but rather ensuring their success while reflecting on their last day of ninth grade.
The first year of high school is the best predictor for future student achievement and potential student drop out (Schiller 1999). Lake Fenton Middle School prepares a network of support for students to deal with the inherent social, academic, emotional, and physical challenges that they will encounter. Though these attempts are well intentioned, they may fail to address a significant area of need. What if students have not developed the key attributes needed to be successful learners? More simply, what if students have not learned how to learn? Without an intervention, previous academic failure will likely maintain its course or even compound it when coupled with the challenges of transitioning to the high school (Schiller). What if research suggests that for all children, prior academic performance did not predict future success, but rather a student’s ability to develop a set of skills or strategies may be even more significant? The answer may rest in the research on Self-Regulated Learning.
What is Self-Regulated Learning (SRL)? In an effort to allow students of any age to apply SRL, this article will share an overview of SRL and perhaps allow families to employ some strategies at home. SRL basically believes there are three processes to learning which include metacognition, motivation, and student behavior. In simplest terms, metacognition is planning. Motivation involves monitoring energy and effort. Student behavior in learning is far more than simply following the rules, but intentionally doing the actions that will yield the best results.
Metacognition (Planning and Task Analysis before learning)
When students are capable of self-regulation, they are able to take control of their learning outcomes. Key component skills of SRL processes include (during the planning phase) setting specific proximal goals and adopting strategies for attaining the goals. Parents, you can be a part of the goal-setting. In fact, significant research suggests mutually developed parent and student goals are a great indicator for future academic achievement (Bandura 1992).
Motivation (Monitoring, Energy and Effort)
After parents and students have set goals, the most important motivational strategy is to monitor progress frequently. Students must be held accountable. Why Weight Watchers work for so many people. It is not just about being accountable to the scale, but rather each week the motivated dieter must look a Weight Watchers representative in the eye and tell that person the “number.” Students would benefit from having an adult to tell their “number” to each week.
Behavior (Environment, Reflection, and Adaptation)
We cannot stress enough that behavior in this instance is not about getting in trouble in school. Are your students aware of the physical and social space that would be best to achieve the goals you have set and are monitoring frequently? Are children managing their time wisely? Are they reflecting on their efforts and determining what worked or equally as important, what did not work? Lastly, based on reflecting on the experiences, are students changing their approach to learning?
An example of SRL in the classroom
During an observation of a 6th grade writing classroom, students were using a series of SRL strategies while reviewing their spelling words for the week. For several years, the teacher found that students usually performed well on tests. Regrettably, the words were not committed to memory as they were simply memorized the night before the test. This year she rolled out a new approach where students set goals, monitor their progress, and reflect on their outcomes.
Students take a pretest with eighteen words. Students must identify which words were misspelled on this first attempt. Students now have some data for which they may create a goal. Students practice spelling words with various learning activities catered to different learning approaches. Students must document the activity and the time spent. After the spelling test, the students return the document with their scores. Next, students reflect on the relationship between the types of activities they used and their learning to determine what learning style works best for them. Being able to monitor their progress and reflect on their outcomes in the context of spelling has improved the students’ confidence. They now have the tools to combat their individual challenges with spelling and are motivated to continue with an approach that is successful or try another avenue to reach their goals.
Moving Forward
Set Goals. Monitor Progress. Reflect. Adapt.
Written by Dan Ferguson, Principal at Lake Fenton Middle School