Setting Goals (Grades K-5)

Character Education Objective:

  • Students will collaborate with a partner to create and execute a plan for a challenge.

Content Goal:

  •  Students will reflect on a created plan to improve the outcome.

Language Goal:

  • Students will craft language around how to give feedback.

Purpose: Setting goals and creating a plan is only part of the equation of success. Reflection and assessment give students the opportunity to learn from experiences. This lesson is designed to give students a chance to create a plan, execute it and then reflect on their experience to improve results for the future.

Lesson:

Activity – Blindfold obstacle course (20 minutes)

Before the activity, you will want to create a very simple obstacle course outside or in a large motor space. A few simple lines of cones or something for students to weave in and out of is ideal.

  1. Break the students up in pairs. Explain that you will be doing a challenge where one student will have a blindfold on and the other will be guiding them with their voice only. Then they will switch roles and try again. Before sending them to do the challenge, ask them to create a plan of how they will succeed. Ask them to think about what could make them successful. Will they use code words or sounds to separate their voice from the other team? Will they keep speaking to give constant direction or only use a few words to avoid confusion? Who will go first? Ask them to write down their plan with their partner.
  2. Take the partners to the obstacle course. You likely will not have enough lines of cones for all the partner groups, so ask students to wait in a line behind the sets of cones and share the course. Get your first group of pairs ready by having one student be blindfolded. 
  3. Explain that the goal is to get to the other side of the cones by weaving in and out without hitting the cones. Students are only able to use words to assist one another. Once the team reaches the other side they will switch blindfolds and the speaker will now become the walker and the walker will now be the speaker. Remind students it is a game of accuracy, not speed, and to use the plans they had created. 

Allow each pair of partners to go down and back. Bring the students back to the classroom.

Reflection (10 minutes):

Creating a plan is only half the battle to being successful. The students created a plan and executed the plan, but now it is time to reflect. Ask the pairs to think about the plan they created and how well they followed it in the challenge. Specifically ask them to think about and discuss these three things with their partner:

  1. What did we do well from our plan?
  2. What did we not do well from our plan?
  3. What could we do better or differently next time?

As a group discuss the following questions:

Why is it important to talk about the good things after you did something?

Is it sometimes hard to talk about the things that did not go well with someone? Why?

What could you learn from those things that did not go well?Plan a time you can take the students back to the obstacle course to try again to test out their self-assessment and reflection. See if they improved on the challenge after reflecting. After, ask them to continue the reflection and think about – did it go better this time? Why or why not? 

Family Connection: 
Encourage families to think about a goal they want to complete together. It could be a project in the home, a service project or something they would like to achieve like playing more games together. Ask the families to plan how they will complete the goal and the responsibilities of each member. Once they have established the plan of how to execute their goal, encourage families to discuss a plan for reflection and assessment of that goal. That reflection plan will answer these three questions:

  1. When will we reflect? 
    • Will it be after the goal is completed or throughout?
    • Be specific with the time.
  2. How will we reflect?
    • How will we give each other feedback?
    • Talk about what went well and what did not.
  3. How will we modify?
    • What could we do better or differently?
    • Look forward and see if you need to make changes to your current plan or for the next time.

Learn more about character education.