17th January New School Year List 3: Goal Setting

The teachers will say "I want a book to start a discussion about goals and goal setting. What do you recommend?"

Hard, because as always there isn't one picture book that does that. There is quite a lot of overlap with books that I would recommend for Growth Mindset because goal setting is an important component of classroom communities that focus on it. If students get to set their own goals and take ownership of them, perseverance will be evident.

Teaching using mentor texts helps learners to see how people (characters) who set and achieve  goals demonstrate perseverance and grit to succeed. For this reason many picture book biographies make wonderful mentor texts. 

Here are some books that I suggest teachers use as discussion starters for thinking about goals for the year.

• Giraffes Can’t Dance by Giles Andreae and Guy Parker Rees

• The Little Engine That Could by Watty Piper

• After the Fall by Dan Santat

• Ruby’s Wish by Shirin Yim Bridges and Sophie Blackall

• Whistle for Willie by Ezra Jack Keats

• Someday by Eileen Spinelli and Rosie Winsted

• Rosie Revere Engineer by Andrea Beaty and David Roberts

• Thanks for the Feedback by Julia Cook and Kelsey De Weerd

• Because  by Mo Willems & Amber Ren

• Amazing Grace by Mary Hoffman & Caroline Binch

• Salt in His Shoes by Deloris Jackson and Kadir Nelson

• The Oldest Student by Rita Lorraine Hubbard and Oge Mora

• My Strong Mind III I Set Goals and Work Hard to Deliver Them by Niels Van Hove