24_Progress Monitoring Goals 6-8

If you don’t know where you are going, you’ll end up someplace else. —Yogi Berra Growth Mindsets for Goal Setting At Home Resources Level: Middle School (6-8) Concepts: • Accepting Failure & Mistakes • Accountability Strategies • Positive AffirmationsBig Ideas For This LessonEarlier this year students learned how to set goals using the SMART goal format. While goal setting provides a necessaryframework for skillful action, the real work is in the follow through. As conditions and needs inevitably change, so mustour vision.Effective goal setting, then, requires constant monitoring, adaptation, re-envisioning, and re-aligning to present circum-stances. These skills and attitudes – popularly referred to as a growth mindset – enable greater success and reducedstress in today’s fast-paced, dynamic work environments.In this lesson, students had the opportunity to reflect on their goals using the following growth mindsets:#1. Accountability: Making goals public by writing them down, setting regular check-ins for yourself, and sharing yourgoals with peers, mentors, parents and teachers increases your chances of success.#2. Chunking: Breaking big goals down into achievable chunks helps the goals become more manageable. ‘“What is thesmallest possible step I can take right now towards achieving my goal?”#3. Accepting Failure and Mistakes: This is a great place to tie in the self-compassion practices we learned earlier in theyear. “How would you support a friend who is struggling to meet their goal?” “What can you learn from this ‘mistake’?”#4. Framing Goals in the Positive: State what you want to achieve, not what you want to avoid (e.g. Try NOT to think ofa pink elephant. What did you just think of?). Essential Vocabulary PAGE 1 of 2Goal: A clearly defined objective you are trying to achieve.Affirmations: A positive statement of encouragement and support.Self-Monitoring: The ability to track, measure, observe, and reflect on one’s own behavior. © 2017 Empowering Education, Inc. All rights reserved.

GROWTH MINDSETS FOR GOAL SETTING | GRADES 6-8 PracticeAsk your child to share about their SMART Goal and Personal Mission Statement (both of these should have beenreviewed and updated in class this week).Decide how you can support them in achieving their goals and living their mission statement. If they have alreadyachieved their goal or do not have a goal, what is something they would like to accomplish? If they are havingtrouble meeting their goal, what help do they need?Bonus: Set a regular time on the calendar to check back in on your child’s goals. Effective goal-setting involveschecking and re-checking progress often. Student Resources• A Single Shard by Linda Sue Park (Grades 5 – 7)• Fish in a Tree by Lynda Mullay Hunt (Grades 4 – 6)• Home of the Brave by Katherine Applegate (Grades 5 – 9)• Hoot by Carl Hiaasen (Grades 5+)• Serafina’s Promise by Ann E. Burg (Grades 5 - 8)• Small Steps by Louis Sachar (Grades 5+)• Dare To Dream!: 25 Extraordinary Lives by Sandra McLeod Humphrey (Grades 4 – 7)• It’s Our World, Too!: Young People Who Are Making a Difference: How They Do It - How You Can, Too! by Phillip M. Hoose (Grades 5 – 8)• Real Kids, Real Stories, Real Change: Courageous Actions Around the World by Garth Sundem (Grades 4 – 8) Adult Resources• How Kids With Learning and Attention Issues Can Set and Stick to New Year’s Goals (Blog)• How Students Can Achieve Goals by Setting Deadlines (Blog)© 2017 Empowering Education, Inc. PAGE 2 of 2 All rights reserved.