Have Students Set Goals

One researcher I particularly admire is Carol Dweck from Stanford (and author of the best selling book Mindsets.) One of the effective practices she shares is using short-term goal setting. Short term goals lead to long-term goals. Short-term goals should be measurable, and not by grades. These are not things like “I will get a B” but rather “I will use proper nouns 5 times this week.”

Google Classroom

Google Forms could be a good way to have students set short-term goals, however, the challenge is how to provide feedback to students to refine their goals and how students reflect on their goal to see if they met them. Google Classroom provides an excellent platform for short-term goal setting.

Create a new assignment in Google Classroom titled something like “Short-Term Goal for this week.” Ask the students to, in the Private Comments, state their goal for the week along with their actionable plan to reach that goal.

Not a Google Doc

My suggestion is to use the Private Comments in Google Classroom NOT a Google Doc. Private Comments are faster for providing students feedback. Private Comments are designed as a conversation. You can clearly see who wrote the comment and who is being replied to.

Feedback

It is highly likely that the student will need feedback on their goal and will need to revise the goal. Private Comments makes this a much easier process. You can see the student’s goal. Easier than sending an email you are able to reply to the student to help them with refining the goal. The student can then update their goal.

Return to the Goal

Using the SAME assignment, return to the goal. On the assignment click on the 3 dots in the upper right hand corner and choose “Move to top.” Students can then open the assignment they set their goal in and provide a reflection on their goal in the Private Comments.

Attaching Evidence

Because the student is using Google Classroom it is easy for them to provide evidence. Taking screenshots of evidence is an excellent way to submit to Google Classroom. Students can, in the short-term goal assignment, click the “Add” button and add files from Google Drive or screenshot files from their computer or tablet.