Building SMART Goals for Language Learners is a Collective Process
By Sarah Said
We set goals everyday in our lives. They can be as simple as setting the alarm to wake up earlier for an early morning workout or as complex as going back to graduate school to complete another degree. These goals help us individually grow. Many times, we are approached by our district and schools and asked to set SMART goals. As practitioners who support language learners, our field is ever changing and setting SMART goals can be a complex process. However, the more intentional we are about meeting goals for instruction, the stronger chance that learners can be successful in our programs, schools and classrooms. SMART goals (Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant and Timebound) can be crafted to support our professional and personal growth and instructional practice. We can also work with students and conference with them to set their own SMART goals as a parallel practice to give them voice and agency in their language learning. And, we need to create processes that allow follow through for the goals created.
Please note that whether you are a Confianza partner school/district or not, you may or may not use tools mentioned below, including the WIDA standards, testing and or Ellevation. We recommend focusing on the process of creating goals as described below even if you don’t use those tools. If you are a school leader, please consider your school goal based on student data as the “north star“ to guide your teachers in creating their student goals and professional practice goals.
What are SMART Goals? How Do We Set Them For Language Learners?
I have seen districts have variations of how they set SMART goals. There are times where they are set by the district with the voice of staff and stakeholders involved. Many times districts ask individual schools and teachers to set their own SMART goals as well. Most likely your organization has a variation of how they are working with SMART goals. As a teacher, specialist or administrator it’s critical that you first understand the population that you are serving, the staff you are working with and the quantitative and qualitative data that tells the story of the students that you support. You can’t blindly set goals to work towards if you do not know who you are teaching or leading.
A great support for beginning to set SMART goals has been written by ELLevation in partnership with Lawrence public schools ELL leader Allison Balter and can be accessed here. Note that the ENLACE Academy has been a key Confianza partner school featured in our video collection with Teaching Channel and other parts of Confianza’s framework. Allison outlines a chart that pertains to specifically writing SMART goals for language learners, stressing the importance of focusing on language skills in instruction and having the goals be relevant to students.
Being in a WIDA state (Illinois), I tend to align SMART goals for students based on WIDA data and also (very popular in Illinois) NWEA Map ELA, Math and Science data, along with what I know qualitatively about the population I am serving. Then, I would need to look at the individual data of the classrooms I serve including writing samples.
From there, I would view that there is a possibility that language usage and writing data is a skill set that students can be encouraged to continue to grow in. I would also take the time to conference with students as well, which you will read more about in this article. Then either in a spreadsheet format or using ELLevation tools, I would work to craft goals for my classes and services.
From this data, maybe I have seen that my students need conferences with me and each other to build their skills. Also, the data shows that students struggle with craft and structure.
A SMART goal I would craft can look like this:
By May of this school year, 70% percent of students in my class will reach the next proficiency level in writing on the WIDA language proficiency scale through more in depth conferring about writing per assignment and instruction on craft and structure. This will be measured through ACCESS tests, the TELL assessment and writing common assessments.
I like to give myself a couple of weeks with students prior to setting these goals. I typically will assign students a SEL based art infused reading, speaking, listening and writing activity to complete as I compile data and conference with students about their learning needs. If I have the capacity to utilize an assessment like the TELL or even my own self created WIDA based assessment, I do try to compile my own data in the beginning of the year as well.
Setting Individual Smart Goals For Your Professional Practices and Personal Growth
The SMART goal I crafted above pertains to an entire classroom or caseload of students. Many times, districts will ask individual teachers and staff to create SMART goals that pertain to their professional practice. The SEL mind in me also thinks it’s critical to support staff in creating SMART goals for their own personal growth as well. We talk about educating the whole child. What about supporting the growth of the “whole educator?
Let’s first look at this from the lens of our professional growth. I might see that the needs of my students pertain to writing proficiency. From here, I will then need to think about what my writing instruction looks like. Do I need to support students better through the writing process? Are we really looking at craft and structure in the classroom appropriately?
If this is the case, then I would invite you to consider crafting your professional learning SMART goals to develop your skills as a writing teacher. You may work with an instructional coach on this.
A SMART goal for this could be written this way:
By January of this school year, I will complete one coaching cycle with our school instructional coach on supporting language learners in developing their writing proficiency and gain mastery in two new teaching strategies to support the teaching of craft and structure in writing as well as developing stronger classroom conferences to support writing proficiency growth in my classroom. This can be measured through learning walk rubrics, ACCESS scores, writing benchmark scores, and NWEA Map ELA Language Usage data.
Also, I strongly encourage educators to try to set one goal that pertains to their own personal development each school year. You can use the CASEL standards as a guide to creating your personal development goals. This year, I noticed that I needed to manage my stress better. When considering the CASEL standards, this relates to self management.
A SMART goal for this could be written this way:
By May, I will work on my self management by attending yoga classes weekly to find strategies to improve my management of stress. I can measure this through my weekly productivity on my to-do lists, journals, and physical health throughout the year.
Collectively Setting SMART Goals with Students for Academic and Personal Growth
As a practitioner of language instruction, I believe that the best way to set goals for instruction is to conference with students and gain their perspective of what they need to learn. In the past, I have done data dive conferences with students. In the conference, I put them in the driver’s seat by working with them to analyze their data through their lens as a student. Students discuss their MAP data, WIDA data, and writing assessments with me. We then explore the Can Do descriptors and create our own cross walk through discussing all sets of data with the descriptors. Students pick one language domain they would like to focus on in their learning. (We do this quarterly.) We also discuss their learning styles and what works for them. I have typically had students set the goals as “I can statements” with deadlines.
A sentence frame for a student centered language proficiency SMART goal could be written this way:
“I can improve my (language domain) by being able to (WIDA descriptor) by May. The learning strategies that can help me are ________________________. We can measure this through my __________________ data “
You learn more about this in this podcast that I appeared on last school year with ELLevation.
As you would work to set SMART goals for your personal development this year, I would mirror student goals to my own goals. When we build relationships to have discussions about personal growth, it really helps build a trust and a bond to support academic growth. As a teacher, I think it’s important to take the time to first introduce students to the CASEL standards as I would the WIDA Can Do Descriptors in order for them to understand personal development. Students can then either discuss those goals individually with you, write about them, or send them to you via a private flip-grid video.
A sentence frame for a student centered personal development SMART goal could be written this way:
“ I can work on (social emotional skills) by learning about my ability to (CASEL Standard) by taking time to (self regulation strategy from list of strategies) in (time period). We can measure this through ________________________ “
Following Through On SMART Goals
A SMART goal isn’t going to be as impactful as it could be unless there is follow through on that goal. There are different ways to follow up on SMART goals. First and foremost, you need to create checkpoints. If your goal states that you should accomplish growth by May and you are setting that goal in September, have a December checkpoint and a March checkpoint. I know that making time for this is difficult, but making the time to do this work will give you the results you need.
When I write SMART goals related to a writing domain, I may do some checkpoints with a self created rubric of a school wide one on student writing portfolios. And personally, I would take time to sit with students and discuss those portfolios together. Bringing caregivers into the process is also helpful because then you and the student can discuss progress together.If you are being coached by an instructional coach, work together on your checkpoints to discuss progress.
With personal goals, your checkpoints can be internally questioning yourself on whether you did what you said you would for yourself. For me, this is looking at calendars to see if I really went to yoga when I said I would or even considering progress at a doctor's appointment to see if your health actually is getting better. Also, if you would like to, ask a colleague or partner at home to be your checkpoint person and end of the year processing person. We always need to have “a person”!
At the end of the process for our SMART goals, there should be what I call a “ Ceremonious data reveal” . Whether it is a staff data dive or a one on one meeting with teacher and coach or teacher and administrator, there should be a way that the progress can be discussed and most importantly celebrated. Please celebrate the success of professional and personal SMART goals.
When we can collectively see the important targets for student learning within an entire school community, goals can be achievable. As districts, departments and schools work together to craft goals that are attainable and achievable within our classrooms. When students are involved in the process, it gives them so much agency in the scope of their learning and growth. Having the mindset to grow together gives us all the chance to glow together.