Goal setting is one of the most effective ways that I have found to engage students in their growth and learning. I can tell them over and over to do something, but unless they really own their own learning there is no way they'll be successful! With that in mind, I'm going to spend the next few weeks discussing how I get my students to truly "own their own learning."
The first way I do this is by setting goals with my students. Some goals are based on a specific subject. When students set these goals I give them examples from their daily work of what they need to work on, such as reading with expression or using capital letters correctly, and they choose what specific skill they would like to work on. I keep these goals in their notebooks or offices. If I see them achieve their goal three times without support, they're allowed to move on.
Our school also has each student set personal achievement goals. These goals can be about anything the students choose. It doesn't have to be academic or school related. Here are some examples of their personal achievement goals.
I check in every month or so to see how these are coming. If they have been achieved, they receive some type of recognition from our AP. Some choose to be recognized publicly, others just want their certificate to take home. Sometimes it takes a couple months for them to achieve these goals, but they never give up. If the goals turn out to be unattainable, I have them pick a different goal.
Vision boards are similar to goals, but more tangible and visual. You can learn how to make them here. We do these two to three times a year. A lot of people create them by cutting words or pictures out of a magazines and gluing them to poster board, but we do ours as an app smash with:
PicKids
Seesaw
and
Google Classroom
Students create their vision board with PicKids. They then post their completed boards to Seesaw so they can share them with their parents. I also have them turn them in to Google Classroom so I can print them and put them up in the hall.
They put a lot of thought into what they want from their lives. It's pretty impressive for second graders.
When we finished, those who wanted to shared their boards do so.
I could just make goals for them, but odds are if I did that they probably wouldn't care much about achieving them. When they create it... they own it.
