Every year growing up I remember setting goals in my classes to help guide me through the school year. I don’t remember taking time to reflect on these goals often growing up but when I started with my own classroom it was the first thing that I wanted to continue. Not only did I want to continue to make goals but I wanted to use them to help communicate with my students and parents.
During the first week of school I always talk with my students about the importance of goals. Setting goals give us a direction to follow for the year. As a teacher these goals allow me to see into my student’s minds a bit more. Where do they want to succeed? Where do they see that they might need that extra PUSH this school year?
My students use part of their first few pages of their Interactive Notebooks to do this activity. I want them to be able to refer to them through the year. After reading through students goals it gives me some insight into them as well as the ability to conference with them throughout the year. If I see something slipping I can easily bring this up as a goal that they set in the beginning of the year and then create an action plan for them to help bring them back on track.
For me it is all about letting the students make the choices and helping guide them in the right direction. Do you let your students set goals in your classroom? How do you follow through with them?
