Life Success
For Students With Learning Disabilities:
A Teacher Guide

Goal-Setting: Elementary Grades

Introductory Activity 

As you introduce goal-setting, add it to the chart entitled “Keys to Success.”  (You will be adding more attributes to the chart later.)  Have class define “goal setting” in their own words.  Post word cards, posters, and lists brainstormed and created through classroom activities. Review at the beginning of each day or class period and infuse through the curriculum.  Reinforce and refer to each attribute using “teachable moments” throughout the school day.  Have students find examples of success attributes in current events, news stories, TV programs, peer experiences, and their own experiences, and create a bulletin board with the appropriate attribute as a label.

General Activities

• Have students write down a short-term academic goal and discuss the step-by-step process necessary to get them there.
• Have students set a long-term goal and discuss the step-by-step process of getting there.
• Study/discuss successful individuals and determine the experiences, backgrounds, opportunities, and critical events that led them to their ultimate positions.
• Present fictional case examples of individuals with specific aspirations and, based on their strengths, weaknesses, and special talents, discuss whether their goals appear realistic.

Extension Activities

Hit the Mark

• Introduce goal-setting by focusing on homework completion in subject area such as reading.
• Ask individual students to track and record their daily out-of-class practice in a “homework” log (to include activity, time spent, enjoyed/didn’t enjoy) for a week.
• At the end of a week, record the data on a class cumulative chart.
• Discuss findings and ask the class how they could set a reasonable reading goal for the following week based on the past week’s data.  List suggestions and discuss the “reasonableness” of each. 
• Settle on a class goal and a class reward.  Make a chart to track daily progress toward the goal.
• Pass out individual goal sheets and ask students to set individual reading goals.  Allow time in the weekly schedule to evaluate progress toward/achievement of the goal.
• Encourage/model similar activities in other academic (math, writing, homework, seatwork completion) and behavior (being a good friend, individual behaviors, class participation) areas.

School Tour

• Explain that the class will be taking a walking tour around the school and visiting upper-grade classrooms so that they can start thinking about the future.
• Explain that they will be meeting lots of people, and list them on the board as you mention them (janitor, cafeteria workers, secretaries, nurse, upper-grade teachers, upper-grade children, etc.).
• Explain that students will be choosing one of these people to interview as they go around the school.
• As a class, brainstorm the steps involved in setting up an interview.
• Have each child choose a staff member to interview about his/her job or grade when encountered on the tour. Be sure to include non-teaching staff such as janitors, secretaries, bus drivers, food service personnel. More than one child can choose the same person to interview.
• Have children convene in small groups depending on whom they are going to interview (classmates who will interview the secretary, classmates who will interview the janitor, etc.).
• Have each child make up questions about the chosen person’s job (or grade) and write it out on a piece of paper.
• Take the tour, having the children interview their people as they encounter them.
• As a group, evaluate how successful students were in achieving their goal.
• List what they would do the same/differently next time.  (The next interview could be with a person outside of school – someone in an interesting job, etc.)

Plan a Party
(Use the “Plan a Party” handout available in the Activities Worksheets section)

• Divide class into groups of 5-6 students.
• Give one “Plan a Party” handout to each committee.
• Discuss setting a goal (having a fun party) and making a list of the steps it will take to reach the goal. Discuss the steps listed on the handout, then point out the blank lines they will fill in with the step-by-step way they will reach the goals.
• Announce that the group with the best list of steps to be completed before the party date will actually get to put on the party.
• As a class, evaluate whether the goal of having a “fun” party was reached – discuss how the planning could have been improved, etc.
• Incorporate event planning into your weekly “Friday Fun” reward for good behavior by having various groups of students plan the weekly Friday Fun.  Continue to evaluate the process.