Helping Students Set Long-Term and Short-Term Goals
Karen A. McCay
6 January 2019
The Importance of Student Goal-Tracking
Most adults recognize the importance of setting and tracking goals; however, too few teachers ask students to set and track their own achievement goals. Successfully achieving a specific goal generates a genuine feeling of success, which is more rewarding than any treat or accolade. According to Willis (2007), “Planning these personalized goals is time-consuming, but teachers' efforts will be rewarded by students' improved confidence, attitudes and behavior, and academic achievement. When students participate in setting reasonably challenging goals, they are also practicing the executive functions of planning, time management, and prioritization” (p. 17). Providing students with the regular experience of setting and tracking their own learning goals during every educational unit helps them develop a growth mindset, a success orientation, and an understanding that any goal is achievable with the right plan of attack. If we want to further empower students, we can allow them to work in cooperative groups where they share their goals with one another and cheer each other on: “When you tell people your goals, they will jump in the boat with you and help you get there. You will be shocked by the support you’ll get from your network. You’ll be even more surprised by the people who come out of the woodwork to join you in your journey or privately cheer you on, knowing what you’re going through” (Cain, 2013). These small student cohorts yield powerful growth and positive affect.
How to Set Long-Term Goals
Have students unpack the standards for their unit. “It is important to communicate learning objectives to students explicitly by stating them verbally, displaying them in writing, and calling attention to them throughout a unit or lesson” (Dean, Hubbell, Pitler, & Stone, 2012, p. 7). After teachers have provided students with all of the unit goals and allowed students to unpack them, generating a list of knowledge and skills they’ll need to master during the unit, teachers should administer a pretest on the knowledge and skills from the unpacked standards. Next, students should review their data from the pretest and target their two lowest skills for the unit. They should write specific goals in their own words for the unit using the language from the unpacked standards. They may want to phrase the goals based on their own career goals or even their extracurricular activities. For example, a debate student might change the argument format to a spoken argument for her goal because students “feel a greater sense of control over what they learn when they identify how the learning is relevant to them” and their individual goals (p. 9).
How to Set Short-Term Goals
Based on the long-term goals, students can read the class objectives for each lesson in the unit and then write individualized objectives--or short-term goals--for that lesson. “Many students do not have experience with writing their own learning objectives, so it is important for teachers to model the process and provide students with feedback when they are first learning how to set their own learning objectives” (ibid). Providing a specific framework with examples for each step of the process will help novice goal-writers. As students write, teachers can “work the room” and provide specific, clear feedback about what is an effective, skill-based goal and what is not. Recently, I had students write their long-term goals as a proficiency scale for the unit, and at the bottom of the scale, students wrote their short-term goals as objectives for each lesson. When they completed a smaller goal or skill, they marked through it instead of deleting it so they could still read the accomplished objective. By the end of the unit, students had a document listing all of the objectives they’d mastered during the unit, and all of the larger goals they’d achieved during the unit, including their two individualized goals.
How to Plan Instruction From Students’ Goals
Compile students’ unit goals from the unit preview and post them on the classroom wall. Use that list to plan all weekly lessons for the unit. Use students’ personal objectives to plan the daily instructional lessons. An activity should clearly target a student objective or goal to be included in the plan. Using the students’ end-goals and planning with that end in mind will ensure that all instruction is focused on the achievement of students’ goals--on their growth. When instructors plan with the end in mind and follow that plan, they will see measurable academic growth . . . and so will their students.
For Administrators
Perhaps part of why teachers rarely have their students write specific, personal learning goals is because annual goal-writing for teachers is such a stressful, laborious process, even for veteran teachers. New initiatives are thrown out at one training, which is rushed. Annual pre-assessments are mentioned with a timeline are also mentioned at a staff meeting or in an email, but it’s rushed. Everyone groans. There’s a lockdown drill. Benchmark exams are postponed, and there’s a visit from the school board, and everyone smiles. There’s a pep rally for the first big football game of the year, and then finally everyone gets the actual packet explaining the initiatives for year, but the training is just a 2-hour video, and half the staff don’t even watch it because they’re grading. Sound familiar? Instead, principals could model meaningful goal-writing each year year with voluntary small-group sessions as part of the early stages of the teacher evaluation process, which would alleviate part of that anxiety and would also motivate teachers to bring this vital practice back to their classrooms for their students. If administrators make the practice of goal-setting exciting instead of stressful, they are establishing a culture of goal-orientation in their buildings, which will trickle down to each classroom and eventually affect their students in every room. Thirty minutes of meaningful goal-writing instead of that 2-hour video could change the entire year in your school.
More Resources:
A Great Middle School Example with a Sentence Starter
A Great Video on SMART Goals with Examples
Goal-Setting Worksheets
Return to All Learners Page
Back to Best Practices
Back to Relationship Teaching Home Page
References
Cain, M. (2013, March 14). 6 Ways To Achieve Any Goal (Forbes). Retrieved January 6, 2017, from http://www.forbes.com/sites/glassheel/2013/03/14/6-ways-to-achieve-any-goal/
Dean, C. B., Hubbell, E. R., Pitler, H., & Stone, B. J. (2012). Classroom Instruction that Works: Research-Based Strategies for Increasing Student Achievement, 2nd Edition. Alexandria, VA: ASCD.
Goodwin, B., & Hubbell, E. R. (2013). The 12 Touchstones of Good Teaching: A Checklist for Staying Focused Every Day. Alexandria, VA: ASCD.
Willis, J. (2007). Brain-Friendly Strategies for The Inclusion Classroom: Insights from a Neurologist and Classroom Teacher. Alexandria, VA: ASCD.
Karen A. McCay
6 January 2019
The Importance of Student Goal-Tracking
Most adults recognize the importance of setting and tracking goals; however, too few teachers ask students to set and track their own achievement goals. Successfully achieving a specific goal generates a genuine feeling of success, which is more rewarding than any treat or accolade. According to Willis (2007), “Planning these personalized goals is time-consuming, but teachers' efforts will be rewarded by students' improved confidence, attitudes and behavior, and academic achievement. When students participate in setting reasonably challenging goals, they are also practicing the executive functions of planning, time management, and prioritization” (p. 17). Providing students with the regular experience of setting and tracking their own learning goals during every educational unit helps them develop a growth mindset, a success orientation, and an understanding that any goal is achievable with the right plan of attack. If we want to further empower students, we can allow them to work in cooperative groups where they share their goals with one another and cheer each other on: “When you tell people your goals, they will jump in the boat with you and help you get there. You will be shocked by the support you’ll get from your network. You’ll be even more surprised by the people who come out of the woodwork to join you in your journey or privately cheer you on, knowing what you’re going through” (Cain, 2013). These small student cohorts yield powerful growth and positive affect.
How to Set Long-Term Goals
Have students unpack the standards for their unit. “It is important to communicate learning objectives to students explicitly by stating them verbally, displaying them in writing, and calling attention to them throughout a unit or lesson” (Dean, Hubbell, Pitler, & Stone, 2012, p. 7). After teachers have provided students with all of the unit goals and allowed students to unpack them, generating a list of knowledge and skills they’ll need to master during the unit, teachers should administer a pretest on the knowledge and skills from the unpacked standards. Next, students should review their data from the pretest and target their two lowest skills for the unit. They should write specific goals in their own words for the unit using the language from the unpacked standards. They may want to phrase the goals based on their own career goals or even their extracurricular activities. For example, a debate student might change the argument format to a spoken argument for her goal because students “feel a greater sense of control over what they learn when they identify how the learning is relevant to them” and their individual goals (p. 9).
How to Set Short-Term Goals
Based on the long-term goals, students can read the class objectives for each lesson in the unit and then write individualized objectives--or short-term goals--for that lesson. “Many students do not have experience with writing their own learning objectives, so it is important for teachers to model the process and provide students with feedback when they are first learning how to set their own learning objectives” (ibid). Providing a specific framework with examples for each step of the process will help novice goal-writers. As students write, teachers can “work the room” and provide specific, clear feedback about what is an effective, skill-based goal and what is not. Recently, I had students write their long-term goals as a proficiency scale for the unit, and at the bottom of the scale, students wrote their short-term goals as objectives for each lesson. When they completed a smaller goal or skill, they marked through it instead of deleting it so they could still read the accomplished objective. By the end of the unit, students had a document listing all of the objectives they’d mastered during the unit, and all of the larger goals they’d achieved during the unit, including their two individualized goals.
How to Plan Instruction From Students’ Goals
Compile students’ unit goals from the unit preview and post them on the classroom wall. Use that list to plan all weekly lessons for the unit. Use students’ personal objectives to plan the daily instructional lessons. An activity should clearly target a student objective or goal to be included in the plan. Using the students’ end-goals and planning with that end in mind will ensure that all instruction is focused on the achievement of students’ goals--on their growth. When instructors plan with the end in mind and follow that plan, they will see measurable academic growth . . . and so will their students.
For Administrators
Perhaps part of why teachers rarely have their students write specific, personal learning goals is because annual goal-writing for teachers is such a stressful, laborious process, even for veteran teachers. New initiatives are thrown out at one training, which is rushed. Annual pre-assessments are mentioned with a timeline are also mentioned at a staff meeting or in an email, but it’s rushed. Everyone groans. There’s a lockdown drill. Benchmark exams are postponed, and there’s a visit from the school board, and everyone smiles. There’s a pep rally for the first big football game of the year, and then finally everyone gets the actual packet explaining the initiatives for year, but the training is just a 2-hour video, and half the staff don’t even watch it because they’re grading. Sound familiar? Instead, principals could model meaningful goal-writing each year year with voluntary small-group sessions as part of the early stages of the teacher evaluation process, which would alleviate part of that anxiety and would also motivate teachers to bring this vital practice back to their classrooms for their students. If administrators make the practice of goal-setting exciting instead of stressful, they are establishing a culture of goal-orientation in their buildings, which will trickle down to each classroom and eventually affect their students in every room. Thirty minutes of meaningful goal-writing instead of that 2-hour video could change the entire year in your school.
More Resources:
A Great Middle School Example with a Sentence Starter
A Great Video on SMART Goals with Examples
Goal-Setting Worksheets
Return to All Learners Page
Back to Best Practices
Back to Relationship Teaching Home Page
References
Cain, M. (2013, March 14). 6 Ways To Achieve Any Goal (Forbes). Retrieved January 6, 2017, from http://www.forbes.com/sites/glassheel/2013/03/14/6-ways-to-achieve-any-goal/
Dean, C. B., Hubbell, E. R., Pitler, H., & Stone, B. J. (2012). Classroom Instruction that Works: Research-Based Strategies for Increasing Student Achievement, 2nd Edition. Alexandria, VA: ASCD.
Goodwin, B., & Hubbell, E. R. (2013). The 12 Touchstones of Good Teaching: A Checklist for Staying Focused Every Day. Alexandria, VA: ASCD.
Willis, J. (2007). Brain-Friendly Strategies for The Inclusion Classroom: Insights from a Neurologist and Classroom Teacher. Alexandria, VA: ASCD.