"Middle Schoolers Can't Self-Regulate!"

As an Instructional Coach at a middle school I hear comments like my post title all the time.  However, middle schoolers can self-regulate, they need to be explicitly taught how to do so.  So often I see teachers assign long-term projects and basically tell their students to finish the project by a given date.  Sure, they provide guidelines and maybe even a rubric, but in the end, both the students and the teacher are frustrated and never want to engage in long-term projects again.  Why?  Students weren't explicitly taught how to self-regulate themselves during the work time of the project and have failed to finish.  All of this could be avoided if teachers explicitly taught students how to self-regulate as they would teach students content.  The fact of the matter is middle schoolers are middle schoolers, they are not adults, and self-regulation is a learned skill.  It can be challenging to teach middle schoolers how to self-regulate but it can and needs to be done.  Self- regulation is an important 21st Century Skill and students need to be able to self-regulate by the time they reach high school and beyond.  There are some things a teacher could easily implement when assigning a long-term project that will incorporate teaching students self-regulation.

1. Define the learning goals and the success criteria that indicate the student has met the learning goals at the beginning of the project.
2. Provide students with check-in dates along the way.
3. Give students specific feedback after each check-in date.
4. Require students to reflect on their progress at frequent intervals and think about next steps.