Effective ways to establish achievable goals for student motivation

Beginnings, middles, and endings are great stopping points to reflect on your progress on any project and your life. They are also good stopping points for students to reflect on their learning and progress throughout a school year in order to achieve their life goals and create lasting change.

Beginnings: We have our students fill out the beginnings page some time within the first month of school. It is a great way to help students get off on the right foot. Research suggests that when you plan for obstacles, you are more likely to be prepared to overcome them or to avoid them in the first place. So, we guide our students to plan for potential problems and nip them in the bud before they become a problem.

Middles: We like to have our students fill this part at the beginning of the second semester. Studies show that sports teams that are a few points behind at halftime will more likely come back and win the game because they strategize on how to win the game. The same holds true in life. So based on that research, we have students focus on imagining that they are a little bit behind and what can they do to catch up. It works wonders on improving student motivation during the cold winter months.

Endings: We like to have our students complete this reflection right after spring break. You know, the hardest time of the year to teach. Oh yeah and state testing. (Don’t even get me started on that topic.) Back to endings, when people can see that the end is near, they become more motivated to work harder and run faster towards that finishing line. This is a great time to motivate students to reach their fullest potential and end the school year on a high note.

Speaking of endings, research shows that people only remember how something ends, so it is important to end on a high note. We like to end our school year with our favorite lessons like: fan fiction, poetry, Cyrano, The Boy, the Mole, the Fox, and the Horse, and Walter Mitty. Our students love these lessons and they always mention those particular units of study as what they miss about our core class. Remember, always end on a high note.