Near the beginning of the school year, my students and I have a brainstorming session on goal setting. We discuss the importance of setting goals and the importance of making the goals reasonable. We also list some class goals on the chalkboard, such as to improve attendance, to improve grade-point averages, and to get to know each other, and some individual goals, such as to find part-time work, to lose weight, to make new friends, and to get along better with my parents.
Next, each student is to set three specific, individual goals for the year ahead and to write a short explanation of how each goal will be achieved. (I set goals for myself as well; it helps to motivate students and, at our goal-evaluations later in the year, awards me the same benefits it awards my students.) I urge that students' goals be as specific as possible. I evaluate students' completed goals and explanations as I would any other written work, and we file the papers away for future inspection.
Midway through the school year, we pull out the goal papers and reevaluate the goals that we set. If the goals have been met, new ones are set. If students decide that their goals were unrealistic, they alter them to create more reasonable ones. Again, the assignment is to write out any changes and adjustments made to the original goals and to explain how the revised or new goals will be met.
Finally, in the last couple weeks of school, we get out the goal papers once more and do a final evaluation. At this point, students write how they feel about the goals they set and about having met or not met these goals. To conclude, students set three new goals for the summer vacation.
Cindy Neanen
Defiance, Ohio
This article originally appeared in the September 1988 issue of Notes Plus.
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