Reading Goal Setting
This week our staff meeting will focus on using goal setting for students to own their own learning in the area of reading. This is our SMART goal focus as well as an action in a lot of SLO's at Hudson Prairie.
We will meet in vertical PLC's and you will need to bring our current practice of goal setting in reading to share with your colleagues.
Essential questions to discuss:
How can we determine reading goals for our kids?
How are students using their reading goal?
Here is our current reality:
K/1- Praise and Prompt
2- CAFE
3- Bookmark
4- 35 book challenge & bookmarks
5- MAP
We hope we will learn from the great professionals here at HP at how to improve our practice and really help students own their goals.
Research on Goal Setting Ronald Taylor (1964) compared the goals of underachievers and achievers. He found that underachievers either had no particular goals, or if they did, aimed impossibly high. Achievers, by comparison, set realistic, attainable goals that were related to their school work.
Robert Wood and Edwin Locke (1987) found a significant relationship between goals and self-efficacy: Students with a stronger sense of efficacy also set higher, but reachable, goals. Wood and Locke also pointed out that more challenging goals usually prompt higher achievement. Challenge, of course, is in the eye of the beholder. Goals the teacher considers challenging may be seen as too stiff by some students, and laughably easy by others. The challenge for the teacher, then, is to assist students in setting reasonable goals for themselves.
Albert Bandura and Dale Schunk (1981) showed that when elementary students are taught to carve up large, distant goals into smaller subgoals, several useful outcomes follow: They make faster progress in learning skills or content, they learn an important self-regulation skill, and they improve their self-efficacy and interest in the task. In every class, there may be some students who already are skillful at goal-setting. On their own, gifted students– especially gifted girls– make frequent use of goal-setting and planning strategies. But all students will profit from careful thought about their achievement goals. Dale Schunk’s (1985) study of sixth grade learning disabled mathematics students showed that the best learning occurred not just when the students focused on short-term goals, but when they also had a say in goal-setting. Students showed more growth in self-efficacy and math skills when they participated in goal-setting.
Specific goals are far more effective motivators than general ones, such as “Do your best.” When a student goal contains a clear performance standard, it cuts out a lot of guesswork about where to aim. Learning and self-efficacy are enhanced by specific goals, because it is easier for both teacher and student to gauge progress.
Scholastic Goal Setting site with videos, forms, and process.
How do I introduce this to my students?
Reading Rainbow Video- Setting Goals
Use Picture Books to Help With Goals
It's nice to begin the conversation about goal setting with a read-aloud. For kindergarten, 1st, and 2nd grade students, try using a picture book like Leo the Late Bloomer. Get conversations started as kids identify with Leo's struggle with learning to read, write, draw, and speak. 
For upper grade students, I think that Patricia Polacco's book Thank You, Mr. Falkercan be a great place to start talking about what readers struggle with. It can also remind your students that as teachers, we are partners in their learning. (Be warned, if you've never read it before, you may need to read it with a box of tissues close at hand!)
MAP Goal Setting 4-5
