Google Forms for Student Goals

We've been trying something new of late, regarding a more efficient system for encouraging and collecting student goals. Instead of collecting these slowly on paper, we've been sending students to an online link to fill out a Google Form.


These goal-setting forms guide students through possible strategies for improving their reading or writing, based on the feedback that they have been receiving from their teachers. The students' results are gathered into a Google Spreadsheet that can then be shared among teachers, administration, and the students themselves.

There have been concerns raised that predetermined responses could inhibit students' goal-setting, or reduce the amount of thinking that goes into the selection of required strategies. However, so far, the students seem to have chosen carefully, and this has been a great introduction into a goal-setting system that we can continue to refine.

Google and Goals

At the beginning of the school year, each staff member developed SMART goals for four areas - intervention, extension, professional development, and communication - and these goals were recorded on Google Docs and then linked to a Google Spreadsheet.

Even though this seemed a cumbersome procedure at the time, the shared digital records are really paying off now. When we conduct our midyear reviews of these SMART goals, we can now use another Google Doc as a teacher reflection sheet, and a Google Form to capture the reviewer's feedback during the 1-1 meeting.

In addition, to help explain the review process, it was easy to create a Google Presentation with appropriate links for those who are shared in on these documents.

Instead of shuffling paper forms back and forth, the system has become quite streamlined, but more importantly the meetings have been great for both teachers and reviewers.

Think about your systems!

(Links to docs have been removed)