An Inquiry into Collaborations Between Learning Support Teachers and Classroom

Teachers to Foster Self Regulated Learning

EPSE 565R, Corinna Liew & Dasha Gritsaenko

Introduction

“We believe that together we are better, that working as a member of a team and within a
school helps us grow as professionals and supports us in being the best we can be in the
classroom, and in having the greatest impact on student learning” (Brownlie & Schnellert, 2009,
p. 11).

This quote resonated with and guided our group comprised of Siggy Ong (Secondary
Classroom Teacher), Dasha Gritsaenko (Secondary Learning Services Teacher), and Corinna
Liew (Secondary Learning Services Teacher and Family of Schools Teacher Leader). We come
from working in three different secondary school systems: religious independent, independent
with a focus on students with a variety of exceptionalities, and public. The three of us came
together with an overarching theme of self-regulated learning in the classroom and within
project assignments. Siggy will be focusing his report on the classroom teacher’s context in
implementing self-regulated learning (SRL) practices into the design of an end of year senior
level Humanities project. Dasha and Corinna worked together on this report through the
perspective of learning services teachers.

Rationale

At first, we, Dasha and Corinna, had planned to create a list of strategies to help support our
students. However, after learning that opportunities for self-regulation occur in class when
students are engaged in complex meaningful tasks and when student autonomy is promoted
and supported through effective co-regulation (Perry, 2015), we revised our plans. Realizing
that classroom discourse is a critical feature of SRL promoting contexts (Perry, 2015), we
decided to focus on the collaboration between learning services teachers and classroom
teachers to foster self-regulated learning.

According to Deb Butler and Leyton Schnellert’s socioconstructivist model of SRL (2014),
learners’ engagement is shaped by interactions between their learning environment and what
they bring to the context such as their experiences, strengths, challenges, metacognition,
knowledge and beliefs. Keeping in mind that the ultimate purpose of the supports we put in
place is to build student capacity so that they are able to control their learning and performance
independently (Butler, Schnellert, & Perry, 2017), we felt that these supports would serve best
useful in guiding classroom teacher practice instead of focusing on what students needed to do.
We broke this down further into our areas of interest. Dasha has an interest in developing
classroom environments that foster SRL and Social-Emotional Learning and created a checklist
for the learning environment. Corinna has an interest in executive functioning and developed a
checklist for secondary classroom routines and a checklist for introducing longer
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assignments/projects that weave in some executive functioning supports. Through this

breakdown, we have developed a greater understanding of the dimensions of SRL since it
creates cohesion between many current best practices.

Following the completion of the initial drafts of our checklists, we had Siggy provide us with
feedback on them from the lens of a classroom teacher. He also used our checklists when he
reviewed his assignment. At the same time, we provided feedback to Siggy about his inquiry
project instructional plan. Both Dasha and I took Siggy’s feedback and wove it into our work. We
went back and forth with Siggy a couple times to ask for his perspective and take on some of
the ideas we had as well. Following this, we asked our classmates to provide us with feedback
about our artifacts within our share-out presentations. We found this useful to do since there is a
mix of educational practice backgrounds in our class. We valued the different light that everyone
shed through their feedback and incorporated this into our final products.

Individual Learning Paths

Dasha’s Learning Path

For the last five years, I have worked as a Grade 9 classroom teacher and case manager at a
private school for students with exceptionalities, Kenneth Gordon Maplewood School. The
school built a culture that fully embraced the universal design for learning, collaboration among
staff, and student empowerment. I am now transitioning into the public system and hope to work
as a Learning Services teacher. Though I had never planned to go into special education, I
couldn’t see myself doing anything else after working with the incredible students and staff at
Kenneth Gordon. My knowledge of the dynamics between Learning Services teachers and
classroom teachers is limited. I only carry assumptions from the stories that I have heard from
other public school teachers, such as a lack of desire from teachers to collaborate or develop
professionally due to a lack of time and resources.

I initially came into the class with a limited understanding of SRL, believing it to be something to
do with learning independently, and assumed the entire course would be about inquiry, or the
strategic action cycle. Throughout the course readings, lectures and discussions, I developed a
much better grasp of SRL as a framework with many dimensions, and actually found it a
particularly useful model to use to tie in my knowledge of other best practices, such as universal
design for learning, response to intervention, social-emotional learning, and inquiry-based
learning (see Appendix D). The Q&R assignments also helped me reflect on my own practice
and identify which aspects of SRL my lessons targeted, and consider which aspects I needed to
place more emphasis on.

When approaching the inquiry initially, I wanted to take on the pull-out perspective of a Learning
Support teacher, focusing on strategies to support students in the Learning Assistance Center,
because I was worried and convinced that my experience in an inclusive classroom would be
considered irrelevant in the public system and labeled as “unrealistic”. As mentioned in our

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rationale, we eventually came to the understanding that collaboration is a more proactive and
effective way to create SRL promoting environments, so I decided instead to channel my
experience on promoting collaboration with and amongst classroom teachers, instead of simply
supporting students. We need to be mindful that some barriers to classroom teachers fully
adopting inclusive practices such as SRL include lack of training, support, time and resources
(Reeve, Wasik, Foley, 2019), meaning we need to provide ideas and create resources for them
that will make the transition easier. Therefore, we decided to start by creating checklists that can
be used by both classroom teachers wanting to focus on developing SRL in their classroom, or
Learning Support teachers that need a starting point in collaborating with classroom teachers.

To create the classroom environment checklist, I started by brainstorming a list of my own

experiences and beliefs in relation to our readings, and in the end, found it useful to organize it
into the three major categories as proposed by Butler and Schnellert in ​Developing Self
Regulating Learners; F ​ ostering a community of learners, creating positive spaces for learning,
and establishing participation structures that foster SRL, also making sure to tie in ways to
support the aspects that the student is bringing to the environment, as well as social-emotional
learning. I used other readings and classroom discussions to continue to revise the checklist.
After the initial draft, I re-organized the points under “Have I” and “Where do I” subcategories for
practicality and to create accessibility for teachers. Collaborating with my group members, I
refined the checklist to incorporate valuable feedback regarding the language in the checklist,
additional points in the checklist and clarification of its intended use. I continued to learn and
adjust my inquiry and understanding until the last day of class, with each lesson providing new
information (such as how to begin conversations with teachers when collaborating!) and each
discussion a valuable new lens to consider. After our in-class presentation, I incorporated the
feedback that I received from classmates that used the checklist to reflect on their own practice.
I was pleased to hear that they would indeed use the checklist for themselves, either at the start
of the year to inform their planning, or as a visual reminder that they might hang on the wall to
refer to throughout the year.

Corinna’s Learning Path

My experience as a Learning Services teacher was predominantly rooted in elementary schools.

Starting the role at a secondary school this past year has brought me through uncharted
territory, especially since taking on a leadership role part way through the year as a Teacher
Leader for our secondary school and our family of schools come September. At the elementary
school level, my practice of fostering self-regulated learners had a different focus based on less
interaction time since I would see my pullout groups for roughly 30 minutes twice a week. I still
wanted to create a safe and inclusive learning environment for my students, but due to the
shorter and less frequent occurrence that I saw them, it was hard to build strong relationships
with all of my students. In secondary school, I have enrolling classes of mixed grade students
who I see every other day for 80 minutes each time. I also had to consider what curriculum and
assessment practices I would administer. Thinking about the activities and assignments that I

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had my students work on, I know that there was definitely room for improvement when it came
to the designs and instructions.

One of the biggest challenges I found in my role this past year is that there is often a disconnect
between classroom teachers and learning services teachers, and there is not enough
collaboration to support students. I also noticed that some teachers are unwelcoming towards
learning services teachers or believe that they are providing enough support for their students,
despite having students failing or skipping their class. Some teachers have the mindset that
“strategy” acquisition should only be instructed upon and worked on within the Learning
Assistance classrooms and that there was no room for this type of instruction within their
classrooms.

In reflection, I thought about how learning could have been facilitated by a checklist of things to
make sure I cover or consider within the design of my activities while also keeping in mind all of
the different best practices and pedagogies such as Universal Designs for Learning, universal
supports for all, Understanding by Design, backwards planning, and so many more. After each
time that I developed an activity, I would consider what I needed to change or do differently in
the future. This led me to wonder if other teachers had the same thoughts about their
assignments or projects. I noticed that I would often have students come to me without a clue
on what to do for their assignments from other classes. This caused me to realize how many of
them had difficulty interpreting the task instructions provided. I ended up having to go to many
different teachers or educational assistants supporting those classes and ask them what the
assignment instructions were and for a copy of their assignment outline. This was time
consuming, exhaustive and not an effective approach for teaching students how to become
independent learners. As a result, I formulated my initial inquiry question around this: How can I,
as a Learning Services Teacher, support classroom teachers in the development of Executive
Functioning skills to promote self-regulated learning?

Through our work as a group and what we have learned in class, I came to realize that a
broader lens could be taken with my inquiry question. I reshaped my inquiry question to: How
can Learning Services Teachers provide support for classroom teachers to promote
self-regulated learning in their classrooms? I felt that this was a better fit for what my overall
goal is, which is to help students become self-regulated learners in all of their classes and life.
Working on executive functioning processes is only a part of the big picture, and I didn’t want to
narrow my focus and not address the other factors that play a part in self-regulated learning.
Collaboration with teachers is also the key to SRL implementation being successful. Part way
working through the artifacts, I realized this and upon consultation of the rest of the group, I
changed my inquiry question to finally be: How can Learning Services Teachers facilitate
collaboration with Classroom Teachers to promote self-regulated learning in all classrooms?
Since I reshaped my inquiry question a couple times, you may notice that the checklists I
created have components of all three inquiry questions. Had this been a longer course, I feel
that I would have had more time to refine my artifacts to align with my final question, but this

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was difficult for me to do since I was learning alongside creating the artifacts and needed time
for the information to sink in.

Contexts for Artifact Use

We envision a need for change in the way that the role of the Learning Support teacher is seen
by many teachers. We need to acknowledge that learning support teachers not only provide
support to students, but also to classroom teachers, and are useful resources when working
together to meet a common goal. We would also like to acknowledge that it is very important
that we choose to build capacity in the school climate by training teachers who are ready for
professional development (Reeve et al, 2019), and not push the concept onto individuals who
do not yet have an interest in pursuing SRL, so that they do not develop negative connotations
with the idea. The best professional development amongst teachers happens through inquiry
when teachers are motivated and can make connections to personal goals (Butler & Schnellert,
2012).

We hope to work collaboratively with teachers in partnerships or small groups, and begin
discussions by asking them, “What challenges do you have?” to allow them to target their
individual needs. Teachers often want a “quick fix” to their problem when they approach
colleagues for support. We recommend acknowledging the teacher’s short term goals and
validating their frustrations, as well as commending them for seeking support. Teachers often
come with concerns about a particular student, so we recommend using that student’s needs to
connect effective SRL practices to the classroom, and using the checklists to connect the
classroom to the student. We recommend Learning Support teachers use their judgement when
showing the SRL checklists to teachers if they know that they may get easily overwhelmed, or
being very explicit that only one point at a time needs to be targeted.

When the classroom teacher is ready to engage, use the integrative model of SRL (Appendix D)
to identify an area to target, and use the associated checklist as a discussion point for moving
forward. Refer to provided examples as necessary, and work collaboratively through the inquiry
process. To clarify, the checklist is not the be-all and end-all to properly fostering SRL. Instead,
it is a conversation starter for teachers that are interested in expanding their knowledge of SRL.
There may also be overlapping themes between the checklists, which is natural and
representative of SRL as a concept. It is helpful to consider the many aspects of SRL in different
contexts.

The Learning Environment

The Research Behind the Learning Environment Checklist

Creating a classroom environment that supports the diverse needs of our students is a crucial
foundational practice (Anyichie & Butler, 2018) that sets up both teachers and students for
success in self regulated learning. The learning environment is the context within which our

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students are situated and creates the situations that they interact with, as demonstrated by the
integrative model of SRL (see Appendix D). Each point in the learning environment checklist is
informed by the variety of readings that we completed throughout the course. The explanation of
the research is broken down into the three key qualities of safe and supportive learning
environments, as proposed by Butler and Schnellert in ​Developing Self Regulating Learners
(2017), and supported by class discussions, lectures, readings, and other chapters from the
same book.

The first key quality of a safe and supportive learning environment is fostering a community of
learners. This concept is twofold. It identifies the need to create a community among the
students, while also stressing the importance of situating this community in the context of
learning. In order to create a community, you must acknowledge the diversity of the class and
everything each individual brings with him or her to the community. As demonstrated in the
integrative model of SRL, our students bring a history into their environment, including
experiences, strengths and challenges, amongst many other things, and the more we
acknowledge, learn about and celebrate these differences, the stronger our community will be.
Knowing our students is important to supporting their motivations by tapping into their interests
and targeting their epistemological beliefs. These points also all tie in very well with the First
Peoples’ Principles of Learning - Learning requires exploration of one’s identity, and learning
ultimately supports the well-being of the self, the family, the community, the land, the spirits and
the ancestors (BC Ministry of Education, n.d.). It is important for our indigenous students that we
nurture a sense of belonging and foster a cultural community (Hatala et al, 2017). These ideas
facilitated the creation of checkpoints like collecting student profiles, allowing students to
communicate their opinions and beliefs regularly and making students feel valued. This first key
quality also identified that the community needs to allow students to interact socially within the
concept of learning. This fostered the creation of checkpoints like enabling students to work and
play collaboratively and providing opportunities for them to tackle big ideas together.

The second key quality of a safe and supportive learning environment is creating positive,
non-threatening spaces for learning. A space that allows all students to feel comfortable and
supported will provide a sense of belonging that gives students the confidence to take on
challenges. The universal design for learning stresses the importance of universal supports that
are accessible to all students, ranging greatly from fidgets that support regulation, to visuals that
support working memory, to computers that support written output. A safe learning environment
goes further than simply the physical space, and must support the social-emotional aspects as
well. Placing value on process over product and providing formative assessments often for
students de-emphasizes social comparisons and focuses on individual growth. Formative
assessments also help students develop growth mindsets and build up their self-efficacy.
Explicitly and contextually teaching students about aspects of social-emotional learning, such as
self awareness, social awareness, self management, relationship skills and responsible decision
making, allows them to take greater control of themselves in their environment. These ideas
facilitated the creation of checkpoints like monitoring your language, ensuring a physical space
that provides universal supports, building in strategies for social-emotional learning, and

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communicating your priorities in regards to valuing the process just as much, if not more than
the product.

The third key quality of a safe and supportive learning environment is establishing participation
structures that enable active learning. Participation structures allow students to situate their
actions within a context and know which “norm” to regulate to. It is important to discuss these
structures explicitly so students can anticipate the outcome of an action. As the First People
Principles of Learning states, “Learning recognizes the consequences of one’s actions” (BC
Ministry of Education, n.d.). Co-creating certain participation structures will also allow students
to take ownership of their learning and provide them a sense of control.These ideas facilitated
the creation of checkpoints like establishing classroom expectations with the students, explicitly
discussing school rules and making expectations clear in every class.

SRL Learning Environment Checklist - Examples

Please see below for several examples for each point in the checklist. This inquiry is
process-based, and we plan to continue to build on this resource with other examples and
strategies we come across in the future.

Have I...
▢ Gathered a profile of each student’s goals, strengths, stretches and passions to inform
my own practice?
- A variety of premade worksheets are available, such as “Who Am I” and “All
About Me”.
- This can be adapted easily to suit the style of the teacher’s environment, and can
create a more specific, relevant, and in-context strategy. For example, creating
an introductory portfolio entry for a year-long progress portfolio.
▢ Explicitly described the classroom culture I want to cultivate and my philosophy about
learning?
- Discuss with your students what a community means to you
- Discuss with your students what you believe learning is, what aspects of it you
value most - this can also be an excellent reflective exercise if the answer to
these questions does not come easily to you.
▢ Included students in the creation of classroom norms and expectations?
- Lead My Job/ Your Job (Also an important part of the Restitution model for
classroom management) - allow students to express what they believe their job is
as students, and what your job is as a teacher, and create a discussion around
this to demystify classroom norms and expectations
- Create social contracts around the type of community you want to foster, or when
approaching sensitive topics in course content, and have students sign it in
acknowledgement
▢ Explicitly discussed the classroom and school rules with the students?

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- Discuss non-negotiable rules (such as school rules, or certain classroom

expectations) and explain the reasoning behind these rules. Connect them to
out-of school situations to help students contextualize, when possible.
- Allow multiple avenues for students to approach the teacher or express their
needs if they have a concern about the rules. For example, if a teacher is against
gum chewing, but it is a strategy that a student uses to focus, the teacher is
encouraged to explicitly identify how students can discuss issues in private and
come up with a mutually beneficial agreement.
▢ Created a physical classroom space that is student-centered, supportive, and provides
choice in learning space and supports?
- Provide alternative seating, such as hokki stools, wiggle cushions, bean bag
chairs, standing desks, exercise balls, group tables, individuals desks, and
partner desks.
- Provide a variety of supports such as visuals, timers to assist students with time
orientation, timetables, fidgets, technology, and school supplies.
▢ Built in strategies for social-emotional learning in my lessons?
- Lead explicit lessons on emotional self regulation. The Ruler Approach from the
Yale Center of Emotional Intelligence is adolescent friendly. Learning Support
teachers are encouraged to offer to lead a lesson to make it more accessible to
classroom teachers who are hesitant in navigating in new waters.
- Model and articulate your own emotional self-regulation.

Where/ When Do I...

▢ Give opportunities for students to communicate their personal beliefs, opinions and
experiences?
- Thank students when they share comments, questions and experiences.
- Ask questions that elicit an opinion rather than a “right” answer.
▢ Have strategies to make all students feel valued?
- Facilitate morning check-ins of any kind. It could range from asking students what
everyone had for dinner the night before, to asking students to identify their
emotional state and their preparedness for the day.
- Encourage students to care about each other.
- Ask all members of the classroom community to share experiences and opinions.
- Recognize the diversity in your classroom and incorporate it into your lessons as
often as possible to make your students feel “seen”.
▢ Have strategies to make expectations of every class clear and represented in multiple
ways?
- Put up the “Shape of the Class”, a class schedule, to communicate the daily plan
for the class to students.
- Put up a “You Need” list on the board so students know the materials they need
to have when they come into the room.
▢ Enable students to work and play collaboratively?

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- Facilitate think-pair-shares, group discussions, debates, group projects, partner

tests, etc
- Prepare students to be part of a team by explicitly teaching them the different
roles and skills
▢ Provide opportunities for students to work together to tackle big ideas?
- Allow the time, space and resources for students to engage in inquiry projects,
and problem- and project- based learning
▢ Value the process more than the product? And if so, have I communicated this to the
students?
- Grade the process, not just the result
- Allow students to make corrections on their assignments and other assessments
▢ Reflect on the language I use in the classroom?
- Instead of saying “You’re late”, say “We missed you! Is everything okay?”
- Instead of saying “Does anyone have any questions?”, say “What questions do
you have?”
- If a student is unhappy with their grade, don’t attempt to make them feel better by
saying “No, you did great!” because this can communicate to the student that you
believe they have reached their potential
- Remind students that learning and exploring new things can feel uncomfortable,
and that’s okay. Stress that mistakes and failure are an important part of learning
- Thank students for sharing their experiences and opinions.
▢ Ask for feedback from other educators, or collaborate with my colleagues?
- Ask questions when you are uncertain of how to proceed with a student or a
lesson.
- Support teachers when they approach you for advice, and encourage them to
continue to do so.
- Find common goals with colleagues and engage in strategic action when
pursuing your inquiry.

The Research Behind the Secondary School Classroom Routines Checklist

Adding to the components of creating a safe and supportive classroom environment, executive
functioning can help us understand what students bring (their experiences, beliefs, strengths,
weaknesses, etc) to the table and how it may impact their learning as well as what goals they
need for goal-directed strategic action (Butler, Schnellert, & Perry, 2017). When teachers
provide direct instruction to teach students routines or how to get through common classroom
activities, they are helping students develop habits in their mind that are just as important as
learning the curriculum (Dawson & Guare, 2018). By providing this explicit teaching, students
are able to develop their executive functioning skills. In turn, this facilitates students’ abilities to
be self-regulated learners. To foster self-efficacy, instruction should be guided and prompted to
start. Over time, prompts should be faded to release responsibility to students.

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We often assume that students transitioning into secondary school understand how secondary
school learning works. There are often large scale quick orientations on the first day of classes
to help explain a brief overview of who staff are and general run through of school rules.
However, many of our students are not ready to learn in this lecture and large-scale seating
format. Butler, Schnellert, and Perry (2015) also lead us to think about if students from different
cultural backgrounds can be assumed to interpret classroom environments in the ways teachers
expect. This leads to three general recommendations from them (Butler et al., 2015, p. 66):
1. Explicitly discuss norms and expectations with students at all grade levels.
2. Build norms and expectations with students.
3. Remember that learners bring diverse perspectives and experiences to classrooms.

This is why Ian Clark (2012) points out that if students understand classroom routines, they are
more likely to self-regulate their performance successfully. In developing our students as 21st
century learners, students need to develop their competencies in various areas such as critical
thinking, problem solving, self-direction, and collaboration (to list a few) to prepare for today’s
advancing and changing society.

Things to consider when developing instructional routines for secondary students (Dawson &
Guare, 2018):
● Be explicit about what is being taught and tell them why you are teaching it
● Monitor their performance while they are learning it
○ This can be done through a student leader or partner/buddy system
● Evaluate how effective the teaching routine is
● Co-create the design of the routine, the selection of rewards, and the troubleshooting
that may be required to improve the routine
● Be open to negotiating rather than dictating
● Whenever possible, use visual cues rather than verbal cues to not sound like you are
nagging them

TEACHING CLASSROOM ROUTINES CHECKLIST (Secondary School)

This checklist can be used as a discussion tool between a classroom teacher and learning
services teacher. It is meant to be a tool that provokes discussion and action towards fostering
self-regulated learners in all classrooms and learning spaces.

▢ Develop and teach a beginning of class routine which involves handing in homework at
the start of class or at the same point of time in class so that they are held accountable
to submitting it (instead of leaving without anyone holding them responsible for it)
- Teach each step of the routine
- Set a timeline for when the routine needs to be completed by
- Release of responsibility to students gradually:
- Prompt students to begin and ask students what to do next instead of
prompting them with cues for each step

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-Prompt to begin, have students go through all steps and check in

periodically and at the end
- Prompt to begin and check in when done
- Prompt to begin and no check in when done
- Students completes routine independently
▢ Develop an end of class routine that includes:
- Stopping instruction 5-10 minutes before the end of class to allow students time
to write down their homework
- Posting homework assignments in a consistent and obvious board location
- Prompt students to make sure they have all of the sheets and materials they
need to complete their assignments
- Prompt students to write down their homework in their planners or on their
devices if permitted and monitor those students who are less likely to do so
- Cue students to think about long-term assignments or upcoming tests they need
to prepare/study for
- Consistently and reliably post homework assignments on a website so that
parents and Learning Services Teachers can assist in monitoring homework
▢ Develop a homework collection routine
- When is homework collected?
- Have a student leader collect assignments for you
- Establish one consistent location for students to hand in assignments (a hand-in
tray, basket or bin)
- The consequence for not completing work should be doing the work; the
consequence for not meeting a deadline should be learning how to meet a
deadline (Tom Schimmer, 2018)
▢ When providing choice, explain the pros and cons of each choice
- Allow opportunities for students to contribute to the choice options
▢ Teach students how to pay attention:
- Provide an avenue to have students put their devices where it will be safe and
won’t distract them
- Co-construct rules around device use and consequences for not following
these class rules (this should be done at the start of the school year and
reviewed with new students who join your class after this)
- Build in what this looks like as part of classroom routines (what does it look like
when you are focused)
- Provide visuals to support for this

Learners’ Engagement

The Research Behind the Long Assignment Checklist

When we refer to the Self-Regulated Learning Model (Butler & Schnellert, 2015), we can see
that Learners’ Engagement is affected by various aspects. What a student brings such as their

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experiences, strengths/challenges, metacognition, knowledge, and beliefs can play a part in

their learning. Keeping this in mind, designing assignments that honour what a student has to
bring is important in fostering self-regulated learning. Students want to feel that they are valued.
By providing opportunities within assignments for students to share what they have to bring,
students can become more motivated and engaged in learning. Deb Butler et al. also state,
“Students’ motivation and engagement is partly a function of beliefs, values, and expectations
they bring to activities” (2015, p. 165).

Through learning the Self-Regulated Learning Model (Butler & Schnellert, 2015), we know that
the components of strategic action are interpreting tasks, planning, enacting strategies,
monitoring, and adjusting. Although not explicitly identified and aligned, these components
guided the development of my Long Assignment Introduction Checklist.

When we consider how students interpret tasks, it is important to provide the purpose or goal of
the assignment. Through this, students are able to connect with the assignment and set their
own goals appropriate to the learning task. Perry points out from Butler and Cartier (2004) and
Hadwin (2006), “Learners who have a poor understanding of ‘what they need to do’ are likely to
set inappropriate learning goals and engage in ineffective strategies, resulting in a product that
is poorly aligned with a task’s purpose of their teachers’ expectations” (2015, p. 14). Tom
Schimmer also notes that reminding students of what standard of learning they are working on
establishes a purpose for their learning and encourages them to work toward this goal (2018).
Keeping this in mind, there are items on the checklist that address students’ understanding of
the goal or intent of the assignment and explicit instruction of the different components of the
assignment to facilitate interpretation of the assignment. An executive functioning task
introduction method is provided within the checklist. Sarah Ward developed this methodology of
breaking down an assignment by having students think about and identify the components
required instead of being told to complete a list of instructions (SET-BC, 2019).

Planning is scaffolded with the teacher and ideally practiced starting from the beginning of the
year so that students become proficient with each step prior to this larger assignment. It is also
important to sequence assessments for learning in advance of instruction to provide
check-points where teachers can stop, check progress and adjust their instruction to redirect
learners towards the target (Schimmer, 2018). Furthermore, students and teachers should
co-create proficiency scales and rubrics since they are created for students and teachers, so if
one or the other is not involved, the scale or rubric loses its value (Schimmer, 2018). Students
helping to create the rubric helps them increase their understanding of the learning targets and
what they need to do to get there.

LONG ASSIGNMENT INTRODUCTION CHECKLIST

This checklist can be used as a collaboration tool between a classroom teacher and learning
services teacher. The few examples of strategies provided are starting points and not intended
to be “the only way” things should be done.

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Gritsaenko & Liew Collaborations to Foster Self Regulated Learning Aug. 10, 2019

▢ Pre-thinking about topic

- Ask students what they already know about the topic or what connections they
may have to it (Know/Want to Know/Learned (KWL) chart)
- “Hook” videos, photos, or demonstrations
- News articles, related topics in the news
▢ Teach lesson about topic/ readings with multiple means of representation (Universal
Designs for Learning)
▢ Identify purpose/goal of assignment
- Connect this goal with students’ personal goals if possible
▢ If choosing a topic is required, brainstorm topics together as a class
- If students are having difficulty selecting a topic, have them identify what they like
and what they don’t like about a few choices to help narrow it down or provide a
shorter list to choose from
- Similarly, explain the pros and cons of each choice
▢ Foster Future Thinking for students to anticipate what steps need to be taken to
complete assignments
▢ Get Ready, Do, Done Strategy​ (Sarah Ward, SLP)
https://www.setbc.org/2019/04/executive-function-supporting-student-learning-2019/#15
55449735667-86a317dc-6331
- DONE: Start by analyzing end product and identify what components of it make it
a finished product (name, # of colours, length/size, APA format, etc.)
- DO: Steps required to complete activity
- GET READY: Materials needed to complete activity
- GET DONE: Things they need to do when they are finished activity (hand in
activity, tidy up, write homework in agenda, read quietly, etc.)
- If possible, keep this type of instruction/strategy always in the same place/on the
same board so that students know where to look for help
- Example:
https://byds.org/executive-functioning-in-ms-shields-class/
▢ Co-create assessment guidelines
- Explain the different components that will be assessed and what each standard
looks like
- Or ask students what they feel they should be assessed on
- Display examples of each standard for the class to compare
- Discuss the differences between each standard using the examples
- Standards-based rubric for assessment
- An example to ponder...
https://www.cultofpedagogy.com/holistic-analytic-single-point-rubrics/
- At different points of assignment, have students do check ins with you on where
they are within the rubric for assessment and how they will adjust their plans to
aim for a higher target on the assessment scale
- This can be done using exit slips or a quick online survey

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Gritsaenko & Liew Collaborations to Foster Self Regulated Learning Aug. 10, 2019

- Allow opportunities for students to self-assess different components of their

assignment
- Lessons and practice on self-assessment and reflection need to occur
before this will happen effectively
▢ Timeline (chunking of assignment into smaller portions with mini-deadlines)
- Schedule deadlines with the class
- Provide students with a printed list of deadlines with the assignment criteria sheet
- Ask students to take out their agendas and write these deadlines for each date
- Provide a blank monthly calendar template for students who need to visually see
how much time they have for each deadline
- Have students fill in other projects, tests, trips or extracurricular activities
that may take away from time that they have to work on this assignment
- Produce check-in dates with students for staying on time and on task
▢ Graphic organizer for planning
- Including space for purpose/goal, break down of assignment, timeline, how they
will approach it, etc (another resource to create in the future!)
- Allow for different methods/outlines/organization of planning
▢ Exit ticket on purpose/understanding of assignment

Conclusion

Zimmerman defines self-regulated learning as the ability to control your thoughts and actions to
achieve personal goals and to respond to environmental demands (2008). Through this project,
we have obtained a greater understanding of what self-regulated learning is and how we can
support this within our contexts. We have learned that self-regulated learning proficiency
predicts success across the lifespan. Therefore, it is important that we, as educators, foster SRL
in our classrooms and schools, as well as within our teaching practice. To foster SRL,
collaboration between Classroom Teachers, Learning Services Teachers, Educational
Assistants, and the Administration team is important and needs to happen for success across all
environments with our students. When working to foster SRL in our school communities,
professional development in SRL and inquiry is important. You need to invest time to develop it.
It is not something that you can do in just a day, but rather a process over time.

Students need a safe and supportive learning environment to have the opportunity to build on
their self-regulated learning. As well, SRL practices need to be worked on within the context of
learning in the classroom, not after the fact in a separate class. Co-construction of routines,
assessments, and other classroom practices build student efficacy. The self-regulated learning
model is flexible and allows for universal supports for all learners to accommodate diversity.
SRL is also goal-oriented. This allows for students to personalize their learning to where they
are at instead of trying to match a level that is too high or low for them. It builds metacognition
and their ability to self-assess.

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Gritsaenko & Liew Collaborations to Foster Self Regulated Learning Aug. 10, 2019

Self-regulated learning is like a puzzle comprised of many pieces. Social emotional learning,
self-determination and motivation, executive functioning and self-regulated learning all tie
together and work together in a symbiotic relationship to succeed. They are all interrelated and
work together to foster self-regulated 21st century learners. With our ever changing world, we
need to prepare our students by building their competencies towards being able to apply what
they have learned flexibly and creatively to different situations that they may encounter. We
need to empower our learners so that they become lifelong learners with adaptive expertise.

The checklists that we have developed are meant to foster collaboration and discussion
between Learning Services Teachers and Classroom Teachers. They are meant to be support
tools and conversation starters. They should not be handed to a teacher for them to check off in
regards to their practice. We want to work together towards developing a safe and supportive
learning environment to increase our learners’ engagement. These checklists are also a starting
point for us. They will help us open a door for discussion that may lead to other potential tools
we develop in the future such as a “Say this, not that” language sheet that may help teachers
reflect on their language. We may also develop samples of standards based assessment rubrics
for different content areas or provide more examples and strategies that we learn from other
educators. We would also develop a checklist for assessment practices. There are many
different ways to take our checklists and co-create something else with classroom teachers to
help foster self-regulated learning. All we want is the opportunity to do so.

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Gritsaenko & Liew Collaborations to Foster Self Regulated Learning Aug. 10, 2019

References

Anyichie, A.C., & Butler, D. L., (2018, May). Fostering culturally diverse learners’ self
regulated learning in inquiry-based learning. Paper presented at the annual meeting of
Canadian Society for the Study of Education. Regina, SK

BC Ministry of Education (n.d.). Background of First People’s Principles of Learning and

current contexts. See https://firstpeoplesprinciplesoflearning.wordpress.com;
https://firstpeoplesprinciplesoflearning.wordpress.com/background-and-current-context/

Brownlie, F., & Schnellert, L. (2009). ​It's all about thinking: Collaborating to support all
learners.​ Winnipeg: Portage & Main Press.

Butler, D. L., & Schnellert, L. (2012). Collaborative inquiry in teacher professional

development. Teaching and Teacher Education, 28, 1206-1220.

Butler, D. L., Schnellert, L., & Perry, N. E. (2017). ​Developing Self-Regulating Learners.
Don Mills, ON: Pearson.

Clark, I. (2012). Formative Assessment: Assessment Is for Self-regulated Learning.

Educational Psychology Review,​ ​24(​ 2), 205-249. Retrieved from
http://www.jstor.org.ezproxy.library.ubc.ca/stable/43546787

Dawson, P., & Guare, R. (2018). ​Executive skills in children and adolescents: a practical
guide to assessment and intervention, 3rd ed.​ New York: Guilford Press.

Executive Function – Supporting Student Learning (2019). (2019). Retrieved 1 August

2019, from
https://www.setbc.org/2019/04/executive-function-supporting-student-learning-2019/#15554497
35667-86a317dc-6331

Gonzalez, J. (2014). Know Your Terms: Holistic, Analytic, and Single-Point Rubrics | Cult
of Pedagogy. Retrieved 1 August 2019, from
https://www.cultofpedagogy.com/holistic-analytic-single-point-rubrics/

Hatala, A. R., Pearl, T., Bird-Naytowhow, K., Judge, A., Sjoblom, E., & Liebenberg, L.
(2017). “I have strong hopes for the future”: Time orientations and resilience among Canadian
Indigenous youth. Qualitative Health Research, 27(9), 1330-1344.

Perry, N. E. (2015). Understanding classroom processes that support children's

self-regulation of learning. ​British Journal of Educational Psychology,​ ​Monograph Series II:
Psychological Aspects of Education—Current Trends, 10, 4 ​ 5-67.

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Gritsaenko & Liew Collaborations to Foster Self Regulated Learning Aug. 10, 2019

Reeve, B., Wasik, A., Foley, M., (2019) Leadership for Inclusion: A Study of British
Columbia. Lower Mainland Secondary School Administrators. The University of British
Columbia.

Schimmer, T., Hillman, G., & Stalets, M. (2018). ​Standards-based learning in action:
Moving from theory to practice.​ Bloomington: Solution Tree.

Shields, M. (2019). Executive Functioning in Ms. Shields Class – Beth Yeshurun Day
School – Houston, TX. Retrieved 1 August 2019, from
https://byds.org/executive-functioning-in-ms-shields-class/

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Gritsaenko & Liew Collaborations to Foster Self Regulated Learning Aug. 10, 2019

APPENDIX A

SRL Checklist: The Learning Environment

This checklist is meant to be used collaboratively with classroom teachers who have indicated
an interest in developing a classroom environment that fosters Self Regulated Learning.

Have I...
▢ Gathered a profile of each student’s goals, strengths, stretches and passions to inform
my own practice?
▢ Explicitly described the classroom culture I want to cultivate and my philosophy about
learning?
▢ Included students in the creation of classroom norms and expectations?
▢ Explicitly discussed the classroom and school rules with the students?
▢ Created a physical classroom space that is student-centered, supportive, and provides
choice in learning space and supports?
▢ Built in strategies for social-emotional learning in my lessons?

Where/ When Do I...

▢ Give opportunities for students to communicate their personal beliefs, opinions and
experiences?
▢ Have strategies to make all students feel valued?
▢ Have strategies to make expectations clear and represented in multiple ways in every
class?
▢ Enable students to work and play collaboratively?
▢ Provide opportunities for students to work together to tackle big ideas?
▢ Value the process more than the product? And if so, how have I communicated this to
the students?
▢ Reflect on the language I use in the classroom?
▢ Ask for feedback from other educators, or collaborate with my colleagues?

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Gritsaenko & Liew Collaborations to Foster Self Regulated Learning Aug. 10, 2019

APPENDIX B

TEACHING CLASSROOM ROUTINES CHECKLIST (Secondary School)

This checklist can be used as a discussion tool between a classroom teacher and learning
services teacher. It is meant to be a tool that provokes discussion and action towards fostering
self-regulated learners in all classrooms and learning spaces.

▢ Develop and teach a beginning of class routine which involves handing in homework at
the start of class or at the same point of time in class so that they are held accountable
to submitting it (instead of leaving without anyone holding them responsible for it)
▢ Develop an end of class routine that allows time for reflection, planning and homework
deadline review
▢ Develop a homework collection routine
- The consequence for not completing work should be doing the work; the
consequence for not meeting a deadline should be learning how to meet a
deadline (Tom Schimmer, 2018)
▢ When providing choice, explain the pros and cons of each choice
- Allow opportunities for students to contribute to the choice options
▢ Teach students how to pay attention:
- Provide an avenue to have students put their devices where it will be safe and
won’t distract them
- Co-construct rules around device use and consequences for not following
these class rules (this should be done at the start of the school year and
reviewed with new students who join your class after this)
- Build in what this looks like as part of classroom routines (what does it look like
when you are focused)
- Provide visuals to support for this

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Gritsaenko & Liew Collaborations to Foster Self Regulated Learning Aug. 10, 2019

APPENDIX C

LONG ASSIGNMENT INTRODUCTION CHECKLIST

This checklist can be used as a collaboration tool between a classroom teacher and learning
services teacher. The few examples of strategies provided are starting points and not intended
to be “the only way” things should be done.

▢ Pre-thinking about topic

- Discover what students already know about the topic or what connections they
may have to it
▢ Teach lessons about topic/ readings with multiple means of representation (UDL)
▢ Identify purpose/goal of assignment
- Connect this goal with students’ personal goals if possible
▢ If choosing a topic is required, brainstorm topics together as a class
- If students are having difficulty selecting a topic, have them identify what they like
and what they don’t like or the pros and cons of a few choices to help narrow it
down
▢ Get Ready, Do, Done Strategy (Sarah Ward, SLP)
https://www.setbc.org/2019/04/executive-function-supporting-student-learning-2019/#15
55449735667-86a317dc-6331
- If possible, keep this type of instruction/strategy always in the same place/on the
same board so that students know where to look for help
▢ Co-create assessment guidelines
- Explain the different components that will be assessed and what each standard
looks like as well as the differences between them using examples of each
- At different points of assignment, have students do check ins with you on where
they are within the rubric for assessment and how they will adjust their plans to
aim for a higher target on the assessment scale
- Allow opportunities for students to self-assess different components of their
assignment
▢ Timeline (chunking of assignment into smaller portions with mini-deadlines)
- Schedule deadlines with the class and ask them to write it in their agendas
- Provide students with a printed list of deadlines with the assignment criteria sheet
- Provide a blank monthly calendar template for students who need to visually see
how much time they have for each deadline
- Set check-in dates with students for staying on time and on task
▢ Graphic organizer for planning
- Including space for purpose/goal, break down of assignment, timeline, how they
will approach it, etc (another resource to create in the future!)
- Allow for different methods/outlines/organization of planning
▢ Exit ticket on purpose/understanding of assignment

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Gritsaenko & Liew Collaborations to Foster Self Regulated Learning Aug. 10, 2019

APPENDIX D

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