Touchstone 2

I ensure students set personal learning objectives for each lesson.

Many teachers start each school year with a yearly plan in mind, based on the standards they are expected to teach. They also have personal goals, educational goals, and teaching goals. Instead of blindly following whatever their teachers have planned, students also need to have their own personal goals in order to achieve the most they possibly can. Having their own goals, gives them ownership of their education. Goodwin and Hubbell report that researchers have found that the most successful students are driven by both serious goal-directedness and short-term intrinsic motivation to achieve the task at hand (Csikszentmihalyi, 1993).
When students set their own goals, they are taking control of their own future. This is called "fate control" and can influence success in learning. As reported by Goodwin and Hubbell, " A students' sense of 'fate control'—that is, the extent to which they feel they have some control over their own destinies—has a stronger link to achievement than all school-level variables combined" (Coleman, 1966).
This connects goal setting, fate control, intrinsic motivation, and probable educational success, so to help my students achieve, it is important that I help them set realistic long and short term goals. A logical time to set goals could be at the beginning of the year, the beginning of a unit of study or project, or at the beginning of each week, and can be revisited daily. By beginning the year with the end in mind, short term goals can be set to help reach the long term goals for the end of the year.

For example, a student learning English, set the following broad long term goals at the beginning of the year:

1. This year, I want to learn to read words in English correctly.

2. This year, I want to learn how to pronounce English words correctly.

3. This year, I want to learn how to translate Spanish words into English and English words into Spanish.

To complete the process, this student needs to set short term goals for each of the long term goals. By breaking the goals into manageable steps, she is more likely to reach her end of the year goals.

Some goals can be based on standards, which teachers can make available to the students. Other goals that affect their education are personal and may include goals related to time management, sleep, study environments, etc. Students need time to think about this goal setting process, ponder what is most important, and find ways to verbalize their thoughts.
This can be accomplished by a general discussion of the importance of goal setting, followed by group or pair discussions. Next, goals should be written out, as clearly and specifically as possible. Some students benefit from a visual display of their goals while others merely need a list in their computer. Teachers should adapt the presentation of goals to the learning styles and needs of each student. The important thing is to get students thinking and realizing the power they possess to direct their educational needs towards their future. Give them the vision of fate control and they are more likely to reach higher levels of achievement and learning.

References

Goodwin, Bryan, & Hubbell, E. (2013). The 12 touchstones of good teaching: A checklist for staying focused every

day. Association for Supervision & Curriculum Development. [Bookshelf Online].