Student Reports – Personal Learning Goals
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The process
This page includes information on how to organise the process of developing, monitoring and reporting on personal goals and a suggested timeline.
Related information in this section includes:
Organising the process
How each school organises the developing, monitoring and reporting of students’ personal learning goals and comments will vary from school to school.
Students should be able to record their learning goals in various formats (eg: Word, plain text, handwritten), depending on what processes are practical at their school. These processes should be secure and ensure the privacy of the individual student in communicating their personal learning goals to the teacher/s.
In a primary school, it may be most appropriate for the process to be organised by each class teacher, as part of the class routine.
In a secondary school, the process may be organised by subjects or domains (e.g. it could be a focus of an English program), by pastoral groups or home-groups, or by year levels.
Templates
Students can complete templates using appropriate software or a database to simplify this process. One model is to use inerasable templates into which students type their comments.
Drop Boxes
Some schools offer a secure ‘drop box’ online where students can store a copy on the school’s computer server of their personal learning goals which they have typed into a Word document. Documents in the drop box can only be accessed by the teacher.
The student can add to and edit their original copy during the semester and post to the drop box for safe keeping. Towards the end of the semester, the teacher can return the final edited document to each student so that they can add their evaluation of how they have progressed towards meeting the learning goals they set and to write their future learning goals.
The teacher can then cut and paste the student’s goals and comments from their Word document, as well their own comment, into the report at the end of the semester.
Timeline
Start of Semester One
Students set personal learning goals at the start of Semester One. These learning goals can be generic or subject specific. It is up to the school to determine the focus of these goals in the context of its program. In subsequent reports, students can alter, adapt and add to their current goals in this section.
End of Semester One – start of Semester Two
For the written report at the end of Semester One, the teacher and the students comment on how well they are achieving the set goals. The section My Future Learning Goals is completed to facilitate goal setting for Semester Two. The future learning goals may be similar or additional to the previous ones or completely different.
End of Semester Two
At the end of Semester Two, students and the teacher comment on their progress towards these goals. The section My Future Learning Goals is completed to facilitate goal setting for Semester One in the following year.
During both semesters
During both semesters, students monitor their progress towards achieving their goals. Students can continue to monitor their goals on an ongoing basis, in their own time, independent from structured sessions at school.
For more information, see My Future Learning Goals Sample Secondary Report Template (PDF)