Lesson Plan

Lesson Plan for Goal Setting (Future You)

School Counselor: Robert Daniel

Target Audience: 6th-8th grade
Mindsets & Behaviors: M 4. Understanding that postsecondary education and life-long learning
(limit of three) are necessary for long-term career success
B-LS 7. Identify long- and short-term academic, career and social/
emotional goals
B-LS 9. Gather evidence and consider multiple perspectives to make
informed decisions
Lesson 1 Of 1

Learning Objective(s)/Competency
Students will: Students will be able to map how they are spending their time
Students will: Students will create strategies/goals for how to improve by adjusting their
schedules
Materials:
Gestalt Figure-Ground image Future You PowerPoint, paper Plates (For each student),
Sticky Notes

Evidence Base:
 Best Practice
 Action Research
 Research-Informed
 Evidence-Based
Procedure: Describe how you will:
Introduce: Display Figure Ground Gestalt image to demonstrate and then explain
how certain parts of our perception can be overshadowed by others
Communicate Display the lesson objectives on the PowerPoint slides, and have one
Lesson Objective: student volunteer read them out loud. Have a second student volunteer
re-state the objectives in their own words.
Teach Content: Pass out paper plates and sticky notes. Run through PowerPoint, guiding
students to first select a longer-term goal and then to obscure their
background (goal) with various figures (Tasks)
Practice Content: Re-Plan: Once students have run through the PowerPoint once, have
them evaluate their goals and which of their sticky notes (Tasks) are
helping them get there or getting in the way.
Students should empty their plates of as many non-essential tasks as
they are comfortable with, so they can more clearly see the things that
are helping them get to their goals, and the things that are not helping
them get there.
Summarize: Discuss with students some of the things that they felt will help them get
to their goal and some of the things that get in the way.
Close: Discuss how we can still do the things that get in the way, as long as we
are aware of how much time and energy they take up. Awareness is key
to not getting lost in the distractions.
Data Collection Plan – For multiple lessons in a unit, this section only need be completed once
Participation Data:
Anticipated number This lesson is intended for a full classroom of Approximately 30 students.
of students: It has also been successfully used in a small group of 6 students.
Planned length of ~25 minutes
lesson(s):
Mindsets & Behaviors Data:
▪ Pre-test administered before first lesson
▪ Post-test administered after lesson (if standalone) or after last lesson of unit/group
session
▪ Pre-/post-assessment attached
▪ Knowledge: I am in control of how I spend my time (Yes or no)
▪ Skill: What would you say to a friend who asks you go see a movie on the night before a
big test? (Short answer)
▪ Attitude: I believe that setting clear goals and is important to my success (1-4 scale)
Outcome Data: (choose one)
 Achievement (describe): This lesson is about goal setting and increasing awareness about
what helps or hinders goal achievement. Therefore, it would be instructive to collect
academic data (grades, teacher anecdotes, etc) before administering this lesson, and
observe the changes in data a few weeks after the lesson. It could be equally instructive,
however, to gather discipline data in a similar manner for this lesson, if administering in a
small group behavior intervention setting, as has been done with positive effect.