BIG Ways to Invest in Students in Your Big Goal: Taking it beyond the

Poster on the Wall

Videos and resource are from: http://www.tfanet.org/

USERNAME: mandilehneherr@gmail.com

PASSWORD: tfs12345

This resource includes …

 Steps for how to plan and execute a successful investment system that will reinforce students’
effort towards the goal in your class. The plan includes daily, weekly, and year-long strategies.
 A sample plan that was used by a second year CM (along with her reflection on her execution of the
plan and current progress).
 Directions for reflecting on how you reinforce the Big Goal in your classroom each day, week, or
throughout the course of the unit.
 A blank template you can use to plan and reflect upon your own investment plan.
When and Why should I use this? You should use this resource if you find that students in your class
are not aware of your Big Goal, or are not invested in working hard to meet the goal. Corps members
often struggle to make multiple investment strategies work together in one cohesive Investment Plan. This
resource will provide a structure for reflection, adjustment and follow-through of the strategies you choose
to implement. If you have a vision for what your class should look like, but the reality is not measuring up,
this resource will assist you in making that vision become a reality.
How should I use this?
1. First, read through the steps to create an investment plan,
2. Read through the example plan and narrative to further understand the thought process involved in
creating the plan.
3. Finally, create your own investment plan and spend time reflecting on your progress and making
adjustments as needed.

This resource is a PD Roundtable “Top Pick”

A tool recommended by a group of experienced Program Directors for teachers (and their mentors).
Steps for Creating an Effective Plan to Reinforce the Big Goal:

1. Determine what success will look like for your students

Go back to your Big Goal. What will it mean for students to master the goal at a qualitative level?
What specific actions do you want to see them taking to show that they are on track towards
mastering the goal? What do you want to hear your students saying that would give you evidence that
they are truly invested in their goals? What should overall mastery on weekly quizzes be at, what level
of work will students be producing each day? Will students need to be turning in their homework each
night, keeping organized binders so that they can easily access their notes and handouts? Determine
your priorities and what must happen in your classroom so that you will have concrete evidence that
students are working hard each day towards reaching the Big Goal.

A useful example to use as you are thinking through what success will look like in your class from the
resource exchange. Remember to first log-on to tfanet.org before copying and pasting the links into
your browser.

Strategies and Examples for Making the Big Goal a Reality for Your Students:
http://www.tfanet.org/wps/myportal/teachinglearningcenter/resourceexchange/resourceprofile?
resource_id=c6fdebb1c867415a:2810f597:12415642673:-325e

2. Select the investment strategies you will use

Think about what will be most meaningful to your students, and also maintains the balance of
feasibility and impact for you. Consider ways in which you will reinforce the goal at the daily, weekly,
and unit level. Also think about individual students with whom you will need to spend one-on-one
time investing in the goal in addition to strategies that will work for the class as a whole.

Some great resources to look through on the Resource Exchange are listed below. Remember to first
log-on to tfanet.org before copying and pasting the links into your browser.

Ways to Reinforce Effort and Build Investment in Every Lesson:

http://beta.tfanet.org/wps/myportal/teachinglearningcenter/resourceexchange/resourceprofile?
resource_id=4ffa44dae06433a9:-283e695c:120005753fc:5018

Creating a Goal Driven Classroom: Strategies for the Year-Long, Unit, and Daily Levels 
http://www.tfanet.org/wps/myportal/teachinglearningcenter/resourceexchange/resourceprofile?
resource_id=4ffa44dae06433a9:-1a726546:12405a9e7e5:7554

Secondary Investment Strategies (Can be easily modified for Elementary):

http://www.tfanet.org/wps/myportal/teachinglearningcenter/resourceexchange/resourceprofile?
resource_id=4ffa44dae06433a9:68cfb8e8:11df82d2839:1724

Upper Elementary Sample Investment Plan:

http://beta.tfanet.org/wps/myportal/teachinglearningcenter/resourceexchange/resourceprofile?
resource_id=58c2446fda58af7f:392e4a21:11bc3902a56:-7600

This resource is a PD Roundtable “Top Pick”

A tool recommended by a group of experienced Program Directors for teachers (and their mentors).
 3. Create Measures of Success to know whether you are on track to making your
vision a reality
Think about the strategies you have selected for your investment plan. Set goals for how you will
measure each of the priorities you have identified in your initial vision. Then, using your investment
plan, create smaller benchmark goals for you to identify whether or not you are on track to meeting
the larger goals you have set. In order to do this, think about the vision you have for your class that
you want to realize in a set amount of time. Then break down that vision into smaller benchmarks and
set mini-goals for each week, or every two weeks so you can adjust course to make sure you and your
students are moving towards that final vision.

4. Determine your next steps

What do you need to do to make the investment plan you created a reality? When will you introduce
the plan to your students, how often will you reinforce the Big Goal in your lessons? Spend time
creating a calendar of the steps you will need to take to make this plan successful, then take the time
to insert the investment strategies you have developed into your unit plan and daily lesson plans.
Creating a plan for your execution of investment strategies will help you to ensure they happen, and
also hold you accountable to your vision.

5. Build out your reflection and follow through

After you execute each phase of your plan, create a space for reflecting on the progress you are seeing
with your students. If you set a goal of having 75% homework completion by the end of week two,
take the time that Friday to think about whether or not you met your goal, what worked, what needs
to change, and what your next steps will be. You will need to spend some time to reflect with your
students to further invest them in your goals.

Sample Fellow Investment Plan:

This sample plan was created by a corps member to describe the vision she has for her class and
how both the teacher and the students will know that they are working towards that vision at the
daily, weekly, unit and year-long level.

Vision
Daily: I will know that I am succeeding because I will see participation and ownership in my
classroom, and I will have 90% of my students submitting high-quality work. Students will
immediately begin working each day through the daily starter, consistently raise their hands
when questions are asked, and complete class work and projects to the best of their ability.
 
My students will know they are succeeding because they will be receiving positive
reinforcement for their actions, both verbal and material, and I will explicitly tell them what
makes me proud of them. When students are working hard on class work, beginning class with
the starter each day, and showing effort to participate in class, I will make sure to connect their
effort with progress towards the goal.
Weekly: I will know that I am being successful because I will see 80% averages on weekly
quizzes. I will know my kids are owning the big goal when I hear it referenced in their

This resource is a PD Roundtable “Top Pick”

A tool recommended by a group of experienced Program Directors for teachers (and their mentors).
 daily conversations with me.
 
My students will know that they are being successful because they will see their own quiz scores
improve, and they will see an accumulation of my initials on their reinforcement charts to
support their good behavior.
Unit: I will know that I’m successful on the unit level when I have my students master their
objectives, complete their reflective guides thoughtfully, and strategize on improvement.
 
My students will know they are successful on the level when they see that they are meeting the
goals they have set for themselves. They will complete reflective guides that give them ideas
about the areas in which they succeeded and the areas where they still need to improve.
Year-long: I will know that I have succeeded in my year-long goals if I see actively engaged
students who keep themselves organized and consistently submit quality work. They will have
mastered a large portion of our prioritized learning goals and will be prepared to move up to the
6th grade, and on to 9th grade biology.
 
My students will know that they have succeeded because they will have the confidence to tackle
the 6th grade, knowing they have gained skills like organization and thoughtful reflection. They
will understand the importance of an education for their future success.

This part of the plan identifies the different investment strategies that the teacher plans to use to
invest students. The strategies selected are ones that will be meaningful for the students, but also
fairly quick and simple for the teacher to be consistent in using.

Investment Strategies
Daily
 Stickers in agenda for completing homework each night
 Assign student to be homework point person each night (make sure other kids are getting it
done)
 Have a student make a connection between the daily objective and the Big Goal every day
during the Do Now
 Pass out tickets to reinforce students who are exemplifying the vision we have described for a
class that is working hard to reach the Big Goal
 Close out each day with a reflection about how what students learned that day will bring
them closer to the goal and the impact of their effort in class that day
 Have an Exit Ticket Rock Star list where you write the top 3 scores on your Exit Ticket on the
board in a special place
Weekly
 Reflect on homework completion from the week and reset the new goal
 Update “Shout Out” board for students who I observed working really hard towards reaching
the Big Goal in class
Unit
 Schedule tracking into unit plan for the day I return assessments
 Update public tracking wall for objective mastery
 Students complete tracking sheet in their binders on how close or far they are from mastering
the objectives covered in the previous unit

This resource is a PD Roundtable “Top Pick”

A tool recommended by a group of experienced Program Directors for teachers (and their mentors).
  Have students complete effort rubric at the end of each unit and set new goal for mastery on
the next unit
 Review class mastery averages on PowerPoint after each unit

Just like when you plan your year course, you want to backwards- plan your measure of success.
Think about where you want your class to be at the end of your plan’s implementation and think
about how to feasibly backwards plan and set smaller benchmarks from there. Plan-in time to
adjust course if needed. The measures of success were chosen by this corps member because they
aligned to her vision for what she wanted to see take place in her classroom. She then reflected on
where students were currently in their progress and set smaller incremental goals that would
ultimately move them to reaching her vision for the class.

Measures of Success
90% of Students are submitting High Quality Work:
 Currently around 25% of students submit homework each evening
 By the end of Week 1 50% of students will consistently submit homework each day
 By the end of Week 3 75% of students will consistently submit homework each day
 By the end of Week 5 90% of students will consistently submit homework each day
Students are consistently scoring on average above 80% mastery on weekly quizzes:
 Students have set a goal for themselves at the end of Week 1 and overall mastery increases
on weekly quizzes by 5%
 Students increase mastery on weekly quizzes to 70% by the end of Week 3
 Students increase mastery on weekly quizzes to 75% by the end of Week 5
Student mastery moves to above 80% average mastery on unit assessments:
 By the end of the unit students will increase average mastery to 70% (end of Week 4)
Students describe classroom Big Goal as something important to them:
 Students engage in thoughtful reflection on Day 1 about their goals
 Students can describe how their level of effort had a direct impact on their success both in
class work and assessments

You will want to outline for yourself the next steps you will need to take to make your plan a
reality. Think about how you will introduce the plan to your class, the questions you want students
to answer on Day 1, and how you will invest your students in the importance of your goal. This
particular corps member decided to think about what she would need to do to make sure she was
prepared to introduce her investment plan, and also created the exit ticket that
students would need to answer after the first day.
This resource is a PD Roundtable “Top Pick”
A tool recommended by a group of experienced Program Directors for teachers (and their mentors).
 Next Steps
- Reintroduce the Big Goal on Monday to students via PowerPoint Presentation
o Make a clear connection to why the goal is important to students
- Create Vision Statement to share with students, make sure it states what success will look like
for them at the daily, weekly and unit levels
- Ask students about what constitutes a realistic goal, and guide them to set their own goals
that align with Measures of Success.
- Create reflection questions for students to write about in their journals on Monday
o What is your goal for the year?
o What is your goal five years from now?
o How will being a successful/hardworking student connect to your goals?
o What do you need to do to make this happen?
o What support do you need from your teacher to make this happen?

In this section of the plan, the teacher creates a space to reflect on the actions she had taken with
her students, the successes she had seen, where she wanted to improve, and create a plan to
adjust course to ensure her vision becomes a reality.

Reflection and Follow Through

- PD observes on Thursday of Week 1 to provide feedback on daily investment strategies
- CM sends PD email reflection each Friday
o What went well this week?
o What didn’t go as well?
o What do I want to be hear kids say/do next week
o What is my plan to make that happen?
- PD and CM follow up with comprehensive reflection in 5 weeks and adjust course if necessary
Sample Reflection Email:

Oh Hi Lauren!

It went alright this week. The PowerPoint I made took up too much of the time on Monday, so we
didn't do as much reflection as I wanted, but we'll be writing our goals as our warm-up tomorrow. I'm
feeling better about my kids this week, by Thursday each of my classes had over 80% homework
completion (up from 25% - yay!). I not sure if this progress can be called consistent yet, but I know I'll
get there. I just have to have an opportunity for the kids to start believing in themselves again in class
and this will stick.

Next week I want to hear my students celebrating the success they have seen with raising their
homework completion and class participation. I also want to hear my kids say that the Big Goal is
important to their own personal goals that they have set. Hopefully we can have more time to discuss
each day how what we are learning relates to their own personal goals.

Thanks for checking in, you've been incredibly helpful this past week, both in productively working
through problems and just as serving as a sounding board. I'm trying to get that cynicism out of my
system!

This resource is a PD Roundtable “Top Pick”

A tool recommended by a group of experienced Program Directors for teachers (and their mentors).
 Amanda 

Blank Investment Template:

Use the blank templates to plan for your own investment plan. Make sure to build in time to
reflect and make adjustments!

Vision
Daily:

Weekly:

Unit:

Year-long:

Investment Strategies
Daily

Weekly

This resource is a PD Roundtable “Top Pick”

A tool recommended by a group of experienced Program Directors for teachers (and their mentors).
Unit

Measures of Success





Next Steps

Reflection and Follow Through

This resource is a PD Roundtable “Top Pick”

A tool recommended by a group of experienced Program Directors for teachers (and their mentors).