Why is goal setting important for students? Teaching goal setting to upper elementary students can be transformative. When students learn how to set goals, they gain tools to turn their dreams into achievable milestones. Whether they're aiming to improve their reading skills, win a science fair, or simply become more organized, introducing goal setting strategies helps them build confidence, resilience, and motivation.

See Goal Setting Activities and Resources on TPT

THREE GOAL SETTING METHODS FOR STUDENTS

Goal setting takes students beyond wishful thinking by giving them concrete strategies to plan, monitor progress, and adjust when needed. But not every student approaches goals in the same way, which is why it's valuable to introduce them to different goal-setting methods.

Understanding different goal setting methods allows you to offer your students a variety of approaches to reaching their goals. By presenting multiple strategies, you can help each student find a goal setting method that suits their needs and learning style, making goal setting more effective and engaging for everyone.

Research shows that individuals who write down their goals have a 33-42% greater success rate than those who only think about them. When we teach students how to set and write down their goals, we equip them with a practical way to achieve success.

#1 SMART Goals

One of the most widely used goal setting strategies is SMART Goals. Teaching students to set SMART goals gives them a structured way to plan their achievements. SMART stands for:

Specific: What exactly do you want to accomplish?
Measurable: How will you know when you’ve reached your goal?
Achievable: Is this goal realistic for you right now?
Relevant: Why does this goal matter to you?
Time-Bound: When do you want to achieve this goal?

SMART goal setting strategies for students

Example for Students:
"By the end of the month, I will read two chapter books to improve my reading skills."

SMART goals help students break big dreams into manageable steps and give them a clear direction.

#2 BHAGs (Big, Hairy, Audacious Goals)

For students who are ready to dream big, introduce them to BHAGs—goals that are ambitious, exciting, and even a little scary! These goals are clear, compelling goals that seem unreasonable and out of reach, but these big goals push the achiever to reach for more than they ever thought they could accomplish.

Example for Students:
"I want to get first place in the school science fair this year!"

BHAGs teach students to embrace challenges and develop perseverance, even if the goal feels just out of reach.

#3 Good, Better, Best Goals (Stretch Goals)

This method combines the practicality of SMART goal setting strategies with the ambition of BHAGs. Students set three levels of achievement:

Good: The basic goal they’ll feel proud to achieve.
Better: A higher target that requires more effort.
Best: An ambitious stretch goal that challenges them to go above and beyond (also known as a “STRETCH Goal” or Blow Your Mind Goal)

Example for Students:

Good: Finish 10 multiplication problems correctly.
Better: Finish 15 multiplication problems correctly.
Best: Finish 20 problems and explain how I solved them to a classmate.

The Good, Better, Best goal setting method works well for mentally setting a bar that you will feel good about accomplishing AND having a way to stretch beyond that.

Visualization: A Powerful Classroom Tool

Much research has been done on the benefits of visualizing and creating a mental vision of yourself accomplishing your goals. Visualization is very popular among athletes and business owners who are constantly pushing themselves to be the best version of themselves. Visualization can be a helpful strategy when you:

Think through the steps it would take to accomplish your goals, then imagine yourself doing each thing.
Imagine what it is that you really want. Feel the feelings you will feel when you accomplish that goal. Hear the sounds that will be around you. What might your parents, teachers, or friends say when you’ve accomplished that goal? What might you say to yourself? Use all of your senses to tap into that visual image.

activities for goal setting with students

Visualization has a number of real benefits, including: 

Improved mental health as you focus on the positive outcomes.
Increased confidence as you keep your eye on the goal, knowing that you are headed somewhere great!
Improved habits and behaviors because staying in tune with your goals keeps the habits and behaviors that will get you there front-of-mind.

GOAL SETTING FOR THE NEW YEAR

What about those resolutions?! A resolution is a firm decision or commitment to pursuing a goal. A person with a resolution has “resolved” to improve their habits or behaviors to meet their goal.

It is estimated that 23-43% of people who set a New Year’s resolution drop their goal before January ends and up to 94% of people drop them by the end of February. (*You don’t have to wait until New Year’s to set goals! This is a hang-up that many people have with New Year’s resolutions).

People may give up their goals for many reasons:

Setting goals that are way too high and lofty without a specific plan for how to accomplish their goal.
Not having a support system or identified resources to help them reach their goal.
Lacking a clear picture of what they want and specific targets in their goal.

FINAL THOUGHTS: ENCOURAGING STUDENTS THROUGH THE GOAL SETTING PROCESS

Encourage your students that they are always better off trying, even if they don’t fully achieve their stated goal.

goal setting for students worksheet that engages them in analyzing quotes about goal setting

No matter the results, students are never failures when setting goals. By making goal setting a part of their continuous growth process, they are always improving, building better habits, and doing their best.

Goal setting should be viewed as an ongoing journey. Every time your students attempt a goal, even if they don’t reach it, they gain new insights, develop fresh strategies, and learn from the experience. As they apply these strategies repeatedly, remind them to reflect on how far they’ve come—not just whether they’ve met their original goal.

Encourage your students with statements like, “I’m proud of what I accomplished.” “Look how far I’ve come.” “I can see my growth.” and “I’m getting better every day.”

Don’t Wait! Start the Goal Setting Journey Now!

By teaching your students to dream big and plan SMART, you’re giving them lifelong tools for success. Whether they choose SMART goals, BHAGs, or stretch goals, helping them create a plan, visualize success, and believe in themselves will build their confidence and perseverance.

Let’s empower our students to set goals, chase dreams, and never stop growing!

NEED DONE-FOR-YOU ACTIVITIES FOR TEACHING GOAL SETTING?

In my Goal Setting SEL Unit, you will find all of the resources you need to teach your students about goal setting, including suggested goal setting books to read aloud, engaging goal setting activities and lesson ideas, discussion questions, goal setting quotes (in journal and poster form), and a personal self-assessment. Student journal pages highlight activities like setting academic/personal goals brainstorming list and reflection forms, SMART goals student planner, one step at a time action tracker, and brainstorming challenges of goal setting and identifying strategies for each.

You can manage to do each of these activities with a reflection journal and materials you have around the classroom, but if you want some of the work done for you, including Google Slides, you can check out my Goal Setting SEL theme unit. I use this unit for a 2-3 week morning meeting unit. It includes student journal pages, detailed and editable lesson plans, bulletin board materials with key vocabulary and goal setting quotes, Google Slides for the teacher, and a digital student notebook. This Goal Setting theme unit is also included in the SEL Morning Meeting MEGA Bundle which contains 17 social-emotional learning themes. If you’re looking to increase your social-emotional learning focus, you’ve come to the right place!

SEL THEMES TO GUIDE YOUR MORNING MEETINGS ALL YEAR

If you’d like more social-emotional learning theme units with a focus on encouraging students’ social, emotional, and academic success, you may be interested in the SEL Morning Meeting Mega Bundle of 17 theme units. With SEL units focused on kindness, compassion, growth mindset, gratitude, perseverance, responsibility, managing emotions, and so much more, your engaging morning meeting plans are done for you and your students will love them! You can save 10% on the Mega Bundle of all 17 themes with the code MM10.