This page provides a space for teachers to share SRL tools and tips they have used to support SRL in their classrooms. Please utilize these resources to support SRL in your classroom. If you have examples of tools and resources you have created to support SRL, we would love to hear from you! Please use the SRL Resource Template to submit your example.
Janice Wilson, Grade 4/5 Teacher
Delta School District (SD37) BC, Canada
The “Check-In Questionnaire for Student Self-Assessment” is a set of questions that students can use on a daily basis to self-reflect on their learning during both short-term and long-term tasks or projects. The resource can also be used on a wide variety of tasks, ranging from science projects to learning how to write a story. Students use the resource by answering a set of questions before, during, and after their learning. Students’ answers can then be placed chronologically in a learning journal for further review over time. This resource supports SRL by encouraging students to be metacognitive and strategic with their learning. Janice observed that, when students completed the Check-In Questionnaire for Student Self-Assessment daily, they learned how to better manage their time and effort, create reasonable goals, and begin to understand themselves better as learners.
Janice Wilson is a Grade 4/5 teacher in the Delta School District in British Columbia, Canada. She became interested in teaching while serving as an Artist-in-Residence for the New Westminster School District. During this time, she was working with Kindergarten-Grade 7 students. Janice obtained her Bachelor of Education degree in 2004 and immediately began her career in Delta School District. After several years of teaching, she became interested in social-emotional learning and self-regulated learning as methodologies to teach at-risk students more effectively. Janice has worked with Dr. Nancy Perry for several years. Janice has noticed that emphasizing SRL in the classroom has helped students “understand their learning much better” and “bring the joy back into learning.”
Monika Bergström, Elementary Teacher
Surrey School District (SD36) BC, Canada
The “Self-Check” and “Looking at Learning” tools are made to be applicable to all grades, subjects and contexts that anchor themselves in goals.
The “Self Check” tool is best implemented following intentional classroom instruction focusing on specific goals, which students have generated criteria for themselves. For example, in the “Opinion Write” exemplar, the tool was used by students after unpacking the qualities of a strong opinion paragraph. There is also an opportunity for more teacher direction with this tool, where teachers select the goals and criteria for students to reflect and learn from.
The “Looking at Learning” tool is meant to provide a snapshot of student learning connected to a specific goal in a subject area at a select point in time. Students reflect on where they are at within the learning process, how they know, and where they would like to focus on next. The proficiency scale used in the tool with the maple leaves match the model of assessment in Bergström’s own classroom. An additional tool was created using language from British Columbia’s current proficiency scale.
Both of these tools support SRL in the classroom by providing a tangible means of tracking student learning throughout a cycle of strategic action. The “Self Check” can be a resource in helping students within all stages: Deciding, Planning, Doing, and Reflecting. The “Looking at Learning” tool can be pivotal in the Reflection stage where students monitor their progress and answer the questions to reflect on their goals and success criteria. These tools have been instrumental in developing students’ sense of goal ownership and growth.
Monika Bergström is a teacher in the Surrey School District in British Columbia, Canada. Monika began her career in 2012 after completing her practicum with an international education focus. Since then, she has worked abroad training volunteer teachers in Kenya at a non-profit, as a mentor of early career teachers, and while teaching in grades 2-7, completed a Post- Baccalaureate Diploma in Environmental Education and a Masters Degree in Ecological Education. Her passion for Social Emotional Learning and Self-Regulated Learning really transformed her work during her Masters’ focus in decolonizing classroom and assessment practices. The work of SEL and SRL inspires student autonomy, empowerment, and connection. Her creation of the maple seed model, a metaphorical approach to the learning cycle, blends understanding of learning process with a holistic pedagogy.