Teaching students to set goals is a key to student accountability and success. When students regularly set goals and evaluate progress, they work harder to achieve success and take ownership of their success and learning. As teachers, we want students to understand their role in learning. Here are tips to regularly incorporate goal setting into your classroom routines.
Begin each quarter with time to set goals. At the beginning of the year, the teacher will need to take the lead in sharing information and data with students to help them form goals. After initial assessments, share with students where they are in academic areas. What are they doing really well with? What are some areas they should focus on? It is important to give students measures they can track. For example, their reading range, a stamina goal, or math fluency.
It is important to reference student goals regularly. When you hold student reading or math conferences, ask students how they are doing with progressing towards their goal. At the beginning of each new quarter, ask students to assess if they met their goal. If they did not, they should reflect why. What else can they do to meet their goal? Should the goal be revised to be more attainable? If students did meet their goal, they should create new goals. By quarter two or three, students should be more independent with goal setting and reflections. You can have students use more open-ended goal plans, such as the one below.
Make goal setting and self-reflecting on progress a part of your classroom routines. You will see that this creates to not only student accountability, but a culture of pursing excellence in academics.
You can read more about how I incorporate Student Success Binders, the resource these sheets are included in, in my blog post about How to Use Data Binders to Set Your Students Up for Success.
You can find my Data Binders on TPT or in the MagiCore Shop!
If you’re a new teacher or if you just can’t seem to get a successful system of rituals and routines in place, and you’re ready to give your students the the stable learning environment you know they deserve, then check out my Classroom Management Course. Together, we’ll build a strategy for success that you can use year after year. Your students will thrive. And you can reduce your stress and finally earn the respect you deserve.
We strive to create resources that empower teachers and transform student success. We create skill-focused resources that promote critical thinking, enhance student engagement, and incorporate diversity. Our goal is to develop the tools teachers need to reach their students and foster a lifetime of learning.