Eliza and I also need to spend some more time working on her metacognition—
thinkingabout her own thinking. I will continue to help her find words to explain
strategies as she is solving problems. We will continue to have discussions about
her own strategies and relate her strategies to those of other children that are
shared and posted in the classroom.
I will also continue to help Eliza plan ahead what she can share at group time,
and she and I will communicate regularly about my expectations of her participation
in whole-group settings. Knowing my expectations and practicing with her what she
might share seem to make her feel more confident. Finally, I will work toward the
goal of asking Eliza to identify her own strengths and weaknesses and helping her set
goals for herself. Periodically, we will revisit the goals and the progress she is making
to reach them. During regular individual conferences, we will meet together to look
at work samples from her math portfolio. We will discuss the specific areas in which
she thinks she is getting better and those that might still be difficult. These confer-
ences will help her become more aware of the progress she has made and encourage
her to continue to be responsible for her learning.
Reflections
As I reflect on my work with Eliza and think of all other struggling learners I have
taught and will teach, I return to the questions I posed for myself at the beginning
of the year. Have I thought deeply enough about the connection between taking
responsibility for learning and becoming a successful, confident learner? How do
I develop this idea of responsibility, particularly among my struggling students? I
am more convinced than ever that the idea of responsibility for learning plays an
important role in helping these students on their journey to becoming mathe-
matically proficient. Often these students lack confidence in their abilities
because they have not experienced success, which in turn causes them to exhib-
it avoidance behaviors like Eliza’s. By letting other people do the work for her,
not asking questions, and not sharing at group time, Eliza could hide. She could
get by without anyone noticing her difficulties. By helping her develop strategies
and find words to explain them, become comfortable asking for help, and share
her ideas with the whole group, Eliza has taken the first steps toward developing
responsibility.
Although I have always tried to encourage students to be responsible for their
own learning, my work with Eliza has helped me become more explicit about
teaching responsibility. Not only did I learn to be more explicit with Eliza, I also
became more explicit with the whole class in my expectations for learning, for
example, how to work well together with partners. The strategies I used to encour-
age Eliza to be a confident independent learner will benefit all of my students.
Becoming a Self-Reliant Learner