Successfully Set Reading Goals

If you have taken my Raising a Motivated Reader Course, you know I am a huge fan of setting up or improving habits. As a part of habit formation, we like to set measurable goals in smaller time increments.

There is so much information about the importance of setting goals and the focus and incentive goals can provide. A great framework that I have used in classrooms and in my own life is the SMART Goals framework. (SMART goals were first introduced by George T. Doran in 1981)  When we establish goals, it is important to define what we want to accomplish, how we want to accomplish it, and when we want to accomplish it. The more specific we can be, the more likely we are to achieve.

SMART Goals are goals that are

Specific

• What are you trying to accomplish?
• Why do you want to accomplish this goal?

Measurable

• How will you know when you met your goal?

Achievable

• How can you accomplish this goal?
• Is it something you have the tools/skills needed to accomplish this goal?

Relevant

• Is this something you should be spending your time on?

Time-bound

• When do you want your goal to be achieved?

Some examples of SMART GOALS:

“I will be able to read by myself for 20 minutes each weekday”

“By the end of March, I will have read 15 chapter books by myself.”

“By the end of March, I will be able to write a concise summary statement of any portion of a book that I read.”

Know that your child will be more engaged in completing the work toward achieving their goal if they set the goal or at least play a role in setting their goal.

Guiding your child to set meaningful goals begins when you invite your child to reflect on what they are able to do, their strengths, and where they can grow. In order for your child to establish ambitious goals, it is important that you encourage reflection and offer guidance.

To encourage reflection, you can

• ask your child to think about the books they have enjoyed most and why
• ask your child to think about characters they felt like they really understood or related to
• visit any writing about reading they’ve done
• Provide open-ended questions to guide their thinking like:
  • “What do you think you might want to work on?”
  • “What do you think you’re doing well as a reader?”
  • “What do you notice about your work?”
  • “What is something new you may want to take on?”
  • “Can you think of ways that I can help you as a reader?”
  • “What’s going to make the biggest difference for you as a reader?”
  • “Can you think of ways that you may want to improve your reading?”

If you need some help thinking about goal topics, here are some considerations:

 Potential goal topics:

• Reading from pictures
  • Does your child use pictures to tell the story or gain information from the pictures in nonfiction texts?
  • A goal could be: Before turning the page, I will pause and gaze at the pictures to see what else I can learn or notice.
  • If you want to learn more about this and similar goals visit: There’s More Than One Way to Read a Book
• Engagement
  • Does your child focus? Do they have stamina? Do they choose books that interest them?
  • A goal could be: After reading/listening to each page, I will pause and ask myself, “Do I know what is happening here?”
  • Another goal could be: I will track my reading time and gradually increase that time to a total of 30 minutes of reading at a time.
  • If you want to learn more about this and similar goals visit: The 4 Best Ways to Motivate Your Child to Read
• Fluency
  • Does your child read the words correctly (most of the time)? Does your child read with nice pacing? Does your child read with confidence?
  • A goal could be: I will find books that I like to read and I will read them several times until I feel confident in my reading or I will practice my reading by reading the same book to three people each week.
  • If you want to learn more about this and similar goals visit: 4 Ways to Improve Reading Fluency
• Comprehension
  • Does your child pay attention to the characters and their actions? Does your child understand how the setting affects the story?
  • A goal could be: I will be able to tell the main idea and supporting details after reading a nonfiction text.
  • If you want to learn more about comprehension strategies visit: Strategic Action Series

A big goal is often reading more.

If this is a hope for your child this year, I encourage you to check out the

FREE Essentials for Raising a Motivated Reader Guide. 

If you want to learn more about Setting Goals to increase reading motivation, check out the Guide to Raising a Motivated Reader or the 

Raising a Motivated Reader Course. 

Reference: 

1. Doran, G. T. (1981). “There’s a S.M.A.R.T. way to write management’s goals and objectives”. Management Review. 70 (11): 35–36.