/? 220510" Goal Setting Worksheet Middle School

S.M.A.R.T. goal setting, often used in business, is a valuable tool to incorporate into your academic settings, whether homeschooling or a student at private and public schools. But, it is important to keep this practice in regular use and be aware of the purpose behind it so that it does not become a rote exercise. The benefits of goal setting to students go beyond the mere results of the attained goals. Goal setting helps to build independent learning, leadership, and affords students additional free time to pursue other areas of interest.

Most likely you've heard this acronym before, S.M.A.R.T., but from time to time, we need to revisit these principles and how they apply to academics. Goals that arespecific, measurable, action oriented, realistic, and time sensitiveare a sure-fire way to help students achieve academic success when they are used regularly as a tool for completing their school work. Any goals that students set should be meaningful to them, not just words on paper. If a student can take the step to consider what they truly want to achieve from the course of study and break that down into action steps based on their S.M.A.R.T. goals, then the purpose of their study will be clear. /? 220510" Goal Setting Worksheet Middle School

They will understand what pieces of information they need to obtain, and how they need to master it as they are working through the course, rather than coming to the end of the semester or term and finding that they have missed the class objectives entirely. However, goals are of no value unless students remember what they are working towards. At first, students may need to have the help of their instructor in determining what the course objectives are, but with practice, students will learn to discern those objectives themselves, leading to more independent learning which is an indicator of college readiness.

But another thing that should be included in the field of academic goal setting is the celebration of an achieved goal when it happens. Students need to have positive feedback for reaching their goals in order to sustain the process until it becomes habitual. The reward does not need to always be of a particular type. For instance, many parents reward a student for an "A" with money. If a monetary reward is the desired celebration, that's fine, but in some cases, another celebratory action might be more motivating. Students should have a say in what that celebratory event or reward is, but there should be some type of acknowledgement when a student has worked industriously towards a goal and then achieved it. /? 220510" Goal Setting Worksheet Middle School