One of the areas that our principal, Dr. Dewey Hensley, asked us to really tighten up/down were our goals for our lessons. From the very beginning of the year, he has encouraged us to really gain clarity with and in our teaching practices. To that end, he gave us numerous templates with which we could work and clarify our practices in the classroom. He called them Goal Clarity Windows.
I, of course, had to spend a great majority of my time wrestling with the concept. Sadly, I approached it in the beginning as one of those projects that merely required compliance. It took me the greater part of the year to realize that these Goal Clarity Windows (GCWs) could actually be a powerful tool to guide my teaching and outcomes in the classroom!
I have chosen to break the GCWs into units. Each unit contains a number of weeks. Within those weeks, I've organized the various standards I want my students to master. When dealing with Reading and Writing standards in intermediate grades, it really isn't effective at all to teach standards in isolation. By their very nature, they are meant to be married or melded to others for a truly integrated curriculum, in my mind's eye. So, it may look overwhelming. However, it really does lend itself to solid learning!
After the standards to be covered that week, I've included all the Big Ideas (or POWER VERBS) I really want the kids to understand. To that end, I've coupled the big ideas with our learning statements for the week.
From there, I've gone so far as to include the various tasks I want students to mastery. What this means is that I've actually included the questions for assessment that I plan to ask them. I've also made a list of vocabulary that they will need to identify and define. This works well with the assessment piece.
The final part of the GCWs are my daily plans for that week as well an area for me to keep track of the students who mastered the concepts as well as those that still need work to gain mastery.
There are a number of things that make me extremely excited about my GCWs.
I, of course, had to spend a great majority of my time wrestling with the concept. Sadly, I approached it in the beginning as one of those projects that merely required compliance. It took me the greater part of the year to realize that these Goal Clarity Windows (GCWs) could actually be a powerful tool to guide my teaching and outcomes in the classroom!
I have chosen to break the GCWs into units. Each unit contains a number of weeks. Within those weeks, I've organized the various standards I want my students to master. When dealing with Reading and Writing standards in intermediate grades, it really isn't effective at all to teach standards in isolation. By their very nature, they are meant to be married or melded to others for a truly integrated curriculum, in my mind's eye. So, it may look overwhelming. However, it really does lend itself to solid learning!
After the standards to be covered that week, I've included all the Big Ideas (or POWER VERBS) I really want the kids to understand. To that end, I've coupled the big ideas with our learning statements for the week.
From there, I've gone so far as to include the various tasks I want students to mastery. What this means is that I've actually included the questions for assessment that I plan to ask them. I've also made a list of vocabulary that they will need to identify and define. This works well with the assessment piece.
The final part of the GCWs are my daily plans for that week as well an area for me to keep track of the students who mastered the concepts as well as those that still need work to gain mastery.
There are a number of things that make me extremely excited about my GCWs.
- It provides me with a very laser-focused of my goals for my students. Forgetting to cover something becomes a non-issue because it is all organized by week for me!
- I am completely planned for the year! I need only to make copies and gather the needed materials!
- These GCWs still allow me the ability to take charge of those teachable moments without getting completely off-track.
Sixteen years of teaching ... I suppose you can teach an old dog new tricks!
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