The Leaders of Their Own Learning Companion

New Tools and Tips for Tackling the Common Challenges of Student-Engaged Assessment

Ron Berger, Anne Vilen, Libby Woodfin

• Publisher: Jossey-Bass
• Year: 2019
• Print ISBN: 9781119596721
• eBook ISBN: 9781119596745
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Education
• Subtopic: Classroom Management

A New Companion to Leaders of Their Own Learning Puts Students in Charge of Their Learning and Growth

Five years after the publication of Leaders of Their Own Learning, EL Education is back with a new companion guide to help you tackle the common challenges of student-engaged assessment. This unique, student-centered approach to assessment equips and compels students to understand goals for their learning and growth, track their progress toward those goals, and take responsibility for reaching them.

EL Education has more than 25 years of experience supporting school transformation through student-engaged assessment. With their new book, The Leaders of Their Own Learning Companion, they have harvested the best tools and wisdom from schools across the country to help you hone student-led assessment practices in your classroom and school.

• Identifies the common challenges of implementing each of the eight interrelated student-engaged assessment practices from Leaders of Their Own Learning, and provides strategies and tools for tackling them
• Offers practical tips for school leaders
• Deepens your learning with 46 videos and an online toolbox

The Leaders of Their Own Learning Companion is designed for teachers and leaders of all grade levels and no prior knowledge of the original Leaders of Their Own Learning is necessary to make the most of this book.

Chapter 1
Learning Targets

Photo credit: EL Education

---

What Are Learning Targets?

Learning targets are goals for lessons, projects, units, and courses. They are derived from standards and used to assess growth and achievement. They are written in concrete, student-friendly language (beginning with the stem “I can”), shared with students, posted in the classroom, and tracked carefully by students and teachers during the process of learning. Students spend a good deal of time discussing and analyzing them and may be involved in modifying or creating them.

---

After reading Leaders of Their Own Learning, you may have charged enthusiastically into using learning targets, only to discover that it's harder than you thought to craft high-quality learning targets and use them well. You may be struggling to write learning targets that focus students effectively on the intended learning, or you write them on the board but students don't really engage with them. These are common challenges.

---

The moment my eighth-grade year [in an EL Education network school] ended, I became nervous to leave the world of learning targets behind… . [In my traditional public high school] I got really nervous because without a target, I had no purpose, no clarity, and no direction… . So I wrote targets for myself every single day in every single class.¹

—Elena Fulton, graduate of The Odyssey School of Denver

---

Learning targets are the foundation of a student-engaged assessment system. Yet many teachers find that it takes two or three years, or longer, to master the use of them. We have found that it is most helpful to think of learning targets as a strategy that one never gets perfect. Instead, creating and using learning targets artfully and effectively can become a core part of your practice that is continually improving every year. Your hard work and persistence will be worthwhile! When students really know what they are trying to learn, can see a pathway to success, and can monitor their progress along the way, they are more engaged and motivated to work hard and grapple with challenges.

In this chapter we will build on the techniques offered in Leaders of Their Own Learning to help you meet three learning targets. Along the way we'll give you an opportunity to explore solutions to the common challenges many teachers face when working toward each learning target.

---

Learning Targets for Chapter 1

1. I can craft high-quality learning targets.
2. I can use learning targets throughout a lesson to build students' understanding and ownership of their learning.
3. I can create sets of learning targets that ensure my students are aiming for grade-level standards.

---

---

Pre-Assessment: Track Your Progress: Chapter 1

---

Before we dive in, take a moment to assess yourself on each of the learning targets for this chapter. In Table 1.1, circle or place an X along the continuum from Beginning to Exceeding: How would you rate your progress toward each learning target at this point in time?

Table 1.1 Chapter 1 learning target tracker

Learning Target 1: I can craft high-quality learning targets. Beginning-------------------------------------Developing-------------------------------------Meeting-------------------------------------Exceeding Notes:

Learning Target 2: I can use learning targets throughout a lesson to build students' understanding and ownership of their learning. Beginning-------------------------------------Developing-------------------------------------Meeting-------------------------------------Exceeding Notes:

Learning Target 3: I can create sets of learning targets that ensure my students are aiming for grade-level standards. Beginning-------------------------------------Developing-------------------------------------Meeting-------------------------------------Exceeding Notes:

We'll give you a chance to assess yourself again at the end of the chapter.

---

Learning Target 1: I can craft high-quality learning targets.

---

Challenge #1: My students are working hard and generally doing what I've asked them to do, but they aren't always learning what they need to learn.

TRY THIS: GET REALLY CLEAR ABOUT WHAT YOU WANT STUDENTS TO LEARN BEFORE YOU WRITE LEARNING TARGETS

It may seem obvious, but it's important for you, as a teacher, to be really clear about what you want your students to learn befor...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Table of Contents
• Video Contents
• About the Authors
• About EL Education
• Acknowledgments
• Foreword
• Preface
• Introduction
• Chapter 1: Learning Targets
• Chapter 2: Checking for Understanding during Daily Lessons
• Chapter 3: Using Data with Students
• Chapter 4: Models, Critique, and Descriptive Feedback
• Chapter 5: Student-Led Conferences
• Chapter 6: Celebrations of Learning
• Chapter 7: Passage Presentations with Portfolios
• Chapter 8: Standards-Based Grading
• Appendix 1: What's in the Online Toolbox?
• References
• Index
• End User License Agreement