Guidelines for Setting Goals

  1. Goals are to be written in blue pen. Five and six year old children may use pencil.
  2. As soon as goals are completed and scored in any subject they must be crossed off and new goals set for tomorrow. NB: A goal is not completed until all work is scored and correct.
  3. Goals must be completed in each subject before the day’s work is complete.
  4. Goals must not be altered by the student once the day’s work has commenced.
  5. When setting goals it is necessary to open your PACE and check the logical place to finish your goals They do not have to finish at a score strip.
  6. Do not set goals that finish half-way through a Checkup or Self Test.
  7. In Science and Social Studies set goals at the end of the questions that go with the story or information
  8. In Science and Social Studies secondary PACEs where there are activity pacs, goals need to be written in capital letters rather than numbers to correspond with the pages of the activity pac.

IMPORTANT

The correct and consistent use of the Goal Card is central to A.C.E. procedures and it is well worth the effort insisting on a high standard in their use. The student, who is trained to follow these procedures so that they become a daily habit, has been established in one of the most valuable habits of life; to set goals and to commit oneself to completing them. They have been established in good work habits.

How Big should Goals Be?

In a normal school situation where students at primary level are covering 5 or 6 subjects by lunch time, the daily goals would be approximately as follows:

Years 1- 2          2 – 3 pages per subject

Primary               2 – 5 pages per subject

Secondary          3 – 6 pages per subject

Normally a PACE would take between 2 and 3 weeks to complete. You can work out from this the number of pages required for each day. At secondary level students would need to do at least 4 pages in a subject to complete 12 PACEs in a year.

NB The number of pages should only be a guide. The student’s ability, the difficulty of certain sections of a PACE, the logical place to finish a daily goal will all need to be considered when setting daily goals. One important point needs to be emphasized. A goal must be completed on the day for which it has been set down. NO MORE – NO LESS.

At the beginning or end of each day goals should be checked by supervisors (parents) to ensure reasonable goals have been set. If this is done and a student completes their goals early they should be rewarded in some way – e.g. extra break time or some privilege. Do not ‘reward’ a student who finishes their goals early by setting more goals for the day. If they finish their goals early over several days then they must be challenged to set larger goals in the future. There maybe the odd exemption where goal cards may need to be charged (never by the student) but as a general rule supervisors should be hesitant about changing what the student has committed themselves to do.