I started goal setting on Wednesday. It was really busy week in 4B as we were off on Monday for Thanksgiving and then away at the zoo on Thursday as part of our habitat unit. I gathered the students on the carpet and tried to sound really excited. I find that if I build up whatever we are doing to make it sound like the most exciting thing in the world, then I can usually get more buy-in from students. Now, I need to be completely honest here. I had previously discussed goal setting with students during the first few weeks of school and had already discussed with them that we would be setting goals. But, what I missed was the important step of actually discussing what goals are! So, I launched with a Kid President video. If you don't already know who Kid President is, I strongly recommend that you visit his Youtube channel! The video was all about dreams and achieving them and it was a great pep talk for the students. I attached the video to the bottom of this post so that you can watch it. Next up, I asked the students "What are goals?" and I got responses such as: " Goals are things that aren't easy, you need to work for them" "Goals are things that you want to do or get or achieve" "Goals are in soccer. You get a goal when you score on the net." "Goals take work." The students seemed to have a pretty good understanding of what goals were but when I asked them how they achieve their goals, most were quite general and said "You work toward it." When I asked, "How?" there was radio silence in the classroom. You could have heard crickets sing. So, I introduced SMART goal setting. I showed them a presentation on the smart board that I found at the the SMART Exchange (different SMART- this one is the name of a brand of smart boards that you use in the classroom). You can find the presentation here: http://exchange.smarttech.com/details.html?id=86f8ab91-e4be-453b-91b1-34e8ddf9c548 It was quick, to the point and the students seemed to have a better understanding of how we actually set and achieve goals. We discussed each stage and I gave examples and asked for examples from the students. On Monday, we'll review this concept, and I am going to model how I would set my own writing goals. Stay tuned!
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GOAL:Students will set 1 writing goal for the duration of the narrative writing unit. I will teach them strategies to self-monitor during their writing periods, and will teach them to reflect upon their goals. ArchivesCategories |