Inside This Week’s Episode: Goals can given students purpose for learning. Find out how to take the goal-focused approach to reading in the classroom. Help your students to grow as readers by giving them tailored instruction that addresses their individual needs.

Growth Comes from Goal-Setting.

We can teach until we are blue in the face, but often, we take the one-size-fits-all approach when it comes to reading.

We teach everyone the same skills and strategies…at the same time.

But the problem is, students are often in different places when it comes to their most immediate need. And while it’s fine to teach a reading topic to the whole class, we must also make sure that we are giving equal instructional time and attention to the individual reading needs of our students.

That’s where individual student goals can help.

In this week’s episode, I’ll be covering why it’s important to have your students set individual reading goals and how to help them achieve those goals through an action plan.

Readers come in all shapes and sizes, so let’s make sure our approach to reading is custom-made by helping students develop goals that help them to grow!

Find out how to make Goals part of your Reader’s workshop

Here’s a Snapshot:

• We know as adults how important it is to set goals for ourselves. And, behind every good, achievable goal is a plan of action. Our students need to develop this skill, too!

• We teach many reading skills, strategies, and behaviors, but often neglect to help our students know WHICH of those skills, strategies, and behaviors they should be focusing on in order to help them grow as readers. That’s where setting reading goals can help! Reading goals set the purpose for reading.

• There are several different types of reading goals that our students can focus on. I’ll cover the main categories that we can group reading goals into so that you can help guide your students when choosing individual goals for themselves.

• Reading goals will drive your instruction and conversations inside your individual reading conferences. By knowing what goals your students are working toward, you’ll know exactly what to focus on during your conferences and small groups. Goals give purpose to these conferences so that you can make the most of your time when conversing with a student during readers workshop.

Links & Resources Mentioned in the Episode

EPISODE 31: How to Use a Reader’s and Writer’s Notebook in the Upper Elementary Classroom

EPISODE 87: Developing Student Writing Goals & Why Your Students Need Them!

POST: Teaching Students to Choose "Just Right" Books During Independent Reading

RESOURCES:

• Student Reader’s Notebook

• Launching Reader’s Workshop

Grab my FREE “Just Right” Bookmark below:

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