Help your students plan for the year, semester, unit, or week by setting SMART goals. SMART goals are ones that meet the following criteria.

You can give students this SMART goals template to guide them in choosing a goal, or you can ask them to write it down somewhere where they’ll see it regularly as a reminder.

Ways to use SMART goals in SI session:

• Beginning of the Semester: Ask students to create a SMART goal for the semester as a whole. What do they want to challenge themselves to achieve this semester? For a longer term goal like this, ask them to add in 3 concrete action steps they’ll take to get there. For instance, if a student want’s to earn an A, maybe one of their action steps is to “review lecture notes for 10 minutes every day before bed.”
  
  • Accountability Buddies: After students set a goal, have them find a partner and share their goals with each other. Suggest they exchange contact information so they have a buddy in the class for questions and someone who can hold them accountable for progress toward their goals.
• Post Exam: After an exam is a great time to set a new goal. Students just had an assessment of how their progress has been thus far. What do they want to achieve by the next exam?
• Weekly: As the semester goes on, you’ll likely have your regular SI attendance crowd. Make it a habit each week to have one warm up activity be setting a weekly goal. The next week, people share how it went and set a new goal. You can participate too! We’re all in this together!
• Outside of Session: Maybe you don’t have time to set goals during your session, but introduce the idea of SMART goals and encourage your students to set goals on their own. You can even provide them with the blank SMART goals template to take home and let them know you’re available to discuss their goals with them as well.