Do you ever feel as if some students are overwhelmed by the rules and expectations in your classroom? These students struggle with trying to follow all the rules and this sets them up to fail. If they were just able to focus on working towards one goal per day, they would have a much higher chance of succeeding. Let your students take responsibility for their behavior by setting a daily behavior goal. Then, watch their overall behavior improve with this behavior goals classroom management strategy!
What are Behavior Goals?
The purpose of Behavior Goals is to have students choose one rule per day to focus on. Once they decide what their behavior goal for the day will be, they get a card with a picture of the rule for their desk or add it to the Behavior Goals board. This visual reminds them of what they are working on for that day.
How this works in my classroom:
During Morning Meeting, my students sit in a circle and go around stating what behavior goal they will be working towards for the day. Usually, I have them tell the class one way they will meet their goal. For example, Student #1 might say his behavior goal is Self-Control, and one way he will meet it is to keep his hands to himself. I hand them their Behavior Goals card and they go put it in the clear desk pocket.
Throughout the day, I will reference their Behavior Goals and have the students do a quick “self-check”. They will think about how they are accomplishing their goal or if they are having any trouble with their specific goal for the day. At the end of the day, we come together for our short Afternoon Meeting and talk about whether or not they met their goal. Most days, everyone meets their goals and we cheer on each other and they add a sticker to their sticker chart! If I know a student is not making their behavior goal, I try to pull them aside to have a quick one-on-one. Together, we come up with ideas that will help them do better tomorrow. Then, they work on a thinking sheet, which gets sent home for their parents to see. That student would choose the same behavior goal the next day.
What will Behavior Goals look like in my classroom?
It is entirely up to you how you want to set up Behavior Goals in your classroom. You can use it for individual students who are having behavior problems or the entire class can make their own individual goal. Your class could also set a Class Behavior Goal, that everyone works toward for the day. This also works well right before a break when students start to get a little stir crazy or go all in from the start of the year. You can either use a bulletin board to display their goals, or make it more private, like a sticky note on their crayon box. You could have full class discussions about behavior or one on one talks with students. It is your classroom and you know what will work best for your students.
Use it as a bulletin board
Use a bulletin board to display the behavior goals with these laminated pages. Students wrote their names with dry erase markers on whichever goal they chose for that day.
Use it in a pocket chart
If you don't have an entire bulletin board up for grabs, a small pocket chart would work too! Just write your student's names on an index card. Then, have them place it next to their behavior goal for the day.
How Behavior Goals work for my students
I started using behavior goals after a really bad report from one of the Specials. My students were out of control, not listening, and being disrespectful to the Specials teacher. They were having more trouble than usual following simple directions, listening, and using self-control that whole week. The next morning, I had my students make a list of what they were struggling with. They came up with many of these behavior goals. Next, they chose just ONE to work on for the rest of the day and we wrote them all down, to hold them accountable. By the end of the day, I noticed a huge improvement in not only the behavior goal they chose but their all-around behavior. We started making this a part of our behavior management system. My students now take responsibility for their actions and work really hard to meet their behavior goal. In just one month, the number of notes going home has decreased and more of my students are earning rewards for their wonderful behavior.
If you are interested in trying Behavior Goals in your classroom, check out the product here:
You can also watch this YouTube video here for more FAQs and success stories!
I hope this helps your students as much as it helped my class!