No one I think is my tree (The Beatles)

Photo by Mark McGregor on Unsplash

“What can I do to get my students to put in the effort needed, persevere through setbacks, and build tools to be independent learners?”

I'm not alone it seems, in asking this question, as it leads off a recent Edutopia article.

How to sustain effort and focus has been the most pressing question in Term 2, especially relevant for a handful of students (six, to be precise).

To sum up - the article points to these tips to help students relate to their learning (my commentary is in blue): 

Provide learner clarity. At OSG the Assignment covers what the teacher needs to teach and what the learner needs to learn. It includes success criteria.

Sustain motivation (self reflection as you go on the usefulness of the material to their lives, their future careers, or the careers of professionals they admire) 

Consult with students. I'd add 'and their parents' - which we did recently with some targeted meetings. Part of those meetings was a return to the goals set in January and a pulse taking exercise.

Remind students how to get help when blocked. At OSG we use the 'Learning Pit' analogy. 
 
Have students create progress journals. At OSG we use progress checkpoints for on-going feedback and goal progress.  

Check in intentionally. My aim is to build on success and positivity (avoiding the dark side). We check in weekly with our most at risk students.
 
Complete effort-to-progress graphs. A variety of effort-to-progress graphs are available online to assist incremental goal progress. 

So, how are we doing? There is no doubt that these things help. Self-directedness doesn't mean you leave them to it! We will just need to keep at in Terms 3 and 4.