Setting Writing Goals

Students taking ownership in the classroom is such an important thing - even in kindergarten. At the moment, our staff is building these goal setting and bump it up walls for writing. But being me, I had to cutify it!

Before beginning the wall, I spent time to talk to each student in my class 1 on 1. I had their current writing cluster in front of me, plus what skills are required to move to the next cluster. I let the students have a say in what they wanted their writing goal to be, but had to keep it realistic and appropriate for their level. In all honestly, the time it took me was only about 1 hour in total and I did this over a week, just pulling kids here and there. The talk that it generated was awesome - "I've got a goal! Have you got one yet?"

Next I typed the names of my students onto a photo themed clipart piece. I laminated all of these so that I can write on them with a white board texta and once a goal is reached, can be easily rubbed out. The kids were intrigued.

Next was transferring those goals we had discussed to their picture. The kids were fascinated by now and we looked at it and remembered what our individual goals were.

Finally my title - Snapshot of KB's Learning Goals. We will refer to this each time for writing. If a student has achieved their goal in a writing session, I will stick a little camera (similar to the clipart one) into their piece of writing, as well as tick underneath their goal on the wall. If they can achieve this goal 3 times, They will be able to wear the goal necklaces.

The aim is to get students talking about their learning and achievements in class to EVERYONE!!! After they have achieved this, we will set a new goal.

I don't expect that this will be an instant success overnight, but I am determined to work at it. The conversation being generated is priceless and just can't be manufactured. And anything that makes students more self aware and in charge of their own learning is OK with me!

Do you have a goal wall? Is it something you would like to try? Leave me a comment about it.