Goals and Tracking
As I already mentioned, I’ve learned about a considerable number of educational frameworks in the past and in none of them have I encountered a process of setting goals like we have at Acton, in terms of the depth of investment and seriousness. Here’s a detailed post that will tell you how it actually works:
Every morning, before the Eagles begin their core skills, they enter a designated Acton software system called the Journey Tracker. The system was developed by the Acton network and is used by all the schools in the network. In the system, the Eagles can choose which subjects they intend to learn today, and what their personal goal for this specific day is.
As it’s clearly seen in the picture, the Eagle defines her goal – in this example in Khan: she wants to move up from 96% to 98% of the fourth grade curriculum. Similarly, the Eagles set additional goals for other subjects they intend to work on that day (reading, writing, or other math programs besides Khan). This is done by all the Eagles, every morning. To make sure Eagles don’t forget to set their goals, their team leaders remind them to do so in the morning, so there’s a mechanism that makes sure it happens. At the end of the day, the Eagles type into the system what they have accomplished and the system calculates the points accordingly. You can see in the picture that this Eagle earned 40 points for the lesson in Khan, and during the entire week she gained 291 points (a reminder for those who forgot: these points translate into the Eagle Bucks that the Eagles receive once a week and impact the Eagles’ level of freedom (see detailed posts about this topic)).
I want to stop here and explain how significant this process is: from the first moment that the Eagles walk in the studio, they learn to set goals for themselves and then to examine how they have followed through. Even if on the first days, the goals are far from reality, after a very short time the Eagles know very well the logical percentage for them to complete in Khan, how long they like to work in Lexia or how many pages in their book they can read in 20 minutes. The Eagles adopt a habit of planning and control very quickly; a wonderful habit that will serve them a lot in life afterwards.
The next part of tracking goals occurs at the beginning and end of the week. At the end of each week, the team leaders sit with the Eagles on their team to discuss the progress during the past week (a reminder for those who have forgotten: the studio is divided into teams, each team has a “team leader” who must be on the “soaring” level and the leader is responsible for having these conversations with the Eagles in the team). In the conversation, the team leader asks the Eagle questions such as: how many points did you get this week, how many points did you intend to get, what allowed you to meet the goal, what prevented you from meeting the goal, what helped you this week, what bothered you this week, what can you learn from your last week’s learning for the coming weeks. These conversations contribute a lot to both sides: Team leaders learn how to motivate, how to make other Eagles work harder, what helps one Eagle and what does not help another Eagle. The Eagles themselves learn to deeply reflect on their learning. They observe and understand that they wanted to get 300 points but earned only 80 because throughout the whole week they’ve been playing a math game that doesn’t earn them points, for example. They understand that there is a good chance that if they continue this way, they will not be at the level of freedom they are currently in, etc. A similar conversation takes place at the beginning of each week, and then the Eagles set the goals for the coming week with their team leader and talk about what will help them meet these goals in the best possible way.
I have been listening to these conversations for several weeks now. I do not talk during the conversation, but sit down with the team leader for a feedback session after the conversation. We talk about what worked in the conversation and what worked less. Why a certain Eagle didn’t cooperate and how to get him to cooperate more next week. I see a significant improvement from conversation to conversation, and it’s a pleasure to see a 5th grader learning the art of feedback and reflection, which many older people don’t know how to do.
The last part of tracking is also done at the end of the week. The Eagles reflect on all the things they’ve learned over the past week and write one thing that was too difficult for them, two things that were just right and one thing that was too easy. Here is a screenshot of an example:
I always like seeing how the Eagles go to the schedule that is hung up on the wall to remember what we learned this week and what was easier for them and what was harder. And here too, the ability to reflect on your own learning process is very important, and it teaches the Eagles a lot about themselves, their strengths and weaknesses.
Every Monday morning, the EB reception ceremony is held (EBs are Eagle Bucks, studio money that the Eagles can use as they please). Alden or I calculate how many EBs each Eagle should get (for every 100 points, Eagles get one EB) and hand out the bills. In addition, Alden introduced another element of interest this year, and in the same Monday circle, we play a simplified and somewhat sanitized version of Dungeons and Dragons with the Eagles. The power of the characters is determined by the number of points the Eagles accumulated that week. In other words, the points that the Eagles accumulate affect:
- Their level of freedom
- The amount of EB they earn in a week
- The power of the imaginary characters in the dungeons and dragons’ game
Since the points can be earned mainly through core skills, this tracking is very significant for the Eagles, and they have strong internal motivation to meet their goals and accumulate as many points as possible.