Personal Goal
Criteria
Student uses a process that involves four stages:
1) setting a personally meaningful goal outside of their comfort zone (or something that would be a stretch to accomplish)
2) planning
3) taking action to work towards achieving the goal
4) reflecting on the process.
Student articulates a challenging goal and pursues it, but reflection shows little insight into process, problem solving, or personal growth.
OR
Student articulates and pursues a goal that is an inevitable projection of work they are already doing, thereby notpresenting a real challenge.
Student fails to articulate a clear goal, or steps to achieve it.
OR
Student achieves something significant without having planned to do so.
OR
Student achieves something as part of a group, where the student’s personal investment and individual control over the process is unclear.
Examples
A student who has never been an active runner sets a goal of running a half-marathon. He begins to train and continues to research about training as
he goes. Reflecting on his training with new information from his research, he makes appropriate changes to his training program and sees improvement in his conditioning and speed.
A student chooses to investigate electrical musical instruments by making her own electric cello. She researches how the instrument should be made, raises some money for materials, makes several designs, chooses one and constructs it. In the end, she is disappointed that her electric cello doesn’t sound a lot different than an electric guitar, but has learned that the acoustic properties of an instrument do not play a big role in generating an electric musical signal.
A student is a committed Boy Scout, and on route to achieving an Eagle Scout badge, the highest award in American Scouting. He sets a goal to earn the Life badge by completing the Lifesaving and Environmental Science merit badges over summer break. The student earns both and reflects on the process, what he learned, and what he will do next to progress toward his Eagle Scout badge.