Goal Setting with Students this January
It’s a new year, and a new semester. For my students, this doesn’t mean a whole lot. To me, this means A TON. I can see the finish line, and I know exactly how much ground we need to cover between now and the last day of school.
And when I say we have ground to cover, I don’t just mean academic ground. I mean socially, emotionally, organizationally…all of the things. These kids just aren’t ready for third grade yet. They aren’t supposed to be, necessarily. It’s only January. We have more time left, of course.
But what teachers can see that their students can’t, is that the amount of time we have to get to the finish line is not as much as we really need to get everything done. There are still many standards to learn, and not every standard from the first semester was mastered. For some students, not every standard from last year has been mastered yet.
It’s a lot. And there’s no time to waste.
I spent a chunk of my Winter Break brainstorming how to get my students to take ownership of their learning so we didn’t lose focus on what we are trying to accomplish. I think I designed the perfect thing to help them see the road they’re on, and where they need to be by May. I wanted to share what I made with you all today!
The Goal-Getters Workbook
I designed a goal-setting workbook for my students to create an easy road-map for them to follow for the rest of 2nd grade.
Let’s take a look inside!
Standards-Tracking
At the beginning of the workbook, the students see two pages with tables. In each square of the table, there is a different skill that must be mastered by the end of 2nd grade. I have been conferencing with students during small groups this month to help them decide what they are ready to color in, and which standards they are still working on.
During the first week after break, I was able to devote most of small group time to this. As we take assessments this semester, I will devote one day a week (typically Fridays) to meet with students, review data, and let them know if there are any new standards they may color in.
This makes it very easy for my students (2nd graders) to see what skills they still need to work on!
Data Graphing
After checking standards off of the goal boards, I had students graph data I had collected on them so far. This week, we are currently taking all of our second semester assessments. It is going to be so fun for students to see how they did from one semester to the next! I anticipate so many great conversations around habits and attitudes that my students have, and how they contribute to their learning.
Set Some Goals!
After seeing what standards they haven’t mastered yet, and they’ve seen how their test scores are going, generating quality goals is a lot easier! I think one of the biggest goal-setting pitfalls we fall into as teachers is just opening the doors wide open for students to create goals. Giving them so many visuals and evidence helps them make a high-quality goal that is both attainable and measurable! I included goal-setting worksheets in the Goal-Getters Workbook to guide my students through this process.
Reflect
After setting goals, students will continue to track their data, graph how they do on tests, and color in standards they’ve mastered. Depending on what goals they set, some students will meet their goals faster than others. I worked some reflection and journaling pages into the workbook to give students some pause points to see if their are headed in the right direction!
Do you want to try the Goal Getters workbook for yourself? Check it out here!
Happy teaching, everyone!
