Does your child know how to set goals?
Most students don’t know how to set goals for themselves. It’s not their fault—skills such as goal setting, time management, and organization are very rarely taught in school.
Because of this, most students go about their day-to-day business, floating from test to test, project to project without much thought to where they are going or where they currently are.
Setting goals can help put students in the driver’s seat and make them feel more in control of their education. But in order to do this, students need to take a close look at their current academic standing, identify problem areas, and ask themselves what they would like to achieve. Usually there is one area that could use special attention, such as science, math, or finishing homework.
Before students begin setting goals, they should become familiar with Oxford Learning’s CAM Rule for setting Goals.
Goals need to be Clear, Achievable, and Measurable. Here’s how students can apply the CAM rule.
- Clear. Make sure that goals are clear. It shouldn’t be “improve my science grade”, but “I want to understand the periodic table of elements and mitosis.”
- Achievable. Keep goals realistic. A C minus student has a better chance of getting a C plus on the next test than an A.
- Measurable. By setting a goal that has benchmarks, you can track success. Last week Tim only knew 3 periodic elements; this week he knows 10!
The CAM method for setting goals makes academic resolutions easy to keep. Students won’t get discouraged and abandon their resolutions because they can track their progress, no matter how minor the achievement is.