After a reflecting and listing a variety of potential goals, help your child choose one or two top goals to focus on first. Well formulated goals have several characteristics that make them more likely to be achieved:
Meaningful and relevant, representing growth that your child genuinely wants – not goals they’ve been told they ‘should’ achieve
Challenging, but attainable. (When goals are too easy, they send the message that a child can’t do more. When they’re too hard, they send that message that a child isn’t good enough. See High Expectations)
About process and progress; inputs that you can control, not achievement
Specific
Measurable
Time scheduled
(You may have heard the acronym SMART to capture some of these qualities: specific, measurable, attainable, relevant, time-scheduled.)
For example, instead of setting a goal like this:
“I want to do better English this year”
A more actionable goal would be formulated like this:
“To improve my reading, I want to read Harry Potter on my own by the end of the year.”
This goal is specific, meaningful, self-chosen, challenging but doable, measurable, and time-scheduled. And it is likely to lead to a great grade in English class anyway!
