Setting Goals for a Bright Future

The end of winter break always comes too soon...or at least that is what I read over and over again on my Facebook feed the night before winter break ended. I found myself joining the masses and even finding humor as my co-workers and I shared some back to work groans. I didn't want to drag myself out of my warm bed early in the morning, kiss my one year old daughter good bye for the day, and come to work. The end of break seemed utterly dreadful until 7:30 a.m. That is when students who had been standing in the cold for a good 40 minutes got to finally enter the building. Suddenly, getting up in the cold early morning, on little sleep, after a late night of baby cries immediately had purpose and being at work suddenly seemed like the only place I could be. Before I could utter a simple "Good morning", I was being hugged by a student and I was being given the detailed rundown of his Christmas break. The best part about it all? He isn't even a student in my class. I only get to see him for 45 minutes a day for language instruction and yet still there he was telling me how much he missed me and how he was happy to be back at school. Then came my own classroom full of students. There were a good handful of students who came with a light jacket, and some with no jacket at all despite the below freezing temperature. As I surveyed my first grade classroom and received my hugs and joyfully listened to Christmas tales, my heart could not help but hurt for the quiet students, the ones without smiles, and the ones with dark circles under their eyes from lack of sleep and hungry bellies from lack of nutrition over the break. This is why I let my daughter spend the days with her Grandma instead of me, this is why I stay up late perfecting lesson plans, and this is why I drag myself out of bed no matter how tired I am.

With a renewed sense of purpose I began to feel excited about the day ahead of me. I knew we would be setting new goals for the semester today and reviewing our progress from our previous goal. In August our class had set a big, audacious goal of having 17 friends on grade level in reading by December. Now 17 out of 24 students may not seem like much until you consider the following facts. We began the year with only six students on grade level in reading as measured by the Measures of Academic Progress or MAP assessment. Many of the students were reading at or below a kindergarten reading level. Of these 24 students, 19 are English language learners and all but 3 qualify for free or reduced lunches. These students and their families have barriers that so often get the blame for stopping student progress, but these kids didn't let those barriers get in the way. Although the goal was lofty, my students were determined and by December we were able to raise that number to 13. 

I was so proud looking at the data. I could not wait to show the students. We graphed the class scores and celebrated our growth. When students were asked what our goal should be for the spring semester my sweet Jonna quickly raised her hand and suggested our goal should remain at 17. Since we were creating a class goal I asked the other students to weigh in on Jonna's suggestion. Most students agreed with her. Then suddenly from the back of the room Kenneth raised his hand, "I disagree.", he said respectfully with a smile. When I asked him why, he simply said, "I think all of us should be ready to read." I could not resist the urge to test Kenneth's enthusiasm and so I asked, "Are you sure? That will be a lot of friends to help get ready to read." Not only did Kenneth hold to his opinion strongly, but all students, even Jonna decided to join Kenneth. When I asked them why it was so important to them that we all know how to read they answered with responses like, "So we can get a job." and "So we can go to 2nd grade." This wasn't our first talk about the importance of being a good reader.

We wrapped up our goal setting with talking about individual student goals that would help us reach our lofty class goal. Each student met with me or my intern to discuss their MAP data. They were given multiple choices for their individual reading goals. When I asked Jamie to come and sit with me she said, "Well, sometimes I have trouble you know, stretching out words. So which one will help me with that?" We quickly decided that she would choose blends and digraphs as her goal to help her improve her reading. All of my students were not only eager to pick a goal but they were also excited to share their goals with others. 

Remember those barriers I was talking about? Setting our goals high and working together as a class and as a school chips away at those walls. Suddenly 24 out of 24 kids being on grade level in reading did not seem so unrealistic. Not only am I teaching my students to celebrate little successes even if our goal wasn't met, but my students are starting to realize the importance of goal setting. This is a skill that will help them break down even more barriers as they get older. The lessons I learn from them daily about perseverance in a world that expects to see them fail will never cease to amaze and inspire me.