This week in Grades 7 and 8, students reflected on their Term 1 reports. We took time to celebrate their strengths and successes. We then explored how to use the feedback in the reports to start developing SMART goals for term 2. A SMART goal is a goal that is Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant and Timely. We took a structured and guided approach to creating goals, starting with some visual thinking. Students identified 4 specific goals – an AtL goal, a Language Goal, a goal for a subject of their choice, and a Personal Goal. Once we had a specific goal statement, we then workshopped around “Why?” and “How?” statements for each goal. These statements described the reasons behind students goal choices and outlined initial strategies that would help them achieve those goals. All goals have an end of term 2 completion date. We used explicit models, sentence stems and sample statements to build our ideas. Students worked with each other, they worked independently, and they worked one-on-one with their teacher to build their understanding of how to develop strong, individual, meaningful statements.
We ended the week by creating digital target cards, editing, and improving sentence structure and clarity. Next week, we will complete the goal setting process by building a SMART goals tracking wall in the classroom. This will create a central space which will help students with reflection and progress tracking. This space will also keep students progress goals front and centre of their everyday classroom learning.
.