Back-to-School S.M.A.R.T. Goals
Back-to-school season… a fantastic time to set SMART goals. We commit to start off on the right foot: eat breakfast, study daily, stick to a schedule, and get plenty of rest. We force this routine the first couple weeks of school, start to slip in September, and spend the holiday season recovering from miscalculations on the path to hitting sincere yet ambiguous and overzealous goals. The achievement gap widens each day. Each day the hurdles seem more sizable and more numerous.
It doesn’t have to be this way. With a few tweaks, it is possible to transform moving targets into SMART goals. The outcome is that routines become habits, motivation manifests as discipline.
To accomplish big and lofty goals, write down smaller actionable steps. Smarter goal-setting increases the likelihood of success. When we break larger goals into bite-sized steps, we create targets that we can actually hit.
Consider a goal that’s common among parents during back-to-school season: provide homework help. How can we SMARTen up this goal? Let’s walk through the process together.
First, be Specific.
Helping with homework sounds great. But, does this mean the parent sits with the child each evening and gently guides them… or, buys books to promote learning? Is hiring a tutor the best option? Is the student struggling with a subject unfamiliar to the parent? Is time management an issue? What about organization?
Goals become specific when we identify the who, what, when, where, how, and why that define the goal. This information makes a goal clear. If the goal of a parent is to provide homework help to a child…
The who is easy: my child.
The what requires effort to clarify: complete homework assignments.
The when is usually a given: after school.
The where should be conducive to learning: at the kitchen table.
The how requires even more effort to define: read together, work independently, then review together.
The why can be tricky: to build a stronger bond and decrease school stress.
Make it Measurable.
If the goal is to provide homework help, provide and help aren’t exactly measurable. We need to dig deeper. A number of options are flushed out in the previous section about making goals specific. Measurable goals often contain numbers. Let’s walk through the process.
Unspecific, Immeasurable Goal: A parent decides to provide homework help.
Specific Goal: A parent decides to complete homework assignments after school at the kitchen table by following a specific routine (read, work, review) in order to build a stronger bond with the child and decrease school stress.
Measurable Goal: Complete 90% of homework assignments after school at the kitchen table by following a specific routine (read, work, review) in order to build a stronger bond with the child and decrease school stress.
When parents commit to completing 90% of homework assignments, instead of 100% of homework assignments, two things happen. First, children have breathing room to have a bad day or recover from a sick day. This decreases school stress (addressing one of the parent’s why’s). Second, parents still feel good about bonding with children over homework even on their less-than-perfect days.
Chunk it to be Attainable.
We’d love to achieve A's by the end of the year in all subjects. This may put too much pressure on parents and children. We avoid setting unobtainable goals through trial and error. Start small and grow from there…
Review papers and organize them together on Sundays and Wednesdays before bed.
Improve math grade from a D grade to a C grade.
Set aside one hour of homework time each evening.
Remember Relevance.
Do they actually need homework help, or is a different issue to blame for low performance? As a professional charged with the responsibility of helping struggling students, I normally sort out learners' problems in one move: differentiate between cognitive and character challenges.
Cognitive challenges include inability to write complete sentences or coherent paragraphs, lack of problem solving skills, and misconceptions about word meaning. Character challenges manifest as beginning strong but failing to finish or unwillingness to begin at all. Connections between these types of challenges are common.
Relevant goals that address cognitive challenges may involve tutoring; character challenges may require training.
Take Action on a Timetable.
When will you start helping? How long are we giving ourselves to improve grades using this strategy? Regarding scheduling, are there other obligations to consider?
It seems like a small change, but rather than help with homework, your improved target could be...
Complete math practice together Monday - Thursday, 6:00 to 7:00 to move from D to B by the end-of-term exam.
Organize backpack together on Sundays and Wednesdays before bed to renew focus and direction over the coming days.
Celebrate at least three of the prior week’s successes every Friday over home-cooked dinner to maintain momentum.
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