Setting Personal Goals

Overview

This is lesson 7 of 10 in Building Resilience Together. Students identify a personal area for growth and write three achievable resilience goals, building on earlier learning about wellbeing strategies, support networks and responding to challenges.

Learning intentions

• WALT set personal resilience goals.
• Students will identify practical actions that can strengthen their wellbeing and resilience.
• Students will make goals specific, achievable and relevant to their own lives.
• Students will consider how support from others can help them work towards a goal.

Success criteria

• I can write three achievable resilience goals.
• I can explain one action I will take for each goal.
• I can identify a person, strategy or resource that could support me.
• I can describe how I will know I am making progress.

Curriculum links

• Health and Physical Education — planning and implementing strategies to enhance personal and others’ health, safety, relationships and wellbeing.
• Auslan — engaging in modelled signed and visual exchanges with peers to organise activities related to daily life and the school environment.
• Auslan — collaborating through negotiating, transacting and justifying when planning activities and projects.

Lesson structure (30 minutes)

1. 0–4 min · Reconnect and hook. Teacher opens with the hook and learning intention slides and shows the question, “What can you do when something feels difficult, stressful or unfair?” Students silently choose one previously learned resilience strategy, then share it through a brief signed, spoken or written response.

2. 4–9 min · Model an achievable goal. Teacher revisits the difference between a vague goal and a specific, achievable goal, using the example “I will be less stressed” and improving it to “When I feel overwhelmed, I will use slow breathing for two minutes before starting homework, three times this week”; teacher highlights action, frequency and evidence of progress using the goal-model slides. Students help identify why the improved goal is clearer and suggest one possible support person or resource.

3. 9–14 min · Generate personal ideas. Teacher displays three possible focus areas—managing stress, positive relationships and healthy routines—and discusses suitable strategies without requiring students to disclose private information; students use the dyslexia-friendly personal goal planner to select or write three areas they may wish to develop.

4. 14–23 min · Write three goals. Teacher conferences briefly with each student, prompting with “What will you do?”, “How often?”, “When will you begin?” and “How will you know it helped?”; students independently write three resilience goals in the dyslexia-friendly personal goal planner, including one action and one support for each goal. Students may work one-to-one with the teacher or use the modelled examples and sentence starters.

5. 23–27 min · Partner feedback. Teacher explains respectful feedback using the partner-feedback slides and offers the optional prompt, “Your goal is clear because…”, or “You could make it more achievable by…”. Students share one goal with a partner, only if comfortable, and give feedback on whether it is specific, achievable and measurable.

6. 27–30 min · Review and exit check. Teacher returns to the success-criteria and reflection slides and asks students to self-check their three goals. Students complete the final reflection on the dyslexia-friendly personal goal planner by identifying their first action and rating their confidence from 1–5; the teacher collects planners for formative assessment.

Resources

• the resilience goals slide deck
• the dyslexia-friendly personal goal planner
• Whiteboard or display screen
• Pens, pencils and highlighters
• Timer
• Optional private conference space
• Class list for recording students requiring follow-up

Assessment

• During modelling and discussion, check whether students can distinguish a vague goal from a specific, achievable action.
• Review each planner for three goals, an action, a support strategy and a way to recognise progress; provide individual feedback before the next lesson.
• Use the confidence rating and teacher conferences to identify students who need help refining or safely implementing a goal.

Differentiation

• Provide one-to-one goal setting with the teacher for students who need help identifying a focus or expressing a personal goal. Students may choose from examples rather than disclose sensitive experiences.
• Use the worksheet’s short sections, large clear font, generous spacing, sentence starters and worked examples. Read instructions aloud, allow students to dictate responses or use speech-to-text, and avoid requiring extensive copying.
• Offer a choice of writing, typing, drawing with labels, signing to a teacher or recording an oral response, while ensuring the three goals and actions are clearly captured.
• For students ready for challenge, ask them to add a time frame, anticipate one barrier and write a backup strategy. Partner sharing remains optional and must follow classroom privacy expectations.

Extension

• Share one goal with a partner for feedback and revise it using the specific, achievable and measurable prompts.
• Create a brief personal action plan showing the first step, likely barrier, support person and date for reviewing progress.