kathleen dudden rowlands check it out! using checklists to ... · pdf filekathleen dudden...

Additionally, teachers can develop checklistsfor students to use themselves. The Stricklands sug-gest providing students with checklists to “cata-log[ue] the items that should be included in aproject or task” (28). Anne Ruggles Gere, LeilaChristenbury, and Kelly Sassi recommend usingchecklists “to keep students on task” during peer-response sessions (57). In both cases, checklistsserve as memory aids when students work throughunfamiliar processes or complete complex tasks. Asintuitively acceptable as such suggestions are, how-ever, no theoretical work examining the value ofchecklists for teachers and students appears to havebeen done to date. Certainly this might provide aproductive area of inquiry for interested teacher-researchers.

In this article, I will focus my discussion onchecklists that support student learning and per-formance. Before going further, I should note thatclassroom checklists and rubrics are not, of course,the same, although they have common features.Both identify performance traits expected in stu-dent work. Both provide ways of making taskrequirements explicit for teachers and students.However, rubrics are scaled and descriptive,unpacking levels of performance for the purpose ofassigning grades or scores; rubrics align descriptiveperformance criteria with grades or scores. Check-lists, on the other hand, as I describe them here,make no attempt to identify descriptive criteria.They list the steps students should take as they arelearning a process or highlight the features requiredfor a completed assignment.

verybody uses checklists. A Googlesearch for checklist resulted in 9.9million hits, offering checklists forwedding planning, baby proofing

homes, flying planes, and remodeling bathrooms—not to mention a plethora of even more exotic appli-cations. Many of us would never think of taking along trip or going backpacking without using achecklist. And, according to a well-known Decem-ber tune, even Santa uses a checklist to rememberwhich houses to visit on Christmas Eve. Withchecklists a habitual part of my everyday life, I amchagrined to realize how slow I was to incorporatethem into my collection of pedagogical tools.

There are sound reasons to employ checklistsin classroom instruction. A number of authors haveaddressed their functionality. Kathleen Stricklandand James Strickland, for example, value the flexi-bility of classroom checklists, suggesting that teach-ers can develop checklists to use with individualstudents or with the entire class (28–32). Theypoint out that teachers can use them efficiently torecord abilities students should display when con-fronted with particular tasks (28). Targeting check-lists developed for teacher use, the Stricklands notethat they can be formative—“used to record dataduring assessment”—or summative—“used to makeevaluations, based on collected data” (29). That is tosay, checklists are tools to capture and catalogueinformation about student performance and toinform instruction or provide evidence on which tobase evaluation. Employed in these ways, checklistsprovide broad assessment tools for teachers.

Kathleen Dudden Rowlands recommends using checklists to support student learning andperformance. Well-designed checklists identify steps students can take to complete complextasks, which scaffolds students’ metacognitive development and fosters the confidence and independence needed for internalizing these steps for future tasks.

Kathleen Dudden Rowlands

Check It Out! Using Checklists to Support Student Learning

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Copyright © 2007 by the National Council of Teachers of English. All rights reserved.

Used effectively, checklists can help studentsdevelop metacognitive awareness of their intellec-tual processes. Metacognitive research consistentlysuggests that students who know how to learn,know which strategies are most effective when facedwith a problem or a task, and have accurate methodsof assessing their progress are better learners thanthose who don’t. By articulating and labeling opera-tional steps, checklists scaffold students’ metacog-nitive development. Designed by teachers, thechecklists described below function to help learnersdevelop confidence and independence as they inter-nalize newly encountered operations and strategies.

Operational Checklists Scaffold Student Learning

Donald H. Graves advises us that part of our job is tohelp students develop independence from “teacherwelfare.” That is, in addition to teaching Shakespeareand sentence combining, we should be helping stu-dents become independent readers, writers, speakers,and listeners. We need to teach so well that stu-dents no longer need help with what we havetaught. Well-designed operational checklists are aneffective tool to help us do that. Also known as

sequential checklists (Scriven),these checklists unpack andorganize the separate steps stu-dents should take to completea particular task. After teacherinstruction, students can referto a checklist as often as neededas they expand their repertoireof independent reading and

writing strategies. I often create operational check-lists for students to use as they develop independentcontrol of new strategies for reading and writing.

The following examples of operational check-lists provide reminders of steps in particular tasksand are useful when teaching students specificprocesses. For example, reading informational textsrequires different analytical strategies than readingliterary texts, yet my students often approach bothin a similar fashion. After modeling several specificstrategies and having students practice them as aclass, I use the checklist in Figure 1 to support theirindependent practice, prompting them to be morereflective about the strategies they applied while

62 July 2007


We need to teach so well

that students no longer

need help with what we

have taught. Well-

designed operational

checklists are an effective

tool to help us do that.

FIGURE 1. Strategies for Reading InformationalText

Did you remember to

❑ turn the title into a question to answer as youread?

❑ note the original source and think about the publication’s typical readers?

❑ look for any information about the author andnote his or her qualifications for writing on thistopic?

❑ survey the text by reviewing headings and anyvisual aids provided?

❑ survey the text by reading the first few paragraphs(until you think you’ve reached the end of theintroduction) and the final paragraph or two?

❑ write a brief statement for yourself about theessay’s topic and the author’s attitude toward thetopic (This essay is about_____, and the authorseems to feel/think/believe ___________ about the topic)?

reminding them of others that might be useful. Inthis case, the checklist reminds students not only ofdifferent analytical tasks but suggests a productivesequence of operations as well. Students find thatmetacognitive awareness of their analytical processesenables them to transfer strategies from text to text.Taking their checklists into other classes, they areoften surprised to realize that their newly devel-oped reading strategies from English work in socialstudies and science, too.

After teaching students a process for respond-ing to peer drafts based on a modification of PeterElbow’s response model from Writing without Teach-ers, I give them two checklists to refer to as theywork through the process for the first time. One ofthe checklists (see fig. 2) reminds writers of the stepsto take while sharing their writing and acceptingresponses from their group. Once again, the check-list is a mnemonic prompt for both the tasks and theorder in which each task should be completed.

The next checklist (see fig. 3) scaffolds groupresponses. It reminds students that “good” is aninsufficient response and that they should focus ontheir personal reactions to the piece withoutattempting to provide advice to the author—bothkey instructional points. By identifying the stepsstudents need to take in their peer-responsegroups—both as the author and as the responder—


these checklists give students specific things to do(such as “ask responders questions” and “tell theauthor a summary of the piece”) and keep studentsfocused on concrete, productive response proce-dures. Students receive clean copies of the checklistsfor each response session and use them as evidencewhen they write a sentence or two of self-evaluationabout their performances as author and responder.

As students become more experienced, check-lists target more complex tasks. An operationalchecklist reminding students in an advanced writ-ing class of different cognitive moves they might

make while revising a draft could look like Figure 4.Once again, sequence is a subtext of this list, sug-gesting the global issues writers need to considerwhen revising (purpose, audience, content, organi-zation) before attending to the specifics of the intro-duction and conclusion. A checklist such as thiscannot teach students how to revise. A great deal ofinteractive instruction precedes any checklist of thiscomplexity. The value of the checklist lies in itsassembling core instructional concepts so that eachitem serves as a reminder to apprentice writersworking toward final drafts. Because operational

63English Journal


FIGURE 2. Checklist for Authors

Did you remember to

❑ read your piece slowly and clearly to your group(twice)?

❑ put question marks next to parts responders wondered about?

❑ put exclamation marks next to parts respondersreally liked?

❑ ask responders questions you had about your writing?

❑ take notes on responders’ comments?

❑ ask responders to clarify comments you didn’t understand?

❑ say “Thank you” when each responder finishedcommenting?

FIGURE 3. Checklist for Responders

Did you remember to

❑ listen hard as the author read?

❑ make notes about things you liked and things thatconfused you?

❑ tell the author a summary of the piece?

❑ give the author a narrative of your responses tothe reading?

❑ identify things you liked and things that confusedyou?

❑ ask the author to reread passages you didn’t hearwell?

❑ answer the author’s questions about the writing?

❑ give the author your response notes?

FIGURE 4. Operational Checklist of Cognitive Moves for Revision

Ask yourself . . .

Purpose: Have you defined the purpose of your writing? Are you trying to entertain? Explain? Describe?Analyze? Define? Persuade? Something else? Are the content and tone of your piece appropriate for yourpurpose?

Audience: Have you identified your intended reader(s)? Have you thought about the content of your piece (examples, details, quoted materials) in terms of how the reader is likely to respond?

Content: Have you reread each paragraph carefully, asking yourself, “What else does my reader need to knowhere?” and “Do I need to gather more information to fill in content gaps?”

Organization: Have you done a two- to three-word summary of the content of each paragraph? Does the content flow logically?

Organization: Is the organization of your piece as effective as possible? Do your examples build to the strongestat the end? Would it be more effective to begin your piece with your conclusion followed by support? Or wouldit be more effective to lead your readers through the story of your thinking so they will reach the conclusion thesame way you did?

Is your introduction engaging? Should you begin with a quotation? A description? An anecdote? A shockingdetail? Something else?

Does your conclusion do more than simply repeat or summarize what you have already said? Does it leave thereader with a fresh understanding and/or something more to think about?


checklists such as these help students remember thedifferent steps they need to take as they workthrough a new process, after several experiences withthe same process students typically begin to inter-nalize the steps and become capable of completingthe required task independently of the checklist.

Sometimes I develop checklist bookmarks orpostcards for students to keep as handy reminders ofdifferent strategies they have learned for reading orwriting. These checklists are simply reminders to stu-

dents of what they have learnedand the intellectual tools theyhave available when approach-ing a complex task. For exam-ple, I used an inexpensivegraphic software package and acolor printer to create book-marks to help students applyspecific writing strategies. Thefirst bookmark lists various

invention heuristics, reminding students of optionalstrategies available if the first one they try is unpro-ductive (see fig. 5). A similar bookmark reminds stu-

dents of “show, don’t tell” bylisting strategies (descriptivedetail, facts, statistics, anec-dotes, direct quotations) toenliven their writing andbecomes particularly helpfulduring revision. Similarly, apostcard I created lists a rangeof comprehension strategies weuse when dealing with nonfic-tion texts (see fig. 6). Studentsappreciate the unusual physicalforms as well as the colorfuldesigns. Additionally, the con-

venience of these cardboard checklists encouragestheir ongoing use as reference tools.

Requirement Checklists ScaffoldOrganization

Probably we have all had students turn in extendedprojects—work they have spent days, if not weeks,completing—and then lose points because they failto include a required part. Poor organizationalskills, rather than a lack of conceptual understand-ing, prevent them from producing work that fully

64 July 2007


The value of the checklist

lies in its assembling core

instructional concepts so

that each item serves as a

reminder to apprentice

writers working toward

final drafts.

FIGURE 5. Invention Heuristics Bookmark

A tangible reminder of

how to approach a

particular task, a checklist

can help students

internalize new processes

in reading and writing,

providing metacognitive

cues that scaffold

development of

independent control of

such processes.


represents their capabilities, and we then find our-selves in the unhappy position of recording gradesthat measure lack of clerical competence ratherthan lack of content or skill knowledge. Helpingstudents protect themselves from such missteps,requirement checklists might be thought of as pro-viding organizational scaffolding, assisting studentsto manage the demands of increasingly complexacademic tasks.

Teachers might develop requirement check-lists to help students with a research paper or proj-ect. I once used the checklist in Figure 7 as astudent self-check for a project focused on BritishRomantic poets. While the checklist primarilyserves to catalogue required elements of the assign-ment, it also reinforces particular instructionalemphases. For example, in addition to asking stu-dents to develop a background within which toapproach Byron, Shelley, and Keats, I wanted to

reinforce the value of powerful titles and the con-ventions for presenting academic work, such asproperly formatted citations and bibliography. Inaddition, as part of the project, I had introducedstudents to ways in which writers select and embedvisual information into verbal texts, and I wantedthem to experiment with doing so themselves.

Lists such as these make little attempt toaddress the quality of student work beyond sup-porting the organization and the inclusion ofrequired components. Further, it is assumed thatdetailed instruction, such as how to choose andlimit topics, how to identify useful sources, how tointegrate quoted material, and so on, are addressedelsewhere. However, after one colleague experi-mented with having students look at a checklistbefore beginning work on their final draft, shewrote that “both the rubric and the checklistforce[d] students to think more carefully about the

65English Journal


FIGURE 6. Reading Strategies Postcard


A classroom teacher for more than twenty years, Kathleen Dudden Rowlands earned her doctorate in composition fromIndiana University of Pennsylvania in 2004 and currently teaches in the Department of Secondary Education at California StateUniversity, Northridge. In addition to a number of articles, she is the author of Opening Texts: Using Writing to Teach Litera-ture (Portsmouth: Heinemann, 1990). email: [email protected].

criteria of a writing assignment” (Uliantzeff). Thissuggests that although checklists—used primarilyas mnemonic devices of various sorts—are notexplicitly designed as teaching tools, they haveunintended instructional value as well.

Checklists Support Teaching and Learning

Checklists are certainly not the only answer toimproved student work. Still, operational andrequirement checklists are useful enough to merit

serious consideration. A tangible reminder of howto approach a particular task, a checklist can helpstudents internalize new processes in reading andwriting, providing metacognitive cues that scaffolddevelopment of independent control of suchprocesses. Furthermore, checklists help studentstrack complex assignment requirements. Finally,checklists have many appealing features for teach-ers. They are easily constructed and wonderfullyflexible. Operational and requirement checklistssuch as those described here are easily individual-ized to reflect the particular instructional contextssurrounding student work. Teachers can developthem quickly in response to specific curricularemphases in their classrooms. Checklists, in short,are useful management tools for both teachers andstudents. Check them out!

Works Cited

Elbow, Peter. Writing without Teachers. London: Oxford UP,1973.

Gere, Anne Ruggles, Leila Christenbury, and Kelly Sassi.Writing on Demand: Best Practices and Strategies for Suc-cess. Portsmouth: Heinemann, 2005.

Graves, Donald H. “Let’s Get Rid of the Welfare Mess inthe Teaching of Writing.” A Researcher Learns toWrite: Selected Articles and Monographs. Exeter: Heine-mann, 1984. 43–51.

Scriven, Michael. “The Logic and Methodology of Check-lists.” Western Michigan University: The Evaluation Cen-ter. July 2000. 23 July 2006 <http://www.wmich.edu/evalctr/checklists/papers/logic_methodology.htm>.

Strickland, Kathleen, and James Strickland. Making Assess-ment Elementary. Portsmouth: Heinemann, 2000.

Uliantzeff, Sinaida. Personal email. May 2006.

66 July 2007


FIGURE 7. British Romantic Poetry Project

Did you include

❑ an interesting title (e.g., not “British RomanticPoetry Project”)?

❑ a table of contents?

❑ an introduction explaining why you chose yourtopic?

❑ three to five pages of typed text regarding yourtopic?

❑ citations from at least three sources (at least onenondigital) in MLA format?

❑ at least one image, chart, or map, labeled and referred to in your text?

❑ a bibliography in MLA format?

❑ a manila envelope containing all the rough materials that went into your final project: notes,Internet printouts, drafts, peer response notes, and so on?

READWRITETHINK CONNECTION Lisa Storm Fink, RWT

Rowlands details numerous ways that checklists can enhance teaching and learning. One example she providesis using a checklist in a British Romantic poetry unit. “Put That on the List: Collaboratively Writing a CatalogPoem” also uses a checklist to help the students with the activity. Using the structure of the list, studentscombine creative expression with poetic techniques and language exploration to write group poems aboutwhat matters in their lives. The checklist helps students include all of the requirements and manage their groupwork. http://www.readwritethink.org/lessons/lesson_view.asp?id=894

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