In last week’s post we discussed the importance of setting measurable goals. Well, I thought it might be helpful to see a quick example of a few goals I worked with a family to set for a student.

Keep in mind, these are not goals specific to a 504 plan or an IEP, but rather goals you, yourself, can set and monitor for at home. If you have questions about IEP goals, feel free to message me. 

These goals are for Madison. Madison is 8 years old, in 2nd grade, and gets feedback from her teachers often about how well-behaved, social, and engaging she is. She is doing well in all subjects, particularly math. She is doing okay in reading, mostly keeping up with her peers.

At home, you’ve noticed that she loves math, but she avoids reading often. She will listen to anyone in the home read a story, but will not read aloud. You suspect she may be struggling a little, but you haven’t received any feedback or concern outside of the home.

Since she’s doing well in school, we’re not yet focusing on intervention. We’re setting goals that are more focused on observation and experience. We’re setting “S.M.A.R.T.” goals.

Goal #1: “Read with me!” Since she avoids reading, my biggest priority would be just to get her to do that. So creating a reward chart of quality reading time is a good start. If I created one for each week, I’d celebrate every time we get to 3 or 4 “story times”. I’d also start with short stories or chapter books that will be fairly easy for her to read. The goal is the experience, we don’t want this to be a challenging task for her. You can then increase difficulty of the books (by reading level or length), and increase the amount of times she’s expected to read before a reward after you’ve seen success for a few weeks. 

Goal #2: Learn new words. I’d set a goal for learning 15-20 new words each month. You can start with leveled Dolch or Fry lists, and work up from there. Work 5-10 at a time. You’ll review the words a couple of times a week, so you’re not adding too much to an already busy after school week. Adjust the goal higher or lower as needed, but keep a goal for this. My students love counting their words as they accumulate, and they’ll know they added hundreds of words over the course of a year. 

This will also be incredibly helpful for you to see how easy or difficult it is for her to learn new words, and you can offer this as feedback when speaking to her teachers or other educational professionals.

Goal #3: New math! Since Madison loves math, I want her learning experience at home to involve her getting a chance to show off what she’s great at! This way, she’s not feeling like her time with you is punishment for not being good at something. So you can actually set a goal for her to deepen her concept knowledge. Wherever they are, take a look at harder levels of it, or the next concept they’ll learn, and let them get a bit ahead. Madison learns math quickly and has her addition and subtraction facts down. So, the next goal is to practice place value (which should come before carrying and borrowing). Apps like IXL, Splashlearn, or Adventure Academy are great because they are fun, can teach the lesson and then let them practice, and require less prep from you. I’d also suggest doing a quick competition or something like that, so they’re very engaged with you, and more likely to crave that time specifically for learning. Hopefully this also helps your reading time.

Madison and her family set new goals every few months, and learned a lot about how she really feels about reading. Observing her during this intentional time, just 30 minutes 3 times a week, made a huge difference and helped them learn to continue setting goals for her and her sister.

Remember that making the goal experience-based, rather than level based is key for at home. Keeping them measurable, and easily adjusted is also important.

Have any questions or suggestions? Send me a message or comment below! 

Happy goal-setting!