Goal Setting & Monitoring
Overview
Goal-setting and monitoring involves teachers working with students to set individualized academic or behavioral goals, plan actions to achieve those goals, and track progress. Goal-setting and monitoring are key skills to becoming a self-regulated learner. They involve complex metacognitive processes, and therefore should be implemented in a developmentally appropriate way. That is, teachers should introduce and model the process while providing ongoing support and encouragement and, as students build their skills, gradually increase the learners' responsibility for their own goal-setting. As students track their achievements, it enhances Motivation. Goal-setting and self-monitoring are core components of self-determination that have shown a positive impact on the academic achievement of elementary and secondary students with learning disabilities.
Example: Use This Strategy in the Classroom
Watch this first grade teacher and student work together as they work to establish a personalized writing goal.
Design It into Your Product
Additional Resources
Additional examples, research, and professional development. These resources are possible representations of this strategy, not endorsements.
Factors Supported by this Strategy
More Metacognitive Supports Strategies
Creating a culture of error means creating an environment in which errors are valued and encouraged as a necessary part of the learning process, which can help learners to view errors and learning more positively.
When students are able to encourage themselves through kind and motivating self-statements, they are practicing positive self-talk.
A rubric is a tool that communicates expectations for success for students and can include symbols or charts that are easy for young students to understand.
