Setting measurable goals with your students

Setting goals with your students at the beginning of a lesson, topic, or unit of study is vital. Everyone works more effectively when they have goals in place. Establishing goals in the classroom helps set clear expectations around learning outcomes involved. They also communicate to students what they can expect to learn and understand in a particular timeframe.

Why the best goals are SMART goals

As the educator, you need to make sure the goals your students set for themselves are SMART — that is, specific, measurable, attainable, realistic, and time-based. Otherwise, it can be tricky to track student learning progress or achievement. You can model this process for your students to help them. You could share a learning goal for the year or one about a hobby or skill you’re developing.

SMART goals are:

• Specific: Define what you want to achieve with who, why, when, where, and what details.
• Measurable: Articulate how you will know when a goal or progress is achieved.
• Attainable: The best goals require stretch and focus to achieve but shouldn’t be out of reach.
• Realistic: SMART goals should be relevant and meet a need.
• Timely: A goal needs a realistic timeframe with a deadline in place.

Benefits of effective goal setting

Identify different student learning levels

Set clear expectations

Keep students focused and engaged

SMART goal ideas for teachers

ClickView’s interactive video feature can help you and your students set and work towards SMART goals. Add an interactive layer of questions or problems to any video, have your students complete them, and you’ll receive an analytic summary of their understanding of a topic.

5 tips for effective classroom goal setting

1. Prepare in advance:
   Complete interactive video questions on a topic in advance and use the analytics to help set the goals for a specific lesson.
   
2. Use analytics:
   Share ClickView interactive analytics with students electronically or via a 1:1 conversation to reflect on their progress towards goals.
   
3. Grab attention:
   Play a small clip to hook students when introducing a new topic or learning area and preparing to set goals.
   
4. Summarize progress:
   Students can use the annotation tool for interactive video to summarize their goals, progress, and achievement.
   
5. Access resources:
   You can use the suggested lesson plans and other ClickView educational resources to help your class set its goals.

4 Teacher tips for setting goals

1. Goals help you focus on behaviors
   The process of setting goals and the way we think about them gives us insight into what we want and how we can go about achieving it. Goals can give us something to focus on, positively impacting our motivation as we learn. Discover educational resources to support you with setting goals.
   
2. Make goals purposeful and meaningful
   The loftier our goals, the more satisfying they can be when we achieve them. As an educator, you can encourage your students to think bigger and bolder with their goals, going beyond the learning environment to include their future aspirations. Use interactive videos to help students with goal setting.
   
3. Set your goals with your strengths in mind
   Knowing and working with our strengths can help us to feel more confident and engaged. Work with your students to help them identify their strengths, setting goals to extend these. As an educator, your goals can also play to your strengths, building skills in areas of natural competence, as well as in new areas.
   
4. Failure builds resilience
   Normalize failure as part of the learning process. As you and your students face setbacks and obstacles, resilience develops. The decisions we make when we hit a roadblock are key. Take the time to help students overcome obstacles by brainstorming alternative pathways or ideas.

Achieve learning outcomes with effective teaching strategies

A ClickView subscription includes full access to 1000s of standards-aligned videos, including all supporting educational resources. Also included in your subscription is access to our training channel and webinars, to help you make the most of ClickView’s exciting features. We’re here to help you with effective SMART goal setting to achieve optimal student learning outcomes.