Student Goals
As educators, we are continually setting goals, both for our students and ourselves. It might feel like second nature, but goal setting itself is a complex metacognitive practice that requires many different skills:
Reflecting on your current strengths and struggles
Noticing things that you’d like to change or improve
Understanding that you have the ability to change over time
Breaking big goals into small, achievable steps
Planning a path forward
Recognizing areas where you need support
Considering resources you have available (both internal and external)
Asking for help when you need it
Following through
Asking students to generate their own learning goals is a great activity to help students build these skills and should be used many times—even daily—throughout the year (not just for New Year’s Resolutions!)
In our professional development workshops, we encourage educators to engage in this activity with students to help students develop executive functioning skills and to get student buy-in. When students are given the opportunity to take the wheel of their own learning, amazing things can happen! Instead of us “telling” students what to do, they are able to dictate what they need and where they want to go. When students are invested in their goals, learning becomes intrinsically motivated, and this motivation moves them forward with more excitement, determination, focus, and perseverance.
Please enjoy this free download of some of the Goal Trackers we use with our Word Scientists. The first is an example of how to structure long-term goal-setting. The second is for short-term goals, to keep students focused during 1:1 sessions or for a period of independent work.
Even if you don’t stick to our exact format, let these examples guide you in creating your own prompts for student-generated goals. Display goals on the wall, add them to a notebook, or keep them in a safe place where you can pull them out to revisit often. Journals can also be a great place to engage in goal setting, so that you and your students can easily flip back and reflect on progress.
We hope you find these templates useful. Leave us a comment on Facebook to let us know how you practice goal-setting with your students - we’re always looking for new ideas!