#4 Goal Setting

Looking ahead for next year, I want to have my students do more goal setting.  In the beginning of the school year we create our “Hopes and Dreams” and we leave them posted for the entire year.  We come back in January to see if we reached our goal or if it something we are still working on.  This year I started to implement goal setting with my students writing.  Before I released them to go off into “Wake-Up Work” or writing in their journals or writing workshop I asked them to just think of a goal they wanted to focus on for the day/week.  I listed examples and modeled what it would look like in their journals.  I gave examples such as making sure to use punctuation, starting each sentence with a capital letter, using finger spaces, or even something likes using neat handwriting.   It was more of a verbal goal.  The students would come to me when they were done, or I would be walking around the room, and they would tell me their writing goal.  I would give feedback as to how I saw them using that goal.  This year I want to set goals with a lot of things we do in our day, and I want to make it more of a habit, something that the students get used to.  I feel that when students set goals for themselves, they hold themselves accountable, and they are more likely to reach it when they label what they are working on.  Also, there is a great sense of pride and accomplishment when the goal is met and achieved.  When looking into different ways I could have my students set goals as well as monitor and adjust the goals they are working on, these are the resources I found, and might possibly use.  I love the resource I found where students can select three goals to work on in all parts of their day, reading, writing, math, social etc.  I love the visual cards and how you can change them.  I’m already thinking of so many different ways I can use these! I can’t decide If I should laminate them, one for each student, so they can interchange throughout the year, or even week. Or if I want to see the progression of goals that students set in the beginning of the year compared to the end of the year.  If needed I could create my own specific goals that maybe pertain to a specific student, or standard that we are working on.  I also think how this tool could be used as a way to track student behavior, or process of STAT purposes.  Basically, I am just really excited about this tool, and I know it will be extremely helpful for me in years to come!