I am fairly new to Common Core and have seen loads of "I Can" posters on Pinterest. Why is this important? How are they used??
My principal makes us post "I can statements" each day for our students. They're basically just objectives, or telling the students what they should be able to do by the end of the lesson. I usually went over them with the students, but I'm not really sure how useful they really were in the long run for the students.
We have to post them, too. I'm curious - I tend to post them weekly, because it is really rare for my kiddos to actually achieve the objective the first day, lol! Is that typical?
I think it's good for kids to know which goals they are working towards. I purchased these from Carson Dellosa, as well as the matching pocket chart. http://www.carsondellosa.com/cd2/Pr...CoreStateStandardsKit/PocketChartCards/158170
We have 3-5 targets for the week. We have to post them and refer to them daily. We quiz them every week.
I must post such statements as well. I always phrase it is this: "In a week or so (or whatever timeline you have), I want everyone to be able to say I can (fill in the blank)." I've noticed some people change it to "I am learning..." statements, but it's been my admin's call in each school.
The CC "I can" statement is our now how we phrase the learning goal, so it does have to be posted somehow every day. And since we're also on the Marzano eval, I just made up a bar graph for each student and every day we work on that goal, students have to graph themselves on how they are progressing to a level 3 on the scale.
We are required to post them in our classroom. I actually have a few sets up on TPT and am adding some more for fifth grade.
"I Can" goals should be SMART (specific, measurable, attainable, relevant and timely). No goal should be attained on Day 1 but learned over a certain length of time.
I never heard of the posters but I like using I can statements as a type of checklist and self formative assessment rather than relying too much on points or grades. That's because one of my major goals this year it's too keep the students focused on what they're learning rather than what grade they are getting.
I personally like using my own "kid-friendly" versions. Unfortunately, in her zeal, my P has purchased sets for every classroom that we will be required to use. Oh, well!
Our Principal purchased the sets as well. I always write the goals for each activity on the board as we begin, so I won't be using the purchased sets.
The posting of standards is part of some new teacher evaluations...Marshall includes this as a benchmark. (Rubric C...delivery of Instruction: Goals)
I have always posted objectives for the day (more often they remain the same for a few days) because that is what my cooperating teacher did. I was surprised that I was among the minority that did that in my school. Now it is part of our evaluations, so I'm glad I got into the habit early. We do not do common core in VA, but I went to I can ... statements after my first year. I didn't like the impersonal "Student will be able to . . ." The objectives are aligned with our state standards, but I word them in a more informal way.
Before common core, I used I Can statements on color coded sentence strips to show the levels of Bloom's Taxonomy for the kids. If they could check off all the statements in each color/level, they reached the highest level of knowledge for that topic or skill. I'll continue that with the common core statements.
