Yay! Report cards are done! Time to set new goals!

Whew... report cards went home on Friday.  It doesn't matter how prepared you think you are, it's always a stressful week.  This year I was lucky enough to get the worst case of strep EVER and was sick for an entire week.  So sick it made me dizzy to read!  You know what that means... no grading papers.  Usually unless I feel like I am on my deathbed, I lay in bed when I'm sick, watch soap operas, blow my nose, and grade papers.  Not this time!!!  Anyway, I am glad to be done with report cards and set new goals for the 2nd grading period. 

This is the first year we've posted learning goals in the classroom and while it's hard for me to remember to do, I like it.  I feel like it keeps me more focused, which is frustrating that I can't go off on my teachable moments that pop up as much as I would like, but if I am more focused, then I know the kids must be more focused, too!  The kids like "voting" with a show of fingers where they are on the learning goal rubric and they love being able to move up on the continuum.  I love watching their eyes light up when they realize they are beginning to understand the learning goal!  In my room, I use the Common Core goals made by the awesome and inspiring Deanna Jump, along with a rubric I created with my first grade team.  We based the color coding off of mClass assessments to be consistent, with the exception of the blue.  We thought this would help kids understand a bit better.  Here's our rubric:

Pick up this FREEBIE at my TpT page!  Graphics by Jessica Stanford and fonts by Fonts 4 Teachers!

Anyway, the poster actually looks nicer because we printed them out and colored the faces ourselves, but to show you, I pasted it into Paint and filled the faces in.  Blue is because you are sad that you don't get it (thanks Sheila!), then we followed the red, yellow, green color coding used by mClass.  Red in mClass means you need lots of support, yellow means little support, and green means the goal has been met.  We thought this went along with our rubric quite nicely.  Originally I had wanted the last smiley to be yellow because yellow is such a happy color to me, but my colleagues were totally right on this one!

So I was going to send home a goal setting sheet with the report cards, but couldn't decide on how I wanted to do it by Friday.  After some thinking, I think we will set our goals together in class, then send them home for parents to sign.  That way we are all on the same page!  We have our standards split up by quarters, so I will go over the standards/goals for the 2nd quarter with the kids and have them choose one as their goal.  I also think we can look over the report cards and see which of the "old" goals each student could improve on.  I know this will take some work with first graders, but they really do get excited about the rubric and I think this will help them to take responsibility and pride in their learning.

Oh... one more thing.  My favorite part about the goals and rubric... acting it out!  I wanted kids to be able to share when the lightbulb went on for them, so we came up with a quiet way for them to show their excitement.  The fourth smiley kinda has excited eyes and those lines coming off the head, so when my kids are "getting it," they make those lines with their fingers above their heads and wiggle them.  Then I don't have all of the excited gasping, but still can share in the celebration with my kiddos!