What I need today is...

Self-directed learning is a concept I've work towards in my classroom for many years. The pandemic revealed for some students how other-directed learning feels vs how joyful self-directed learning can be.
Both my seventh graders and eighth graders were in the thick of a project last week and I reached that dilemma point - how do I keep everyone moving forward even though they are all in vastly different stages? I printed the "what I need" tickets below and ask students to choose the description that fit them best, collect the required materials and tape the ticket to their desk.

The color coding allowed me to quickly see who needed specific graphic organizers to keep moving forward. I knew who to prioritize and which students could have a little more freedom.

How often do students truly engage in self-reflection? We know middle schoolers spend a lot of time in their own heads, comparing themselves to others, but when asked to evaluate their own work they aren't always deeply reflective. With this system basically every student evaluated what they needed accurately.

A final upside to this system is that students see how many of certain colors are taken by their classmates. If they are in the red but few others are, they have a sense of how much catching up they need to do to be on track.