Math Wheels for Note-taking?

Systems for Student Success

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Systems help students establish habits that lead to success.

Goals or systems?
Do you set goals with your students at the beginning of the school year (or semester, or quarter)….or do you think about setting goals?

If so, how do students generally do with their goals? Do they achieve them? Or, as happens with so many adults, do they try really hard for a few days and then kind of forget about them?

Why is it Hard to Achieve Goals?

Why do we have difficulty achieving goals? As adults, we often fail to stick with the actions needed to get us there.

​Or we set goals that are ‘too big’ or require an incredible change in our behaviors. And it’s hard to change behaviors!

I’m not going to pretend to be an expert in behavior and change. But according to sources I’ve read and listened to lately, our brains resist change. They really want to keep us in the same patterns, with the same behaviors, because it’s comforting and safe.

​If that’s the case, then it’s a little easier to understand why students have difficulty too. If their young brains also want to  keep them in the same patterns because it’s comforting and safe, how can we, as teachers, help them to break out of those patterns to meet new goals? 


Systems in the Classroom
I recently read about the idea of not focusing on goals, but on systems.

  • Systems help us change our habits.
  • Systems are the small actions that can lead to the achievement of goals.
  • As teachers, we have systems, or routines, for the way our classrooms run.

Routines help your students understand how to function in the classroom – what to do when they arrive for the day (like unpack, go to locker, gather specific materials, sign in, work on morning work or daily challenge, etc) and what to do at the beginning and end of each class.

Systems/routines helped me meet two of my basic goals at the beginning of each day:
1) Help students be prepared and focused for the day
2) Make sure taking attendance was easy and completed

How do Classroom Systems Help Us Meet Goals?

If I had simply posted the ‘goal’ for the students (be prepared and focused for the day), prepared and focused would have looked incredibly different for each student. But creating a system (small steps) helped my students meet it.

As for attendance – my goal of remembering to take attendance was always met (ok, almost always…I did get caught up and forget a couple times a year:-).

  • The students were part of the system (they signed in on a clipboard in the front of the room); watching them sign in every morning made it very hard for me to forget to check the clipboard and record the attendance on the computer.

We have more systems in the classrooms that help students, including:

  • How we write assignments on the board
  • How students write the assignments down
  • How students remember what to take with them to each class and
  • How students remember what materials to take home for homework

But do students have systems when they aren’t in our classrooms?

Systems for student success

Systems Outside the Classroom

While the systems we create in the classroom help students find success, many students have no systems when they’re outside the classroom. How can we help students create systems of their own?

According to James Clear, in the book Atomic Habits, there are a few ‘laws’ we can follow to develop and maintain good systems (routines, habits):

1) make systems obvious

2) make them attractive

3) make them easy

4) make them satisfying

In his book, he shares specific strategies for each law, which I’m not going to go into, but let’s apply a couple of these laws to the context of completing homework regularly (often an issue for some students).

​Think about those students who frequently miss homework…not because they are refusing to do it, but because they ‘forgot,’ or ‘didn’t have time,’ or ‘they left it in their locker last night,’ or whatever the reason may be. How can they use these laws to establish a homework system (so they can eventually meet the goal of missing no homework)? 

I have a couple ideas:

1) Attach the idea of doing homework to something they already do, which is called habit-stacking (‘make it obvious’ law).

  • Help students find something they do every day…maybe they have dinner at home every day.
  • They can attach doing homework to dinner, and do it during dinner prep or right after they eat.
  • Or, if they watch t.v. or play a certain game, they can attach homework to that, doing one right after the other. They’re more likely to do the new habit (homework) if they attach it to something they like and do every day.

Blank calendar to laminate and reuse each month, for students to track homework completion (or anything else they'd like to track!)

2) Create a visual to help them maintain the system.

  • Students can track homework completion on a calendar with a smiley face or checkmark, and try not to break the streak (‘make it attractive’ and ‘make it satisfying’ laws…it’s motivating to see those smileys and each one is like a little reward).

I created this printable calendar that can be laminated and written on each month. This one is a free download.

System for Studying

Many students need a system for studying for tests. They may want to get an A or B, or maybe they just want to pass! But many students don’t quite know what to do to get the result they’re after. What type of system can they use to reach their goals?

Small steps:
1) Pair studying with daily homework completion (‘make it obvious’). When the homework for that subject is done, they can add on just 5-7 minutes of studying.            
2) Set up a system for the 5-7 minutes:

  • Go through flashcards
  • Rewrite information from notes
  • Read a couple pages of the text
  • Draw pictures/create visuals
  • Do 3-5 practice problems from a section of the chapter/unit of study

3) Track the studying on a calendar to reinforce it (‘make it attractive’).

  • Reward self with something meaningful (‘make it satisfying’)

4) A few days to a week before the assessment (depending on how big/small it is), increase study time to 20-30 minutes each day.

What system do students need help with?

Creating systems/habits will help put students on the path to success. Some students can do this on their own, but others need guidance. Think about the struggles your students have or the goals they want to achieve and what systems might look like for those areas. Once they begin to establish systems, hopefully the idea of focusing on systems instead ofgoals will carry over into other areas of their lives!

In what areas do you think systems would most help your students?

Ellie

Welcome to Cognitive Cardio Math! I’m Ellie, a wife, mom, grandma, and dog ‘mom,’ and I’ve spent just about my whole life in school! With nearly 30 years in education, I’ve taught:

  • All subject areas in 4th and 5th grades
  • Math, ELA, and science in 6th grade (middle school)

I’ve been creating resources for teachers since 2012 and have worked in the elearning industry for about five years as well!

If you’re looking for ideas and resources to help you teach math (and a little ELA), I can help you out!

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