I’ve published many posts on student goal-setting (see The Best Posts On Students Setting Goals), along with others on the benefits of having students share positive events that have happened in their lives (see My Best Posts On Why It’s Important To Be Positive In Class). And I have even more extensive information about both, including lesson plans, in my books.

Today, I shared with my class a simple reflection sheet hitting both those topics, and that I’ll be using periodically with them this semester. You can download it here, and I’ll also share the questions and sample responses in the body of this post. They wrote their responses in a few minutes and then shared with a partner, followed by a few sharing with the entire class.

It went very well.  I have students do a reflection every Friday, but this particular combination seemed to really be helpful — it was a reflective exercise for the students; it gives me a ton of information for follow-up conversations with them on Monday and beyond; and some of the responses that I didn’t include here are good info for our counselor to know.

If you’ve got any ideas on how to make it better, I’m all ears…..

1. Look at the goal sheet in your notebook for this semester. List two the things you did to HELP you achieve the goals you set for yourself:

I woke up on time in the morning.

I did follow directions and I did help others.

I caught up on my sleep and I paid attention.

I read more and worked hard.

I got a bit off track yesterday but Monday-Wednesday I was great. But I know that I can’t pay attention to anything else but what’s in front of me and that’s my goal for the remaining of the year.

I was more patient.

2. Again, look at the goal sheet. Did you do anything that HURT your efforts to achieve the goals you set for yourself? If so, what were they and what can you do to help avoid repeating it?

I talked too much, and I can help myself by just doing my work and not talking to anyone.

Yes, what I did was dicey and got a couple of students off-task. But now I know that I have to be serious.

No, I didn’t do anything that hurt my effort to achieve the goals I set for myself.

The thing that stopped me from my goal was watching too much TV and I need to watch TV less.

I wasn’t patient and I could avoid it by not getting mad.

Yes, I did. It was this week because I was being rude. Something I’ll do to avoid repeating it is to follow the rules.

I didn’t become a leader because I was playing too much. Next time, I’ll just help people when I finish early.

3. What are the two most fun and energizing things that happened in your life this week – in or out of school?

My aunties and cousins came to my house, we went to the park and played basketball against the grown-ups and the kids won because of me.

I got to see a friend that I haven’t seen in a year. It was fun to get caught up with each other.

I found $20 on the way to school.

I don’t got any fun and energizing things that happened in my life this week.

I went to my uncle’s house and played with his dogs.

Lifting weights and training for the next football season.