Goal Setting in 5th Grade

Happy day, friends! It is the start of Fall Break and I am digging this scarf weather. I slept until 7 AM this morning {woohoo}, and am enjoying some time with my Mama Bear 🙂 As our dear friend Pete would say, “It is all good.”

Today, I am linking with Joanne for Spark Student Motivation Saturday. She is a sweet friend who blogs at Head Over Heels for Teaching. Make sure to check Joanne’s blog out for great ideas on motivating students!

Setting up my classroom, I knew goal setting would be a part of my classroom, but I never imagined how important it would become to my students and me. My mentor teacher is a goal-setting fanatic, and she has been such a blessing to me. She has materials and forms for all types of goal setting – behavior, academic, reading, short-term, long-term, etc. {many of the resource below are hers, so I cannot share} Goal setting is part of the ‘fabric’ of her classroom and ensures that expectations are high! As a goal-setting newbie, I have been getting my feet wet with goal setting. This is what goal-setting looks like in my classroom.

During the first week of school, I asked students to set five goals for their 5th grade year. The only goal that I ‘pushed’ was our class goal of reading 3,600 books (40 per student/year). We talked about all the different ‘parts’ of their lives – school, social, sports, music, etc, and that when we set goals, their goals should reflect the most important parts of their lives. Now, that we are closing our first 9 weeks, we will revisit these goals and see if we are on tracking to accomplishing our goals!

We also set goals for standardized and baseline testing. Our school uses Measures of Academic Progress (MAP) testing three times a year to gauge reading, math, and language skills. The district has established ranges for novice, apprentice, proficient, and distinguished scores that corresponds to our state’s standardized testing in May.

I created this goal-setting sheet for each student that includes MAP testing, as well as, our Reading Common Assessments. Students record their goals before each assessment {I keep the papers in between ‘goal-setting sessions’ to ensure that they do not enter the black hole of a 5th grader’s desk). Also, at the bottom of the sheet, it asks students how they will reach their goal and how they want to celebrate if they reach their goal!

Students may choose from lots of different celebrations – iPad time, sweet treat, special supplies, lunch with the teacher, lunch with a friend, pick a seat, etc.

All students who earned a Proficient or Distinguished received a small candy treat. Then, students received a voucher to turn in for their ‘real’ prize only if they met their goal. Our friends were so excited to be recognized for their hard work. Plus, who doesn’t love a little extra iPad time. 🙂

Lastly, we also set goals for our Common Assessments (reading tests given to every fifth grader in our district at the end of each unit of learning). Students look at their works for the unit, set a realistic goal {based on their success during the unit}, and choose a celebration. Then, I filled out the Good Faith Effort form after the test is graded, return the tests, and students reflect on how they did.

Overall, my kids {LOVE} goal setting. We are still learning to set realistic goals, but I really enjoy seeing how motivating the goals are for students. I also really like the ‘reflection’ aspect of our goals. What did I do well? What do I need to practice doing? What reasons did I do well/not do well? For kids who are about to enter middle school, it’s important they take responsibility for monitoring their own growth and success!

How do you goal set? What blog posts can I read? Please give me a shout and let me know! 🙂