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Article: Achieving More With Focus: Fostering Student Goal Setting
This article helped me  better understand the goal setting process. With our guidance and modeling of the three phases, we can teach our students to create a just right goal  for themselves, select a strategy, and assess their performance, before selecting another goal . I can see how goal setting influences student's learning and motivates them to want to learn. In a way the students  feel that they have control over what they learn, which empowers them and motivates them  even more. I'm looking forward to initiating goal setting with my students this year.
10/16/17

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Article Goal Setting and Planning for Learning:
As this year moves forward I'm noticing the increased level of accountability that my students are demonstrating after our lessons on goal setting. The students are learning about clear intent when choosing a goal, developing a plan, and adjusting a goal, monitoring progress, and evaluating their success with the goal they chose. The students are more aware of what the have to learn and how are they going to do it.

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I love the "Weekly Goals" Google Document that fourth grade designed for their students to use in Google Classroom!!

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I really like focusing on modeling, discussing and self-monitoring goals as part of the 3rd grade morning meetings. We are using our planners to start the day with positive thoughts and goal setting and monitoring. This article helped me to focus on more student centered approaches to this goal setting and keeping a clear focus. I am looking forward to integrating technology with google classroom and goal setting! I also really want to do a better job of promoting a safe, risk-taking environment to share and monitor goals :)

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SPED decided to start with social/behavioral goals for our students. We will implement goal setting in order to address social/behavioral concerns. Students will self-monitor and self-assess through use of daily checklists. We will model a specific social interaction or behavior on Monday and the students will practice the skill throughout the week. Students will self-assess and monitor their progress through an individualized, daily checklist that is specific to the social skill or behavior the student is working on. We will use visuals (preschool), and create individualized daily checklists to meet each student's specific need.

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Third grade plus Mrs. Vazquez,  Mr. Conger, Mrs.  Rutkowski

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Third grade plus Mrs. Vazquez,  Mr. Conger, Mrs.  Rutkowski

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We feel like we are off to great start for goal setting. We have been doing reflection journals. Students reflect as part of morning work and record an attitude of gratitude, a positive thought, and reflect on their goal by giving themselves a ranking of one of our "faces". We would like to move towards posting goals digitally. We also want an academic goal (like that target "i can" example) and having students move towards the center of the target. We also want to make sure that we take the time to celebrate achievements and have peer discussion on our goals.

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I have noticed nothing but positive things about our morning meetings and goal setting so far this year.
We model how to create two kinds of goals for the students. One is a behavior goal (could be organization or focusing) and the other is an academic goal. We discuss  the difference between short term goals and long term goals. Goal setting should  be a learning process that help students learn how to learn. A lot of attention is devoted to assisting the students in creating a just right goal.
The students feel more like a community when they share their goals with each other and listen to each other's goals as well. I believe that goal setting influences student learning, help them focus on the learning objective, increases their desire to learn new things, and self-motivates them to persevere. They created their own goal to work for,  so it seems easier for them to work towards their own goal rather than a goal someone else set for them. Accomplishing a goal they set increases their self- esteem and creates a behavior that they want to learn more . I enjoy seeing the smile on their face when they accomplish their goal.

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4th Grade is going to use a Google Document on Google Classroom. We will have them make a goal on Mondays and will reflect on their Goals on Fridays. We will start with choosing one goal at first, but will eventually have the students make more goals as the school year goes on. Below is the document we will be using.

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Second Grade & Pierre Louis, Atkins, Holmes

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Second Grade & Pierre Louis, Atkins, Holmes

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We are already posting our goals on a board in the classroom.  We will also use SeeSaw for the students to post their goals and accomplishments for their parents to see.

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We will implement goal setting in our morning meetings. Students will set goals on Monday, work on achieving them throughout the week, and reflect on their goals on Friday. This will be done through Google classroom. We have assigned a log that students will use. They will be allowed to share their goal with a partner on Monday, and then again on Friday when they reflect!

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Goal setting in first grade needs to be scaffolded and modeled by the teacher. We would need to set goals for the student for the first half of the year. The second half of the school year we would use a template for goal setting. The template would include, "I want to ________by (date)________ so I will ________ to meet my goal.

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Goal setting is very important in the classroom.  Goal setting is difficult for elementary aged students.  In our classroom, we need to teach student HOW to goal set and what it means to goal set. The first step is setting the goal.  This goal should match the classroom task and be just right in challenge and achievement.  The next step is choosing the right strategy.  We as educators, show and teach the specific strategies and provide feedback along the way.  The third stage puts learners in control of their learning and allows them to progress monitor and self-assess.  This article did a wonderful job of explaining the importance of goal setting in the classroom and how as teachers we can implement this process with our students.

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This article gave me a better understanding of goal setting for students.  I realized that I had many of the misconceptions about goal setting.  I realize that by fostering  student goal setting I will be teaching my students how to learn and increase there desire and capacity to learning new strategies.

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After reading the article, I realized I needed to model the goal setting better than I have been lately. I also need to go in to properly setting a goal and how it can be obtainable. We set weekly goals for our class and individual goals for the week. My goal for after this professional development is to model goal setting and have more check ins with the students.

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The goals need to be short term and attainable. Including the teacher-student goal-setting conferences into daily routines will become an important piece to consider for classroom management.

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This article was quite an interesting read.  Teachers are giving the students a bigger role in their learning process.  The goal setting is breaking down the "big picture."  Teachers and students are breaking down the "big picture" of the lesson by asking/answering the questions of:
What do I know about this topic now?
What do I need to know about this topic?
How am I going to learn what I need to know?
What strategies will I need to use to get me where I need to be?
This sounds like it is an expansion on the KWL concept that is learned in kindergarten.

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After reviewing the article for today,
I realize that I need to be more specific with the intentions or the "why" behind goal setting for my students. This year I have started modeling more of goal setting for myself weekly to the students and having them track and monitor their progress weekly, as opposed to strictly quarterly like I did last year. Also, as a class we set weekly goals as well. We reflect on them each week to see if we can achieve them the next time if we were not able to for that week. My goal as a teacher is model more prior to having them construct their goals and monitor their progress and self reflection.

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I find the section of the article where motivation is directly correlated to goal setting interesting. This is primarily due to the fact that I find it difficult to get 1st graders to understand what motivation to learn is. The importance of having motivation to set goals for themselves now and in the future is often lost in translation in addition to them having other "world problems" to think about at such a young age. I believe that with more teacher guidance and modeling, first graders will be able to set their own goals and will be able to work towards finding that motivation from within.

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I have always liked goal setting for older students, but never really thought about it for the younger grades. First graders and younger students are aware of what they know and don't know and can set goals. There would need to be some teacher assistance to help regulate in the beginning. Once they have their set of strategies and understand how to achieve their goal, I think they will be excited to prove they can do it.

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Goal setting is very vital for fostering student learning.  I love how the article breaks down goal-setting into 3 phases: Setting the goal, selecting the strategy, and assessing performance. I love the idea of providing goal-setting guides to students to help them with setting goals and regulating their performance.

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I have talked with my students about setting goals for this year, as well as goals for specific units we have been studying, but after reading this article, I feel that I have a much better understanding of exactly what I need to do to help them set realistic and time sensitive goals that they can achieve. I believe that as they see success in their goals, it will give them the confidence to take more control over what they need to learn, and how they want to get there.

-N. Sightler

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In an environment like Physical Education there is already a competitive push for most students. This can become a problem with some children as their drive to be #1 sometimes comes at the expense of other children. Goal setting gives me the opportunity to have the children compete against themselves in most aspects of my class. When entering a unit my children will all receive a baseline score for the task at hand. This baseline score will serve as the starting line for the students to set a realistic goal for themselves to achieve by the end of the unit. This allows the more competitive students to look within themselves to achieve their goal; instead of the alternative, which would be to try and simply "beat" one of their classmates. Goal setting actually helps me build a tighter PE team since the children are helping each other to reach their personal goals instead of competing against each other.

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After reading this article, I have a different view on goal setting. I think it's easy to forget that goal setting should be a continuous process and that as teachers we should model what we expect the students to do. This article did a great job breaking down the steps of goal setting for successful implementation in the classroom.

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This article was definitely an eye opener. Before reading the article, misconceptions #1 and #2 were part of my goal setting thoughts.  However, I now understand that goals are precise, and linked to the current classroom task, not to general academic aims. Also, it is important to understand that goal setting is a process that is intended to empower students.

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This article made me contemplate the challenges of goal setting with the youngest students, the Pre-K and K students.  The challenge is that children at this very concrete stage of development may have a difficult time grasping the abstract nature of goal setting (I have discussed this with Jennifer Ratajczak and Laurie Quint on recent occasions).  My intuition is that goal setting with these children would require that simple, explicitly designed, concrete tasks chosen by the teacher be built in.  Charts with pictures could be utilized.  At every stage of skill mastery toward the goal, the teacher could take pictures of the student in a moment of success...  This would hopefully assist the child in internalizing the process of goal achievement.  And with repeated success, student buy-in and motivation would hopefully increase.

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For me, this article reinforced the importance of child-directed and play-based learning, particularly with younger students. While the students in my class may not necessarily have the cognitive ability to set their own goals, by following their lead in the classroom I can help them work toward achieving the individualized goals set for them in their IEPs in a way that will be more meaningful to them.

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I learned a lot from the article. I had many misconception about setting goals. I understand that it is very important to achieve. First, you need start with a small goal. Secondly, plan out your goal and aim high. Thirdly, study your goal because it is a learning process that will help students learn day to day and minute by minute work in the classroom. This article help me with setting goal for myself and students in my class.

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We have talked about how important it is to goal set with our students. As I was reading the article, it hit home when it mentioned how high achieving students had already "learned how to learn" . They are able to set their own goals and self- monitor them to achieve success. This can increase their potential by as much as 30%. I realized how important it is to instill goal setting in our low achieving students, as well.

-Missy

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I think that goal setting is difficult for many, especially elementary aged students. I had many misconceptions about goal setting, so this article was definitely worth the read. I want to inspire my students and I look forward to implementing the first phase of goal setting in the classroom.

C. Rolan

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Being a goal-oriented person, I don't know why I haven't modeled goal setting with students.  I think because it is a challenge to teach students how to take ownership in what they do.    I have always encouraged students to self-regulate and try and figure it out on their own, but I never really gave them the "why" of doing so.  They need to learn how to learn and setting goals is a motivational tool.  I have realized that modeling is key.  Goal setting is very new to the students in the sense of how to hold yourself accountable and track your progress.

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Eye opener for me! I had a few misconceptions about goal setting. I like what was said about planning strategies and that goals are and can be ongoing. I want to implement goal setting with my students using this process. Goals for academics in regards to current objectives/tasks and also personal. This article also helps me with my goal setting as a teacher and remembering that it’s a learning process!  Modeling is essential.

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I like the strait-forward process of goal setting: setting the goal, planning a sequence of strategies, and assessing whether the goal is achieved.  It also makes sense that goal setting should connect to daily learning - not just long-term goals that are only visited a few times a year.  This is a great way for students to develop the ability to learn "how they learn."

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I like the strait-forward process of goal setting: setting the goal, planning a sequence of strategies, and assessing whether the goal is achieved.  It also makes sense that goal setting should connect to daily learning - not just long-term goals that are only visited a few times a year.  This is a great way for students to develop the ability to learn "how they learn."

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Kirsten Rutkowski

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I have always thought that goal setting was a difficult skill for first graders to understand and implement.  After reading the article I realized that I have never done enough modeling on how to set goals with my students.   The specific wording listed on pp 71-72 will be helpful for beginning that process with students. 

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I have always thought that goal setting was a difficult skill for first graders to understand and implement.  After reading the article I realized that I have never done enough modeling on how to set goals with my students.   The specific wording listed on pp 71-72 will be helpful for beginning that process with students. 

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Calder

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At this time I have difficulty understanding how this goal setting will work with students who do not have the language or the brain development to process this type of abstract thinking. I would be interested in seeing these steps being implemented with a special needs preschool population.

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One specific component of this article that peaked my interest is when the author discussed how goal setting promotes student’s self-efficacy.  When I researched more about what self-efficacy means, I found that self-efficacy is, “One's belief in one's ability to succeed in specific situations or accomplish a task”. When it comes to the topic of how goal setting affects student’s learning and achievement, the author made a statement that really was an “eye-opener” for me.  The author stated, “Students who have internalized these important principles of learning—those who set goals and monitor their self-efficacy in this way—boost their achievement potential by as much as 30 percent (pg. 61).  This statement really astounded me and demonstrated how beneficial goal setting can be.  I can see how goal setting can truly promote self-efficacy for our students.

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I liked the idea that an effective goal is linked to the current classroom task and not to a general academic aim.

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As a school counselor, I see the benefit when I set goals with students and we both take part in monitoring progress towards the goal. Sometimes goals are not initially met, and extra support and re-teaching are necessary. Nonetheless, as the article states, when students take part in planning/mapping their academic journey, it develops their mindset/motivation to one that wants to see where they are going academically as well as hit those targets on their academic journey. Alvin Toffler’s words regarding this process, have always stood out to me: “The illiterate of the 21st Century will not be those who can not read and write, but those who can not learn, unlearn, and relearn.” The process of goal setting and formative assessment in tandem supports the learning, unlearning, and relearning cycle that is integral to school and beyond. Goal setting is a skill and it will take time to develop this skill into a routine which models how students can take ownership of and participate in their learning.

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Our role as teacher is to foster life-long learners. In order to do that we do need to teach students how to self-regulate their own learning. They need to access where they are at, where they need to go, and how to get there. The focus on goal setting covers these steps. It also includes the very important idea of self evaluation. How the individual can improve not only what they did but the process in which they did it.

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I found the article interesting because most children do not set goals, nor do they monitor their own progress to improve success. This is a skill that must be taught. If achievement can improve by as much as 30% by learning to set goals, we  need to encourage students to learn how to learn! We need to encourage students to  learn more effectively,  set detailed goals for exact learning targets, understand their own current level of performance, and most importantly, take ownership of their own learning.

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The article had a lot of good points in regards to goal setting. I learned that goal setting is a learning process. It is a continuous process of learning how to learn. It is not something that will happen today or tomorrow.
I have been giving my students goals that are more general academically. But goals should be linked to what we are working on currently in the classroom.

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The article was a double eye opener! I have
been striving to meet with each of  my students about setting goals, and I realize how more in depth of a conversation I need to have with them regarding the "why" to goal setting. I'm
also needing to implement "I do"  to model goal setting. I know I have plenty of goals I could set so the students realize it's not just them who needs to establish goals to meet achievements.

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As I was reading this article some points stood out.  The first was that goal setting is not an event it is ongoing.  In the special ed world we think of IEP goals and that they are events.  These are not the type of goals that the article is speaking of.  The second is that this is a skill that we have to teach and model--the students aren't able to just do it innately.  Finally it dawned on me that this is a skill that the students will carry with them through life.  Setting goals is how we are productive members of society.  

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As I was reading this article some points stood out.  The first was that goal setting is not an event it is ongoing.  In the special ed world we think of IEP goals and that they are events.  These are not the type of goals that the article is speaking of.  The second is that this is a skill that we have to teach and model--the students aren't able to just do it innately.  Finally it dawned on me that this is a skill that the students will carry with them through life.  Setting goals is how we are productive members of society.  

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Jeni Schmidt

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This article did an excellent job showing the importance of and how to set effective goals in the classroom. As teachers, we need to remember that goal setting is like every other skill we teach daily. Setting goals needs to be taught, scaffold, and students need to have opportunities for guided practice.
Susan Hudgins

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When I think of goals, I think of the misconception #2 where you set your goals in the beginning of the year or unit and check back in throughout the year. I think it was interesting how it looks at goals as a little less formal and a lot more specific. I can see how that is a lot more beneficial to students because they can say do I know the specific information I am supposed to know by now and if not, what do I need to do.

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I have found it difficult to explain the word "goal" to the younger children. For these children, it is a very abstract term and difficult to comprehend. After reading the article and seeing The Sample Goal Setting Guide(p.73), I realized that this particular format is very simple and could be adapted to use in a K-2 classroom for goal setting. It would help the students understand that a goal is something that allows them to make decisions about their own learning. 

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I have found it difficult to explain the word "goal" to the younger children. For these children, it is a very abstract term and difficult to comprehend. After reading the article and seeing The Sample Goal Setting Guide(p.73), I realized that this particular format is very simple and could be adapted to use in a K-2 classroom for goal setting. It would help the students understand that a goal is something that allows them to make decisions about their own learning. 

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Jennifer Ratajczak