Using Checklists Improves Outcomes

Before starting any project, I take a sheet of paper and create a checklist of things I need to do to complete the project.  List can go from the very simple to the complex, such as writing an unassuming grocery list to a checklist for a grandiose home improvement project.  Creating a written list helps me focus on what I want to accomplish, to gather needed resources, and  motivation to get the project started!  Plus, I derive tremendous satisfaction as I check off each completed item!

However, the use of checklists has a much wider application than my own personal projects. In a book written by surgeon Atul Gawande titled The Checklist Manifesto, How to Get Things Right (2009 Metropolitan Books), Gawande suggests that even the best-trained professional can skip critical steps in a complex process.  Using a checklist can be beneficial to help practitioners focus on the most critical steps to get the best outcomes.   There are two common types of errors individuals frequently make, those of ignorance and those of ineptitude.  Errors of ignorance are mistakes made  due to lack of knowledge; the individual just doesn’t know enough to perform the task.  Errors of ineptitude are errors made because people don’t apply information already known.  Most mistakes made on a regular basis are errors of ineptitude; people forget to apply what they already know.  Gawande asserts that this is why a checklist can be a reliable reminder for consistent and successful completion of complex tasks.

In fact, many teachers are applying concepts from The Checklist Manifesto to their instructional toolbox .  Middle school teacher Heather Wolpert-Gawron states: “Developing and providing checklists speaks to college and career readiness in the Common Core. After all, organization, preparedness, goal setting and the independent learning that comes from utilizing resources are all folded into the expectations of these new standards.”   She goes on to say: “Because I teach using project-based learning, I find it very important not only to let students in on what our main goal needs to be, but to let them in on the process and steps it will take to meet that goal. My checklists, therefore, become almost a sequential narrative through an academic unit.”

Checklists are not just for middle and high school students.  Pinterest has excellent examples of checklists for younger children.   Recently while  visiting a  1^st grade classroom, I observed children proof-reading  their own written paragraph using a horizontal checklist at the bottom of the paper. The checkboxes were simple and useful. They included: I checked the word wall for correct spelling?; Each sentences starts with a capital?; Each sentence has an end mark?  This checklist  encouraged  1^st graders to independently check their work for conventions and involved them in  metacognitive awareness of their own work. 

In the curricular planning process, once a teacher decides on the lesson's instructional objectives and the performance tasks, she's ready to create the assignment's checklist.  Checklists should be brief and clearly focused on the most critical steps needed to produce desired results.   When the child turns in the assignment the completed checklist is attached.  The teachers can see at a glance that all essential steps have been completed.  Checklists have the power to improve metacognitive skills, differentiate instruction, increase participation, and track progress.  Why not give checklists a try!

A teacher is one who makes himself progressively unnecessary. 

                                                                                                              ~Thomas Carruthers

Featuring One of Our Own: A Classroom Tour

Shelbi Wiken is teaching first grade in a private school in Honduras.  She reports that everyone at the school is extremely helpful to new teachers.  Shelbi has 19 students and a wonderful team of four other first grade teachers.  Two of her colleagues are from Honduras and the other two are from Canada.  Enjoy these photographs of Shelbi's classroom!