Plan Project Update [#MTBoSBlaugust]

A few years ago I blogged about my beginning of the year project.  You can read about it here.  I started using this project my second year of teaching, after my mentor showed me the similar project she does.  We have an issue in my school where students are not always appropriately placed in their math courses.  This project ensures that students want to be in the course (because after Algebra they have a choice), and helps students create a plan for success.

Anyway, the point of this post is that I re-worked the project.  On the first day of school, I will assign students five questions to answer in paragraph form.

1. What makes a successful math student?  What qualities do you possess and what qualities do you need to develop? - This will be a repeat of the question we ask in class on the first day, but I'm interested to hear students' individual responses after they've had some time to reflect.
2. What do you need from your math teacher to be successful? - This is another repeat from an in-class question, but again it is helpful to hear from individual students. 
3. This course is optional.  Why did you choose to take it? - This helps with knowing which students want to take the course.  And gives me the chance to have dialogue with the students that don't want to take it.
4. What grade are you planning on earning in Geometry this year?  Tell me specifically what you will do to make sure that you earn this grade? - This is the beginning of our goal setting.  We'll later develop goals for Regents and NWEA exams.
5. What career(s) could you possibly see yourself in as an adult at this moment?  Tell me why they interest you.  You can also tell me why you're not sure about a career choice. - This gives me an idea of students' interests and their goals.  It also gives me leverage when they are not working as hard as they need to be.

You can see my Plan Project here.  If you would like an editable copy, you can email me and I will gladly send it.