Teachers give students opportunities to share control of learning through understanding and mastering specific strategies. Teachers provide students with ample opportunities to set goals and monitor progress, both individually and collaboratively, in school and at home. Students assume responsibility for learning strategies and working toward their implementation, reflecting on their own performance and setting goals for self-development. This can be done on a weekly basis or at greater intervals. Students set goals, design strategies and identify indicators of success as well as reasons for setting the goal.
Continual monitoring helps students engage in reflective thinking.
Barbara M'Gonigle, a teacher at Dumont High School in Dumont, New Jersey, describes how she uses thinking journals in her class to help students set their own goals. Excerpted from a videotape provided by the author and Barbara M'Gonigle. Becoming better at posing their own questions. Pre, during and post reading strategies that include the KWL method, reciprocal teaching and the development of graphic organizers whereby students must think for themselves and exercise some control over the text. Becoming problem posers, not always relying on the teacher.