Naomi Meredith  00:54

Looking for ideas for student learning outcomes or SLOs in STEM? Based on my experience as an elementary STEM teacher, here are three examples of SLOs that have worked well in my classroom that you can use in yours. 

Naomi Meredith  01:39

This episode was inspired by common questions I was seeing in a Facebook group that I'm a part of. With that being said, I want to make sure that I am answering your specific questions and want to hear your voice, and literally, I want to hear your voice. I have set up a special message system where you can leave me an audio message, hit record, ask your question, and even have the chance to be featured on the podcast. I'll link this voice message system in the show notes for today and all future episodes. Can't wait to hear your messages and inspire future podcast episodes! Writing a student learning objective or SLO can be a little bit tricky, especially when you teach all the grades in the school K through five STEM and beyond. You may be wondering, “Where do I even begin?” I felt the same exact way. 

Naomi Meredith  02:32

Here are three SLOs that I have written over the years that you can use for any grade and the type of evidence that you need to collect so you can gather the data. Let's jump on in the first SLO that you can write. This SLO is all about the Engineering Design Process. If you've been listening to this podcast for a while now, there are quite a few episodes that go along with the Engineering Design Process. So those will all be linked in the show notes for you to go back and take a listen, so you can enhance this experience in your classroom and plan lessons that are designed around this process. There are even standards that go along with the Engineering Design Process for K through two and three through five. So this is a perfect connection when you are writing your SLO goals. 

Naomi Meredith  03:19

Here's how I wrote this SLO goal. Students will demonstrate growth when applying the Engineering Design Process by using self-assessment in a project. I created a self-assessment with my STEM PLC team. This was all wrapped around students being able to self-assess during each stage of the Engineering Design Process using a four-point scale. At the beginning of the project, they used this rubric to see where they were at in each stage of the Engineering Design Process. We did it in the middle of the project and also at the end. This same rubric was used for three different projects throughout the year so we could collect the growth on how they use the Engineering Design Process and how they applied it in a lot of different projects. This was also a great SLO goal to write because you really could use this for any grade level, and my PLC teammates and I didn't actually have the same projects going on. But we could compare similar data because we were using the same self-assessment and talking about how this was being applied and different types of projects. 

Naomi Meredith  04:28

Something that we noticed is that students' results were different based on the project. Some students were really strong at the Makerspace projects but oftentimes struggled when things were more digital, or vice versa. This was great evidence to see how we can improve our teaching, get better when using the Engineering Design Process, and the stages that we weren't hitting as well. This was a time when I actually started improving my planning stage because I would just say, “Okay, draw something.” So really refine my practice, and that has really been a great base for my teaching, understanding how students are able to understand the Engineering Design Process, how they're able to self-assess, and then, in turn, it really improved my teaching. If I wanted to, I could even use the same self-assessment on the teacher side, and students are rating themselves. Then on another sheet of paper, I could rate where I think they are at and then compare the data that way. Again, this would be a great start, especially K through five, and having it in a kid-friendly language would be very beneficial. It'd be really great to see that growth in how you use this process within your classroom. 

Naomi Meredith  05:41

The second SLO goal that I have written over the years is about how students are problem-solving and using their resources. This is the SLO that I wrote in my fourth year of teaching STEM because I had known the kids since it was their fourth year of me knowing them, and I wanted to see how they were using the resources that I was providing them to be successful. Here's how I wrote that goal. Students will be able to problem-solve and be independent in their work by using available resources and strategies. Just like anything that you teach as a teacher, you are going to build up resources and strategies for ways to attack a problem. This is a lot like when I was teaching writing as a classroom teacher. There were a lot of different strategies that I taught the kids, including going back and checking their work and checking their spelling. I did the same thing for math and for reading. Likewise, this is also very helpful in the STEM space for students to have go-to strategies when they get stuck during any type of project, but also providing resources that they can rely on that are project specific. 

Naomi Meredith  06:53

For example, I have go-to troubleshooting techniques that students can use when they are faced with a technology problem. Things like refreshing the page, restarting the device, closing out the tabs, and reopening them. Those are things that they can use all the time, no matter what website tool we are using. When it comes to specific materials, I will have specific rules and also tips, and tricks to help them use that resource. One way I have done this is with my Sphero sleds robotics unit, where I teach students how to use the robot and how to connect to it. But I go a little further than that. There is an anchor chart to remind students of key things that they need to press. There are also videos that they can scan with a QR code that they can rewatch if they are a little bit stuck. Students even have the strategy of asking three before me so that they can really work on their communication skills and ask for what they need. Instead of following me around like a baby duck and asking me for help with every single issue. 

Naomi Meredith  07:57

For this SLO goal, I wanted to see what strategies students are using and how many. So at the beginning of a project, I asked students the question, “When you are faced with a problem in STEM if you don't know the answer, what strategies do you use?” There were some kids who said nothing. Some kids did say ask three before me, some said to ask the teacher. A lot of them were actually teacher based ask the teacher, ask the teacher. Throughout the week, we were talking, and I was very specific about these strategies that I'm teaching you to help you be independent and problem-solve with this project. In the middle of the week, I had a check-in, and they had to write down the strategies that they might use. Then I would count how many, and then we also did this at the end, a lot like the Engineering Design Process goal. This was something that we did for different projects throughout the year. Then I could track their progress and how they were applying similar or different strategies based on the project. This was a really great one. Again, this was my fifth-grade students. But I recommend doing this with third through fifth grades to see what strategies they have been learning with you, how they're applying them, and then also how you can improve your teaching. So students are using those strategies that you're teaching them, and they can be successful. 

Naomi Meredith  08:28

The third SLO goal that you can write for your classroom is all about self-reflection. You may have noticed all of these goals are centered around the student and how they can really have their metacognition or thinking about their thinking and really be reflective on their experience. I am there as their guide on the side. I'm not their sage on the stage. My goal is to help students build those soft skills in my classroom. It's really not about the cool tools. None of my goals are about how to use a robot. Some kids might be successful, some might not. But the goal is, “Are they problem-solving? Are they collaborating? Are they critical thinking?” So really think about how these goals that you're writing can work with multiple projects throughout the year so that they're really dealing with those soft skills. For this goal for self-reflection, I wrote it as students will be able to improve and reflect on their work by using self-assessment tools. The longer that I have been in this position, the more I realize sometimes students have a hard time going back and improving their work. They finish it, they are one and done, and they're ready to move on. But we, now as inventors, as engineers, as problem solvers, that we're always going to go back and improve, and everything can be improved. 

Naomi Meredith  09:45

Practice makes better, not perfect, perfect doesn't exist, is one of the growth mindset things that I tell kids. So it really is a practice to help kids self-reflect and be thoughtful when they are creating. Some ways that I can collect data on this goal is by using self-assessment checklists that are related specifically to the project, and peer feedback, so they can compare their answers to others based on the work that they have provided. I can even assess them using that same reflection checklist as well. Rubrics are another great way for students to self-assess if they are written in kid-friendly language. Back in episode 26, I talked about how I plan a STEM lesson, and there was a part where I talked about how I structured a rubric for students that are in kid-friendly language and how you can do that on a four-point scale that can be effective when you are grading and also when students are reflecting on the work. Another way that students can reflect is by having the same questions that are used throughout the year. So students are used to these types of questions since their questions will change. When you're collecting evidence, you can use evidence from all these rubrics, maybe you count up how many responses they get, especially if you have a rubric. This would be really helpful because you can base it on the number of points that they get or the overall score. 

Naomi Meredith  11:08

As a recap, here are the three different examples of SLO goals that you can write for your STEM classroom. First is using the Engineering Design Process as your base. Next, find ways that students can problem solve and use those resources. Third, using self-reflection as an assessment tool. I hope this helps you think about the lessons that you are teaching throughout the year so you can gather data no matter what project that you are using and you can see that growth in your students, even if you see them for a short amount of time. As a reminder, don't forget to leave me a voice message. I would love to hear your questions or comments and how I can best serve you on this podcast.