Incorporating Goal-Setting in Adult ESL

Classrooms

Barbara Knox, Leslie Mladinich, and Liv Beck

Presentation Agenda

• Brief review of what research tells us about goal-setting

• Look at Goal-Setting Activities in a Beginning Low Class

• Look at Activities in a “Literacy” Class

• Discussion of goal-setting successes/challenges in your classes

Research Review

I. One big reason to do goal-setting.

II. Reasons goal-setting is effective.

III. Important elements to keep in mind.

IV. Some of the things that we learned in our class project on goal-setting.

Why do Goal-Setting?

Helps with student persistence!

How does goal-setting help with student persistence?

Connecting learners' goals and class instruction helps teachers meet students' needs and allows students to experience success in meeting their goals, which contributes to their increased motivation and persistence. (Graves, 2004)

•With instruction on short-term and long-term goals, students are better able to mesh personal, educational, and career goals and better able to articulate their needs to the instructor. (Jackson, 1999.)

What does the research say about HOW to do goal-setting?

Goal Setting must be

• Clear and specific• Continual• Achievable• In the context of instruction

Barbara’s & Liv’s Class Project

Our question:

• Do students in our evening Beginning Low class who identify long term and short term goals have higher rates of persistence since January, 2008 than students who do not identify personal long term and short term goals?

We found...

• Most of the students expressed that they had goals, but they were vague about what those goals were.

• Most of the students we interviewed expressed a strong sense that English was important for their future, but they did not seem to have a good sense of how much English their goals required, or what they were wanting out of class.

• Many of the students we interviewed expressed a strong desire to help their families.

• Students were better able to articulate goals as we did more in-class activities

Student Interviews

• Xian

To review:

• Goal-setting helps with student persistence

• It helps students...

• It helps teachers...

• It is most effective when...

• In our class we found...

Goal setting in one Beginning Low class

I. Interview with Jorge

II. Pursuit of Happyness

III. 3 question mingle

IV. Songs and Goals

V. Stand Out and Timelines

Student Interview

• Jorge• GED Student• Formerly ESL student

at our same school• Accessible Language• Goals changed

2004 2008 2010 2012

 1.   What is the name of the student we interviewed last week? _Jorge Loma_______________2.   Where is he from? _Mexico___________________3.   What is his short term goal? __GED__________________4.   What is his long term goal? __go to college______________5.   Does he have the same goals now as before? no 6.   Is the GED the same as college? __no_________7.   Is the GED the same as a high school diploma? __yes______8.   How many years did he study English? _4 years___________9.   What kind of job does he want? __business or carpenter ___10. What does he tell students to do? _He tells the students that it’s important to learn English to get a good job. Speak English in class and with your coworkers. If you want, take the GED class.

   

 

Interview Questions

Use of Songs and Goals

• “I tried”• “Step by Step”• “New York”

My name is Jana. I am from Denmark. I am 24 years old. I am single. I like to read books and listen to music. I have two sisters. They live in Denmark. I have no children. I am single.I was a server. Now I am a student at Goodstreet Adult School. I want to learn good English because I want to be a doctor in the United States.  

Your Turn: Write about you.  

 

My name is _______________________. I am from______________________. I_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Leslie’s experience in her literacy class

Peer Training Day

Mira Costa College Worksheet

Linh Dang Resize

Linh Dang

Mira

Costa

Expansion of Mira

Costa

Unsuccessful Goals Matching

Alfonso’s ESL Bus

Alfonso’s Sentence of Goals

Susanna Chart

Juan Resized

Discussion Questions

1. Quickly find a partner.

2. Talk for five minutes about what you have tried in your class. Or, what you would like to try in your class.

3. Write down some of your ideas on the index cards.

Report Back

What were some of your successful ideas?

Leave us the index cards and Liv will type up all of the ideas.

You can email her for a copy of the list:

beckliv@gmail.com

THANK YOU

extra slides from last presentation

Educational Career Financial Family Personal

Categorize Goals

Educational Career Financial Family Personal

1. Go to Laney College

1. Own my own auto body shop.

1. Save $100 every month.

1. Visit my family in Mexico next year.

1. Quit smoking.

Research suggests goal-setting helps increase...

• a. the number of students who bring you boxes of chocolate.

• b. CASAS scores.

• c. student persistence.

In a large study on persistence in adult education, researchers found four main supports. The third support was “establishment of a goal by the student.” The fourth was “progress toward reaching a goal.”

• “The staff of the educational program must help the potential adult student define his or her goals and understand the many instructional objectives that must be met on the road to meeting that goal.” (Comings, Parrella, & Soricone, 2000)

Goal Setting

• helps both the student and the instructor make the necessary connections between the students’ needs and the classroom

• helps everyone have a sense of direction with the class

• allows students to more clearly see their own progress and experience of success – gain confidence

• helps students to take and feel more responsibility for their own learning

• helps motivate student learning.

Choose the REAL QUOTE

A.

“With instruction on short-term and long-term goals, students

are better able to mesh personal, educational, and

career goals and better able to articulate their needs to the instructor” (Jackson, 1999.)

B.

“Although goal-setting activities have almost nothing to do with material we need to cover in class, goal-setting is a helpful activity for our students. So, I take the time to do it” (Jameson, 1999).

Examples of goals frequently mentioned at intake interviews are: "to speak English," "get a job," and "learn about the U.S."

However, if students are to feel successful and motivated in class, and to persist in adult basic education classes in the face of the many obstacles in their lives, we believe it is necessary to make these general goals clearer and more specific. (Graves, 2004)

Clear and Specific

Continual

• “For goal-setting to be effective, it must be continuing. For me this meant incorporating this practice into my lesson plans so that my students and I were consciously aware of the process” (Meader, 2000).

Achievable

• “A goal should strike a balance between being too easy and too difficult” (Rivers, 2006)

• “goals should be specific, hard but achievable, accepted by the students and accompanied by feedback” (Biggs and Moore, 1993).

Context of Instruction

• “Teachers must then use these student goals as the context for instruction and intermittently review them, since they may change.” (Comings, Parrella, & Soricone, 2000)