Life Success
For Students With Learning Disabilities:
A Teacher Guide

Goal-Setting: Secondary 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 these individuals 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

Personal Goals
(Use the “Self Goals” worksheet available in the Activities Worksheets section)

• Tell students they are going to discuss goals outside of academic goals;
• Place the following on the board:

• Discuss the terms and give examples of goals in each realm.
• Ask a few students to describe a goal they already have, state what realm it is in, and then describe the goal.
• Pass out the Self Goals worksheet and have students complete it.
• Tell students if they do not have a non-academic goal, they can look at the realms on the board to help them come up with one.

Delightful Disclosures

(Use the "Delightful Disclosures" worksheet available in the Activities Worksheets section)

• Place the following on the board:
  

  Physical Goals Sports Health Appearance	Artistic Goals Visual Arts Music Dance Writing/Story-telling
  Social Goals Family relationships Friends Group membership	Community/Public Goals Helping others Helping the community
  Emotional Goals Coping with stress Problem behaviors New behaviors	Spiritual/Moral Goals Religious beliefs Right and wrong behaviors

• Explain that you are going to distribute Delightful Disclosures to those that deserve them. Delightful Disclosures are given when someone learns something they set out to learn.
• Have students list three things they would like to learn from the categories on the board and tell what realm it came from on brightly colored sticky notes, (e.g., play handball-physical, make a new friend - social, learn to use watercolors - artistic). Have them place their sticky notes in a row along the top of their desks.
• When they have completed their goal, they make out a Delightful Disclosure. During sharing time, either you or the student can read their Delightful Disclosure to the class.

 

Next: Use of Social Support Systems Activities for Elementary Grades