Skip To Main Content
Gwinnett County Public Schools

Student Goal-Setting

SEL Competencies: Self-Awareness, Self Management, Responsible Decision-Making

Foundational Strategy

The strategy of Student Goal-Setting helps students establish their own challenging, measurable, and attainable goals based on expectations of the AKS and students’ present assessed skill levels. Student Goal-Setting is a foundational strategy that supports short- and long-term learning goals across all instructional practices.

When using Student Goal-Setting, the teacher will model and assist students in establishing specific and appropriate goals based on the AKS. Teachers will offer multiple opportunities for students to monitor, assess, and discuss their progress on meeting their learning goals.

Students will: 

Student Goal-Setting is not merely personal vision-setting (e.g., setting personal goals or career goals). It is a strategy that can help students differentiate their own methods for learning to promote their progress. This strategy is supported through identification of student misconceptions and error analysis.

  • Create specific, measurable, attainable, relevant, and time-bound goals to reach an identified learning outcome related to the AKS.
  • Turn learning targets into actionable learning goals.
  • Analyze their own work to identify misconceptions and errors in order to make progress in their learning goals.

Look Fors

Teacher Behaviors for Promoting SEL Competencies

  • Establish standards and expectations that provide clear goals and expectations for success.
  • Encourage students’ effort and work ethic.
  • Remind students that, rather than feel discouraged, they can instead analyze what went wrong or why something is difficult for them.

Student Behaviors for Developing SEL Competencies

  • Engage in problem-solving about past, present, and future events.
  • Reflect on how current choices impact the future.
  • Seek help when needed.

References

Model Lessons

Two Step Add and Subtract: X Marks the Spot

Students are asked to reflect on where they are in understanding the learning targets for the lesson/unit. The students will provide evidence for their claim and what they will do for next steps in learning.

Shifting Sounds - Doppler Effect

Students will identify vocabulary from a text and develop visuals that represent the meaning of the terms which will be used by collaborative groups to review and help them form a definition. Students will complete a PEOE protocol and self-evaluation of their learning.

 

Comparing Functions: X Marks the Spot

Students are presented several graphs of transformations and asked questions. Students then rate their level of understanding on how to answer the questions and include evidence they have to support their self-evaluation.

Recipe for Traits

Students will conduct a self-assessment of their understanding of heredity. Following, students will work collaboratively to organize sentence strips about heredity to make the best paragraph describing the role of DNA and genes in how traits are passed on.

 

All QPTS Tools

For any questions with this guide or its content, please call Instructional Support at (678) 301-6804.