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    Chapter 13: Determining Students’ Goals

      Ensuring Student Success- Chapter 13

       

      Why is it important to find out the goals of students?

      ► As we mentioned in the chapter on the basics of adult learning, adults are typically goal driven. If your instructors can be sure the classes are focused on the students’ reasons for learning English, you will have an easier time keeping them coming to class.
       

      Determining Students’ Goals 

      Learning about students’ goals will also help you create a welcoming environment by asking students to talk about their own needs, and respecting and responding to their goals. Helping teachers and students get to know each other will help students feel more comfortable and therefore learn more and be more likely to continue with the program.

       

      ■ What do we want to ask?

      • You might start with skill areas that they think are most important to them: speaking, listening, reading, writing, grammar, pronunciation. You can include other areas like conversational English or academic reading.
      • You can also focus on reasons they may have for learning English such as to go back to school, achieve their GED, get a job, speak to their child’s teacher, or talk with a doctor.
      • If your program uses textbooks and/or has a curriculum in place, you may want to customize your questions regarding student goals to the program. For example, you would not want to ask about a student’s writing goals if you will not be doing any writing instruction.
       
      Some other options are:

      • What their past experience with learning English is.​ How long it has been since they last studied English, how long they studied, where they studied (in school, on their own, online, etc.)

      • What their highest level of education in their own country is. This can give you an idea about goals they may have related to improving their literacy skills. It can also indicate methods instructors will use to help them meet their goals if they have limited literacy or little experience within an interactive (or any) classroom.

      • What their perceived strengths are in English.

      • How they feel about learning English. The idea is to learn more about how much confidence they feel when using English, learning it, and being in a classroom setting.

      • If there is something they need to learn that is time sensitive. That may be a priority.

      • Whether there is something very specific that they want to learn. They might want to learn English for a specific type of work. If class time can’t be dedicated to it, then possibly extra work outside class can be given. Or if for example, they are looking to pass the TOEFL test, it might be better to refer them to a program that can do that.

      • What supports they have to ensure they can stay in class. For example, do they have someone who can watch their children?
         

       

      ■ How can we learn about student goals?

      The simplest way is to just ask. The question of why they want to take an ESOL class will typically get puzzled looks and the answer “to learn English,” which doesn’t help much. Following up with general questions like “Why do you want to learn English?” may cause similar confusion. More effective questions are:

      “When and where do you use English in your life?”
      “What do you have the most difficulty with in English?”

      You may want more detail, however, and to have your teachers be more specific.

      • For higher-level students a survey will work, or if you are using a textbook without a set curriculum, students can rank the various units.
      • You can do mind mapping and other charts to dig deeper into what they need. This website has some good examples of mind maps:
      • Arlington Education and Employment Program (REEP) https://reep.apsva.us/reep-esl-curriculum-for-adults/ has a number of tools ready to use in the “Instructional Planning” section of their curriculum for adults webpage.
      • For lower-level students, pictures of topics can work well. Students can ID pictures on a paper, or some instructors will post the pictures around the room and students can go to the one that is their first, and then second choice. For examples of goal questionnaires (including one with pictures), see MCAEL’s Instructor Toolkit, Appendix A, p. 36, at: https://irp.cdn-website.com/dcb60014/files/uploaded/mcael.instructortool...
      • For some of its classes, Family Services utilizes a “can do” form that assesses skills (like that featured in Chapter 12) as the basis for helping students identify their goals related specifically to these life skills. (See Resources, p. 82 for can-do form with goals selection.)

      ​

       

      ■ When should we ask about student goals?

      This can be done during orientation, during the first class or a mix of both. It could also be done on students’ phones using surveys (such as Google Forms) anytime in the process.

      It is also important to get feedback along the way and at the end. Instructors can do exit tickets to see how well students see their goals being met. As administrators, you can also create focus groups for students, instructors, or other stakeholders to get feedback about areas of your curriculum and how well the needs of the students are being met.

      Determining Students’ Goals 

      ♦ PROVIDER TIP

      Gilchrist Immigration Resource Center
      Anna DeNicolo, Program Manager of the Gilchrist Immigration Resource Center

      ESOL Classes

      FIRST OFFERED ESOL INSTRUCTION: 2001

      Gilchrist Immigrant Resource Center is a Montgomery County agency that provides information and educational opportunities to immigrants in the county.

      2017–18 DATA
      CLASS SITES: 4 CLASS LEVELS: 4 TOTAL ENROLLMENT: 292 unique/385 duplicated 

      What advice do you have about student goal-setting? 

      “It’s helpful for provider organizations to bear in mind that language skill levels, cultural factors, education levels, and other factors can impact communication with students and make it difficult to get useful answers about student goals that you can use in program planning.”

      Be sensitive to factors that could hinder identifying goals 

      “Different strategies should be used for students at a pre-literacy or basic level vs. intermediate or advanced levels. Care should be taken regarding gender and religion—for example, some female students might feel uncomfortable answering questions about their goals to a male teacher or with a spouse present. Students with little formal schooling may struggle with different types of assessments. Visual learners might respond better to written approaches while auditory learners might do better with a different approach. Some students will be shy and uncomfortable answering questions about their goals in front of the class. Some may not even have a clear understanding of what their goals are.”

      Consider one-on-one goal setting

      “Students may be more comfortable once there have been some “getting to know you” exercises or one-on-one interviews with the instructor, as opposed to answering questions in front of the entire class at the beginning of the program. Keep in mind that some of your students may not have been in a classroom in a very long time.”

       

       

      ♦ NOTES FROM THE FIELD

      Literacy Council of Montgomery County ESL Classroom Program StatisticsA Conversation with the Literacy Council of Montgomery County (LCMC)

      Ahu Moser, Director of Academic Programming at LCMC, breaks down the goal-setting process for their ESL Classroom Program.

      What was the reason behind creating this process?

      “In the past, we had a goal sheet for students to fill out on the first day of the class. It had five goals in total, and we asked students to choose as many goals as they wanted. However, we determined we should not ask students to choose as many goals as possible because our evaluation of goal sheets at the end of the year showed us that choosing too many of the goals made students less focused.”

       
       
      So what did you do?

      “Our leadership team met to streamline the goal process. The new process and the goal sheet allow staff and instructors to encourage students to reach their goals in a more effective and efficient way. We have three main pathways for our students. These pathways are based on ultimate end-goals for the student: 

      1. Education: for students who want to go to college and/or get advanced vocational training
      2. Economic: for students who need family-sustaining employment 
      3. Everyday Living: for students who just want to navigate the culture better”
       
       
      When does the goal setting process start?

      “During the intake process, students indicate on the registration forms which of these is the main driver for coming to us. We know that students might have more than one of these end-goals driving their decision to study, but our aim is to get them to focus on the one that is the most important to them and to then help them create a path towards that goal made up of smaller targets that we call ‘Squish Goals.’ We call them Squish Goals because they are not goals that are always captured by hard metrics, but they are goals that will push the student towards their chosen pathway. We also believe in the importance of explaining to students during the orientation what each goal means and represents. Bilingual staff assists at the registration site to help students with low English language skills.”

       
      What role do these goals play in the classroom? 

      “Once this information is gathered at intake, students are given specific goal sheets (Economic, Educational or Everyday Living) upon entering the classroom program. The goals align with the track the student is on. We use this data to better serve our learners by connecting them with resources to  accomplish their goals and to help us as we create new programming.”

       
      How are the instructors involved?

      “All instructors are provided with lesson plans to implement goal planning. Within the first six hours of instruction, students are required to select two achievable Squish Goals pertaining to the pathway they selected during the intake process. This data is used by instructors to create personalized and flexible instruction for students. We also utilize Midpoint Progress Reports (MPRs). They allow instructors to identify students’ strengths and weaknesses related to their goals and are used as a supplement to help students achieve their stated goals. We believe that MPRs will allow students to have a more active role in reaching their goals, which has the added benefit of directly affecting student retention rates.”

      FSI Can I chart with goals (click to enlarge):