Personalized Learning in 13 Blogs: Step4 Goal Setting & Reflection

If the students are to own their learning and behavior, they need to know how to set appropriate goals. Having created the Habits of Scholarship rubric on day one, the students knew what the expectations were for each level of performance. They could then choose a level of performance that they could strive to achieve. Learning to plan for success was the next part of the process. Then they would need to learn to reflect accurately so that they would know when they were successful. Knowing this from working with my first graders, I had to design a way for the third graders to think and practice goal setting, planning, and reflecting daily. To accomplish this task, we started a morning reflection whereby the students answered a question about their goal. Mondays, they set a goal. Tuesday through Friday, they wrote about why they chose the goal, what their plan was, the process of goal setting, and whether they were successful. Their daily reflections stayed with them all day, so that they could mark the chart for any Habits of Scholarship warnings they received throughout the day. This practice helps them own their behavior because they must acknowledge it by writing it down. Finally, Friday morning meetings were an opportunity to share their goals, plans, and successes with each other. This final part of the process was to lead to more comfortable students for student-led conferences. It was a progressive routine for the first quarter that worked well.