Learning Contract Maker

Learning contracts help the teacher and student share the responsibility for achieving desired outcomes. Make a student-teacher contract for free with TeAch-nology.com.

A "contract" is a valuable tool that teachers can use in negotiating terms with students and/or parents which details the specific expectations that the teacher, student, and sometimes, the parent formally agree upon.

Learning contracts help the teacher and student share the responsibility for achieving desired outcomes. It also helps increase accountability and provides feedback to the student regarding progress toward meeting the agreed upon goals.

Complete each section below with expectations that are generated and agreed upon by both teacher and student. We provided some common examples for you to consider.

STEP #1: NAME AND PERSONAL DATA

Add Name of Teacher and Student.

School Name:
Title Of Learning Contract:

STEP #2: TERMS OF EXPECTATIONS AND RESPONSIBILITIES FOR EACH PARTY

Student Responsibilities:	1. Be respectful to my classmates. 2. Put my best effort into my school work. 3. Obey all rules both at home and at school. 4. Come prepared to school with homework and materials. 5. Spend at least 15 minutes a day study for each subject.
Parent Responsibilities:	1. Spend 15 minutes per day reading with my child. 2. Monitor my child's school work and extracurricular activities. 3. Maintain a discipline policy with my child. 4. Attend all parent-teacher conferences. 5. Volunteer my time for at least 2 school activities.
Teacher Responsibilities:	1. Provide a safe comfortable environment for my students. 2. Provide ample time for my students to receive extra help after school. 3. Enforce school rules consistently. 4. Provide students with clear and concise expectations. 5. Work to make learning an enjoyable experience.

What Are Learning Contracts?

As a teacher, you must always be on the lookout for new effective strategies that could help your students learn while assisting you in teaching. Have you tried the learning contract teaching strategy yet?

A learning contract is a planning tool that allows students to set their own goals, identify the resources to help them reach those goals, and monitor their progress. It is a primary visual planning tool that helps students think about what they are doing and how they plan to achieve it. Students can think about their learning in a more structured way and look back on the learning contract to see how they have progressed.

What Is Included in a Learning Contract?

Although students can tailor a learning contract according to their individual needs and understanding with their teacher, here are some of the things that must be a part of an effective learning contract:

Outcomes

The objectives provide a framework around which the course is built. Having a detailed list of potential outcomes that the students commit to work towards will structure their focus and give them specific goals to achieve.

Strategies and Resources

Students must also mention what effective strategies and resources they will use to achieve their learning outcomes better. Having a list of resources prepared since the beginning of the course saves time during this entire process.

A Specific Date

For each outcome, students must provide a specific date. It helps make their goals measurable and attainable. Having a deadline also aids students in reverse engineering their planning to be efficient.

Evidential Task

How would the students present that they have learned what they had committed? Completing a task specifically designed to evaluate students based on their objectives can effectively demonstrate where they stand.

Teacher's Feedback

The teacher will evaluate the students based on how well they completed the task assigned. Through teacher's feedback, students will understand how much they've been able to learn and how much more effort they require to grasp a concept fully. It could also assist students in coming up with new strategies to achieve their goals.

A teacher's regular feedback keeps the students accountable on their part of the deal while showing the teacher's commitment to student learning.

The Importance of Learning Contracts for Students

A learning contract is a way of illustrating to students exactly what they need to achieve to get a good grade in a subject. It acts as a guide to the student, helping them develop a clear idea of what they need to cover to get a good grade.

When they have understood what they need to learn, they can work towards the objectives, giving them a clear idea of what is expected. These types of documents are beneficial for students who have a problem with motivation or difficulty concentrating on the task at hand. By setting out clear goals for learning, the student can focus on achieving their goals.

Conclusion

Educators must prepare learning contracts for students at the beginning of the course. Using them as a teaching strategy helps students work toward the set-out objectives and motivates them to take things one step at a time for effective knowledge development. A higher success rate is every teacher's goal, and they can achieve it with learning contracts.