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I think we are all really good at setting goals. But goals that we actually attain? Those are harder. So when I think of the reading goal work I do and have done with students, there is a small tweak that has made a big difference: including the why. And not in teacher lingo, but in the everyday kid language that shows us this is something they have truly reflected on.

Why have they chosen what they chose? What should the end result be?

Does it even align with who they are and what they have the capacity for right now?

This small tweak can lead to a deeper understanding of how they want to grow  overall and move goals from being checklist items to meaningful  pursuits. It can also show us which kids are just setting goals to please the adults or get it off their to-do. There is a lot of parroting that happens in schools, kids know what we teachers want to hear and so often when it comes to setting learning goals, kids tell us what we want to hear. Asking them to pause and add on an answer to “in order to� gives us a chance to open up for much broader conversations, and also continue our focus on developing readers and not “just� reading skills.

I have shared my reading survey before, but that I use every 6 weeks to check in with students. This is where they set new goals and it has been updated with this addition.