Whether you are writing a goal for: students to meet school benchmarks in reading, a student on an IEP (Individualized Education Program), a personal goal, or a goal for your child, goals should be specific and measureable.
A goal should include these components:
- a baseline (current level)
- how you will measure the goal
- when the goal is expected to be met
- a reasonable amount of expected growth/progress (goals need to be attainable!)
Here is a sample goal:
By 12/2014, “Johnny” will write a five sentence paragraph including a topic sentence, three supporting sentences, and a close, with 80% accuracy in 4 out of 5 trials as measured by student writing samples and a rubric.
Baseline: Johnny currently writes one sentence beginning with a capital and ending with an end mark.
Goals can also have objectives that break the goal down even further. For example, you could add as an objective: Johnny will use a graphic organizer to organize his ideas for his paragraph.
Again, it really helps to know where your student/child is at, and where you would like him or her to be. Make sure the goals are reasonable. Most students make a years worth of academic growth in a given year. If a student has a learning disability, adjust the goal to meet his or her learning pace.
