Setting Writing Goals

I get so many questions about how I set individual goals with 5 year olds (when they are not so independent yet).  So I thought I’d show a quick little tutorial on the process I use that works well for me. I just started goal setting today with some of my writers that need the most support, and here is what it looks like.

1. Assess students’ independent writing.
The first and second week of school we took independent writing samples from our kindergartners in each genre (narrative, information, and opinion) based on the common core.  These writing samples were taken with very little direction; simply “write a narrative piece with beginning middle and end.” There was absolutely no help from the teacher.

2. Score writing on a rubric with grade level team.
We use the rubrics in Lucy Calkins New Units of Study. I love that these are grade level specific expectations along a continuum so we can really see where kids fall. Also a big reality check for how much most of our students need to learn as a majority were scoring minimal and basic with a small handful scoring close to proficient. I’m not too worried though because we have plenty of time to get there!

3. Look at goals from VOICES menu that may be appropriate for groups of students.
I use the goal cards from the writing menu that I created based on the rubrics to choose the goals that might work for at least a handful of kids based on the assessments/rubrics. You can find it here.

4. Pull students individually to look at writing and choose from 2 or more goals.

5. Students complete their goal sheet while I pull the next student.
The student selects which one they would like to work on and then writes it on their goal sheet by copying for now.

 I then begin to confer with the next student while they finish writing their goal.