Jenkins High School:Effort Tracker
The effort tracker is a great way for both students and teachers to reflect on their lesson. It is intentional and causes the students and teachers to reflect on their effort. The effort tracker is a tool that motivates the students to do their best work by helping them recognize the connection between effort and achievement. It has been a great tool for students to develop growth mindsets. The effort tracker helped boost motivation by allowing students to reflect on their effort and achievement. We used a hard copy of the effort tracker for both 6th grade and Algebra 2. The hard copy of the effort tracker made them consider the five criteria degree of effort, time spent, level of care, willingness to seek help, and use of strategies. We wanted to use the effort tracker in both a middle school classroom and high school classroom to see if it would be a tool we could use district wide and cross curricular. We found that the tool is easily adaptable and can be used in different content areas and grade levels. When students completed the effort tracker, they had a hard copy of a self reflection. In 6th grade language arts class, the students really enjoyed the effort tracker because it caused them to think about their achievement and how hard they tried. They did a true self reflection comparing their effort tracker and their grade. Most students did not ask questions when they were confused. This not only was an eye opener for the students, but for me as a teacher as well. In Algebra 2, I used the effort tracker on two different occasions. The first time was after a unit test and the second was after taking the ACT. The students were able to reflect not only on classroom instruction but also on prep work that was done to prepare for the ACT. The students loved being able to reflect on their hard work and also were able to reflect on their effort. It made them realize that they do not always ask for help when they are confused. As a teacher, I loved seeing them reflect on strategies that worked or didn’t work for each student. It was eye opening for me, because the students were really honest about their effortsProject Showcase
Project Defense
