you’re not saying it’s easy. Setting low goals (like, “Be ready for class each day”) diminishes your students’ potential, selling everyone short including you. Go for the stars by learning how to create high class expectations with high goals to get students to the promised land of consistent high effort.
Giving a Reason to Believe
When you share gutsy goals, those around may be tempted to roll their eyes. It is as if they are saying, “Yeah, sure, right; like that’s going to happen.” Students in particular may have trouble buying into the gutsy goals you set, which is why it’s essential for you to give students a reason to believe in you. Big goals sound good, but unless you can back them up, you will lose your followers. How you do this is critical. Let’s visit those who already do this well—high-performing teachers.
Jamie Irish, a high school mathematics teacher in New Orleans, sets two gutsy goals. One goal is to beat the scores of a nearby, more affluent school, Lusher Charter School (Irish, 2012). He also sets a gutsy goal of being able to beat a particular mathematics score on a college entrance test. To sell students on why the first goal is important, he tells them Lusher is a selective-admission school that consistently ranks in the top ten in the state because almost all students score either mastery or advanced on the Louisiana Educational Assessment Program (the state’s high-stakes test administered in fourth and eighth grades). He also says that most Lusher students go on to attend top colleges, which is why a basic competency is not good enough. He leads his class on a mission to crush Lusher from day one. His teaching goal on day one is to expose the fallacy that passing is acceptable. The new student goal is advanced proficiency. He creates a tangible opposition (Lusher) and tangible reward (free tuition to college) when test scores are high. To affirm it, his whole class reads a newspaper article together that documents the correlations of LEAP scores with later ACT college entrance scores. For students to qualify for a scholarship providing free tuition to in-state universities, they know they must score at advanced proficiency on the ACT. He is creating greater expectations and giving them a reason to buy into them. The students know why basic is too low.
All semester long, he says, in essence, to his students, “This goal we have is critically important. I know you can do it with smart effort. I care about you. I care about your education. I will not give up on you. I will reteach this as many times as needed until everyone gets it. Because we are all in this together, if one of us fails, we all fail—and that includes me.” Through these statements, the teacher shows students the goal is worth their time, and he affirms their capacity to succeed, their relationship, and resolve.
It takes just twenty seconds to give students a reason to believe in you. All you have to say is some variation of, “I care about you, I’m good at what I do, and I’ll work hard, persist, and learn from my mistakes. You do your part, and I guarantee I’ll do my part. I won’t let any of you fail. Now, let’s get to work!”
Did you ever have a teacher say these to you in school? I didn’t. That kind of confidence, when backed up by subsequent action, can move mountains.
Reinforce your gutsy goals weekly, so that students can visualize them, hear them echo in their minds, and feel them viscerally. Post reminders and encourage students to talk to others about them. Many teachers (at both elementary and secondary levels) post college banners around the classroom. These are inspiring, especially if you write the names of past students who have gone on to that college below the banners. That’s inspiration. Unless you help students understand that it is the pursuit of the goals that makes life worthwhile—and that we all will encounter temporary failures—they may quit on you and on themselves.
Finally, and maybe most important, help teach students how to deal with failure. Tell them that failure is part of life and part of progress. Remind them often that failure is simply feedback on what did not work. Failures are lessons. Failures teach us. They can be positive when we positively accept and learn from them. How we respond to failure defines us, not the encounter itself. Getting knocked down is nothing; getting back up is everything. Students will show their true grit (see chapter 6, page 57) and get back up if their vision of worthwhile goals is strong enough and they have reinforcement along the way. That’s where micro goals come in.
Using Micro Goals to Close the Gaps
For most students, having gutsy goals is exciting. However, it’s difficult to reactivate the long-term sky-high goals over and over on cue. Any of us would find it hard to stay psyched about a goal that seems so far away. Training for the Olympics or trying to get an advanced degree are big motivators, but still, we all need those hourly, daily, and weekly nudges to keep us going. It is the trail of emotional highs that keeps us moving forward, not the once-a-year goal.
That’s why you’ll need to constantly set micro goals that your students can reach within a week or less. These specific, concrete goals can:
• Reaffirm a specific competency
• Give measurable progress toward the gutsy goals
• Provide a quick emotional affirmation and moment for a celebration
Because micro goals allow students to get immediate feedback for themselves, the effect size is a sizzling 0.97 (Marzano, Pickering, & Pollock, 2001). That’s almost two years’ worth of gains! Set daily and weekly goals that students can reach with a solid effort. This step is critical. They need to see that they can reach the big gutsy goals, one bite at a time. When students set their own micro goals, the effect size is a strong 1.21—well over two years’ worth of academic progress (Marzano et al., 2001). Although adults understand the power of greater expectations, students will use their past experiences to set goals and often set them too low. However, they don’t know how far they can go with an amazing teacher (like you). You can help them set and link the micro goal completion to the bigger gutsy goal. Then, every week, check in on your goal progress.
Many students will get discouraged on this path because they will hit obstacles. For some, they may interpret the roadblocks as a lack of ability. This is why you must continually build the growth mindset (“Your brain can change. IQ can change. Take three continuous steps forward. The one-step setbacks are temporary, and they’re simply feedback to help you discover a better way”). Unless you’re proactive in this, the setbacks will change everything.
Lastly, assume the best of your students. Always pursue the gutsy goals with a high expectation for mastery. When students get questions right or reach their micro goal, celebrate and continue interacting for even higher-order learning. There is always room for improvement. If they struggle, help them uncover the false assumptions or strategies. Help them grow. Most students learn how to play the classroom game of being safe: “Just say what the teacher wants to hear.” Do not let them sink to that level. Higher learning requires not only the achievement mindset but also the emotional safety for a relentless intellectual curiosity. If you give up on students, they’ll quit too.
CHAPTER 5
GIVE FABULOUS FEEDBACK
Every one of the strategies in this part is powerful, but this next one may be the holy grail of generating real student motivation and stronger effort. Here, you get tools to generate better quality feedback. As soon as you and I see progress, we get inspired. With feedback, the goal moves closer, and hope rises. That’s how it works for your students too. Your students need and want quality, ongoing feedback to help them learn. Engage the mindset that great feedback is the breakfast of champions. This is a way to frame equity from
