“Setting goals is the first step in turning the invisible into the visible.“
Tony Robbins
In your classroom, are you goal setting WITH your students or FOR your students? Setting language goals helps students to be more aware of how they are progressing in the learning of the English language. This can look different depending on the age of the student and their current language level. Students can set goals at any point during the school year, but the start of the new school year is the best time for all students to develop their educational goals alongside their teacher.
As a homeroom teacher, goal setting is essential in seeing the progression of all of your students, but especially important for your ELL students. Also, when it comes to language learning, not only do you have to teach the language, you also have to equip your students with strategies to learn a language. A great way to do this is to set English language goals with your students, as it allows]them an opportunity to reflect on their current learning, and to set goals for future learning.
How to set goals?
If you have worked with children in any aspect, you are well aware of the importance of self-belief and confidence in their early life development.
For this purpose, it is important to involve ELL students in the process of creating educational goals. By doing this, the student takes ownership and becomes more independent in his/her decisions; as a result, the student is more likely to show a greater interest in the whole process of achieving their goals. This, however, does not mean that every step in goal making should be left to the student. The goals should be a collaborative decision between both the teacher and ELL student. The goal setting creation between the teacher and the students can help you, as the teacher, to tailor your instruction to the needs and abilities of your ELL students..
For the evaluation purpose, you can encourage and assist your students in the creation of a portfolio. A portfolio allows you and the child to make a to-do list of goals and to evaluate the goals throughout the learning process. When the teacher and student sees that the goal has been adequately met, the student can draw a picture of their achievement or note how they feel successful in that goal,, and the teacher may have pieces of evidence to support the goal achievement as well. The portfolio will also motivate the ELL student to pursue their passion toward achieving language goals.
Some strategies for making goals
- Goals should be based on the individual needs of the student
Every child is different, so the goals should be individualized. In reference to ELL students in particular, it is necessary to set goals according to each student’s unique needs because every student has a different authority on language. Each student comes from a diverse background, so teachers need a clear idea of the formative or background knowledge that the student currently possesses.
2. Make it easier for students to state a goal
A common challenge that ELL students face is writing a grammatically correct sentence, so you have to overcome this problem by guiding them when they are stating their goals. You can help them by providing goal-setting sentence frames to focus more on what they are actually saying, instead of how they are saying it.
An example of a simple goal setting sentence frame is, “My goal is to________.”
3. Make goals specific and measurable
A good goal should be specific, measurable, and achievable. Repeat that with me, “specific, measurable, and achievable!” Working towards an unclear and poorly drafted goal can be tiring, and your ELL student can be left feeling that the goal is an unachievable mystery.
4. Instruction should be aligned with goals
After setting goals, it is a teacher’s duty to provide enough specific instruction to ELL students so that they actually have the opportunity to achieve their goals. In the absence of teacher help or guidance, It becomes an additional obstacle for a child to achieve his/her goals.
5. Classification of the goal into bite-sized pieces AND celebration
Students are often overwhelmed with all the work they have to do. As a teacher, try to classify a goal into bite-sized pieces that help them obtain the essential goal. It is the teacher’s responsibility to appreciate and celebrate the win of a child even when it’s a small success, such as pronouncing a problematic English word correctly.
6. Sharing goals with peers and family members
A great way to encourage ELL students to achieve their goals is to share the goals with peers and parents. Family involvement will help ELL students to be motivated and consistent in achieving goals because now, their learning goal practice has the opportunity to be expanded beyond the school institution, and into their homes!
7. Teacher, keep on teaching to the best of your ability
To make ELL students reach a specific level of proficiency in reading, writing, speaking, and listening, the teacher’s goal setting, supervision, and encouragement can do wonders!
As an ELL teacher, you should be committed to your student’s goals and also hold them accountable for working towards those goals. Without commitment to one’s goals from the student and the teacher, significant progress is unlikely; however, with determination from both the student and teacher, great things can happen!
This is great, but where do I start?
If you’re ready to start creating goals with your ELL students, but you just don’t know where to begin, check out my Individual Learning Plan for ELL/ESL students. I was like you, and knew what I needed to do, but I could not find a relevant document to help me understand, create, and organize goals with my students. I created this resource in my classroom to help me better serve my students, and it served the purpose better than I could have imagined! Teachers in my district were continuously asking me to share my copy with them so that they could use it with their students as well! Check it out here to get student goal setting started today!
