Letting Students Set Their Own Goals

One form of assessment that Cris Tovani discusses involves allowing students to choose their own goals. She said, she and her students “begin in many classes with simple goal setting. At the beginning of the quarter, we brainstorm possible reading and writing goals, and each student chooses one” (104). While this might be a good way for an honest student to choose a realistic path for the quarter, wouldn’t most students err on the side of choosing easy goals in order to lighten their workload?

I remember a creative writing class I took in twelfth grade in which we were allowed to choose our own goals for the quarter.  Our grade was based on whether or not we met our goals. My friends and I all set extremely easy and vague goals, like “write a poem” or  “write some jokes.” It wasn’t because we didn’t like creative writing class; in fact it was my all time favorite class. We just wanted to safeguard ourselves and guarantee a good grade. Luckily the class proved to be really fun, and we all exceeded our easy goals. But there’s no penalty for that, so there no harm came from choosing super easy goals. So when the next quarter rolled around, we did the same thing. In my experience, I’d say there’s not much benefit to letting students set their own goals.

However, when Tovani let students chose their own goals she provides more structure than my creative writing teacher did. She said that, “throughout the quarter, we revisit the goals individually and collectively, adapting them where necessary” (104).  Perhaps having to face a teacher and discuss your goals would put some accountability on the student to choose realistic goals.

Tovani also provides some examples of student goals, including “Finishing a book more than 150 pages; reading a new genre; learning two new strategies to keep the mind from wandering while completing a dull text; learning how to pick out a good book; [and] figuring out what to do when encountering unknown words.” (106). Whlie some of these seem like great goals, I could see a student choosing the goal of “learning how to pick out a good book” simply because it will make his class easier. It’s hard to access whether or the student has met that goal, and it’s easy to fake.

If allowing students to choose their own goals is to be a meaningful practice, I would think the students and teacher would have to have a very trusting and honest relationship.