Learning Targets

Is your school big on learning targets?

The year before last, my principal gave us all a sheet of paper with a learning target.  Since I was looking for a visual way to incorporate it into my class (and fill some BTSA requirements) I created a large sized version of the target to place on a bulletin board. 

Our mascot is a wildcat, so I found these paws at Lakeshore Learning and put each student's name on one so it could be moved around to it's proper place on the target.  As you can see my scale is way off, owing to making the target before I got the paws.  I also had difficulty with finding circles to trace for the target when I was creating it.  I didn't find that it worked out really great.  My students could not get out of the idea that it was related to their behavior instead of their subject matter understanding.  Even as I "guided" them, they wanted their paws to be near their friends.

If at first you don't succeed, try again.  The following year, I wanted to stay with the idea, but change the visual.  I settled on the idea of a traffic light, with only three possible levels of placement.

I apologize for the quality of the photo. I tried to edit it, but the bottom line is the lighting in my classroom can make for difficult photography.  You can see I boiled the learning target down to three levels instead of four, used color coding instead of numbers, and made it much larger.  It was much more simplified for my first graders and they were more comfortable using it than the class the year before. 

At this stage I'm not sure what next year will bring.  I like the idea of students somehow being able to verbalize their level of comfort with the lessons, but I'm not certain I've fond the most effective way to bring this out in them.  I've also tried exit tickets...what have you incorporated into your teaching?