Everyone knows that teachers need to have high expectations and that is true, but sometimes we teachers look at the big picture and we want our students to do so to. For young students and even older ones this is a skill that takes a long time to develop. What seems so natural for use is almost impossible for our students. They are not able to take such broad goals and break them down into step by step processes to help them reach their goals. This is what we need to do for them.
We need to share these great goals with our students, and while those goals are important for them to know about, they should not be what the student focuses on. Instead, we need to break down the goals for them into step by step processes or smaller goals that we can celebrate along the way. For younger students, we should do this for them in a way that will model what they will learn to do later. As students mature, include them in the process of making their own goals and designing their own paths to reach their goals for themselves.
Reaching goals frequently and celebrating these successful through genuine affirmation can quickly build a child’s self confidence in different areas they may not be able to see what they are able to do and take pride in that.
Being celebrated is fun. It makes you feel good on the inside to know you are good at something. That in itself is a big motivator for students. So creating small reachable goals that students can reach motivates children to learn quickly the skill or information they are working on compared to working toward the end goal which may take all year to learn. While students are making progress, they often get frustrated and give up because the end goal seems so untouchable. An example of this will be for students to be able to read all 220 dolch words. For a kindergartener just learning to read, the teacher may make her goal to be able to read 2 words by the end of the week. If the student is able to reach that goal, make a big deal out of it! “I am so proud of you!” is a very powerful sentence to share with students, but don’t stop there. Be specific about what you are proud of, “I am so proud of you. You read 2 words this week. You are learning to read fast. Do you think you can learn 2 more words next week?” Ask the student to buy into the next small goal based on how quickly they are learning them. It might be appropriate to ask another kindergartener to buy into a goal of learning 5 words in a week. It all goes back to differentiation.
I hope you see the successes in your students and celebrate them. Encourage them to celebrate one another. They will learn it quickly through your model as praising others can make you feel as good as receiving a compliment from others. Tune into my next blog, as I continue this discussion on praising to improve focus skills.
Teacher Jen
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