Chapter 15:
Powerful learners set ambitious goals and courageously pursue them. The pursuit of challenging learning can be greatly accelerated simply by providing clarity. Often, we set goals that provide us with direction and motivation. Yet taking just a moment more to add clarity to those goals by bringing definition to the process can be very beneficial. The next Big Idea provides a simple step to bring clarity to far-reaching goals.
“Boys and girls, this is Big Idea 15: “The Clearer Your Goal Is, the Nearer You Are to It.” We set goals to reach for things we really want to attain. One of the most important parts of setting a goal is that it causes us to decide what is really important to us. We rarely set goals related to unimportant ideas. Instead, we set goals by thinking carefully about what is important. Setting a goal, such as becoming an excellent artist, a strong writer, or a helpful representative of other people, gives us a focus and a direction. However, it doesn’t always give us enough direction to tell us how to reach that goal.
“So I want to introduce an important word: ‘by.’”
I turn to write “BY” on the board.
“Sometimes, just by adding this word to our goal, we can actually move closer to the goal. Instead of saying, ‘I want to become a great basketball player,’ I can say, ‘I want to become a great basketball player by…’”
I invite the students to help me complete the sentence as I start recording their responses in the form of a bulleted list:
“I think this list could go on and on — just like your learning can go on and on. I don’t know everything that we could write on this list, but I do know that the goal just became clearer, so you are closer to it.
“If your goal is to become a great basketball player, then you have a starting point. But a much more helpful way to think about it may be, ‘I want to become a great basketball player by learning the rules, by practicing every day, and by playing in games.’ The clearer your goal is, the nearer you are to it.
“Your goal may become clearer, and you may move closer to accomplishing it, just by wondering what follows the word ‘by.’ The clearer your goal is, the nearer you are to accomplishing it.”
When students are determined to continually grow, they almost always benefit from highly specific feedback coupled with a growing understanding of how to respond to that feedback. They also benefit from being able to see clear steps toward their goals. Simply using the word “by” may help them identify those steps.
Some of the places where my risks have turned into unfortunate stumbles in the classroom have been the same places where, upon reflection, I realized that my goals were actually vague aims and, as such, did not have clear targets to pull me forward.
For example, I wanted a classroom culture that valued thinking and where students propelled their learning through the free exchange of ideas. When this did not happen, I was not sure where to look. I did not even know what questions to ask or how to effectively reflect upon
the experience. Eventually, I realized I had not deeply considered the specific steps I needed to take in order to reach that goal.
In contrast, when I became more specific, saying, for example, “I want my students to exchange observations by using the stem, ‘I Notice …’” I observed that I could reflect about the success of the strategy rather than whether or not I had met my goal, which in reality was probably several steps away.
Attaching the word “by” to a desired outcome lets me set bigger, riskier goals. Identifying the steps to my goal means that I do not have to wrap my mind around the entire goal all at once. As discussed with Big Idea 12, I knew that what seems impossible can soon become possible, especially if I provide myself with the kind of clarity that helps me to move forward. Rather than feeling overwhelmed, I can instead focus on each “by” as I work my way through the unknown and closer to attaining the goal.
After resetting my goals with clear steps, I determined that, upon reaching my goal, I would take time to reflect. I would acknowledge the success and learn from it. After all, there is much learning in front of me, and I want to learn all I can from both my failures and my successes.
