PRACTICAL GOAL SETTING ADVANCED SOCIAL COMMUNICATION MIDDLE SCHOOL: LESSON THREE

OBJECTIVE: Students will set an achievable goal that addresses an area in their life they want to improve. Students will collaborate with group members to come up with ideas and strategies about how to achieve their goal. Students will implement the ideas and strategies decided upon in an effort to work toward the achieving their set goal.

SOCIAL EMOTIONAL LEARNING STANDARDS Set a short- term goal and make a plan for achieving it. Identify strategies to make use of resources and overcome obstacles to achieve goals. Apply strategies to overcome obstacles to goal achievement. Monitor progress on achieving a short- term personal goal.

SCERTS KEY SKILLS Engages in reciprocal interaction: sharing intentions, emotions, interests. Understands and monitors the attentional focus of self and others. Understands and uses appropriate nonverbal behavior/ gestures.

EVIDENCE BASED PRACTICES (EBPS) Peer-mediated instruction and intervention (PMII): Typically developing peers interact with and/or help children and youth with ASD to acquire new behavior, communication, and social skills by increasing social and learning opportunities within natural environments. Teachers/service providers systematically teach peers strategies for engaging children and youth with ASD in positive and extended social interactions in both teacher-directed and learner-initiated activities. Self-management (SM): Instruction focusing on learners discriminating between appropriate and inappropriate behaviors, accurately monitoring and recording their own behaviors, and rewarding themselves for behaving appropriately.

CALIFORNIA COMMON CORE STANDARDS

Task One: Discussion Questions: Do you think it is important to set goals for yourself? What is the difference between a short term goal and a long term goal? Are you pressured by the goals others set for you? Do you communicate your concerns about the goals others set for you? How do you feel when you achieve an established goal? How do you feel when you are unable to achieve an established goal?

Task Two: Intro to Project Individually, brainstorm and write about something in your life you would like to improve… Academics Relationships Personal appearance Friendships Job opportunities

Task Two continued: Group Discussion Students will be grouped by similarities in their area of desired improvement. Once in your group, students will share their writing about what they would like to improve with the other group members. If the area of desired improvement seems too vast, the group should discuss how to break down the concept into a smaller, able to be achieved, goal. If the desired improvement seems too limited, the group members should discuss how to elaborate the goal to have a greater impact in that persons life. All group members will help each other come up with one obtainable short term goal as well as ideas about ways to achieve the defined goal.

Task Two: Group Task Each group will create a power-point that includes: Group Members names and Title of Project Established goals, one per each group member. For each established goal, strategies on how to work toward achieving the goal. An overview of ways to monitor the progress and efforts made to achieve goal. Insights into how group supports and discussions can motivate or hinder success in achieving established goal.

Task Three: Presentation Each group will present their power-points to the class Everyone in the group should present at least one slide, preferably the slide that addresses their own goal Groups should be open to questions and follow up discussions pertaining to goals set or strategies to help toward accomplishing goal. The questions and comments should only progress and enhance the opportunities for goal achievement, comments should not to be used as a critical evaluation of any person or personality.

Task Four: Progress Monitoring Students will focus on their goal and implement some of the strategies suggested. Students will keep an ongoing account of when they applied a strategy and what type of impact it produced. Students will share their progress over the next several week…The most important thing to remember, is to keep making the EFFORT…EFFORT will keep you moving toward meeting your goals…Excuses will hold you back.

Evaluation: Council Questions: How was it helpful to you to get advise and assistance from your group? What do you think the biggest obstacle to achieving your short term goal will be? What is one way your group could have improved in its collaborative efforts? What is something your group, or one of your group members did really well? What information, in the presentations, was most useful to you personally?

Vocabulary Effort Obtainable Implement Elaborate Motivate Hinder Progress Monitoring