The first resource in Goals and Progress section of each student's Reader's Notebook is the "My Reading Goals" sheet. At the beginning of each month, my students set goals for themselves as readers. Of course I do quite a bit of modeling prior to asking students to set their own goals. I encourage students to set a goal in at least three of the categories listed below. I added sample goals in each category.

Word Attack & Fluency Goals 

• Use more expression when I read.
• Use the strategy ______________ to decode unfamiliar words.
• Pay more attention to punctuation when I read (periods, quotation marks, commas, etc.).
• Read a minimum of ___ pages each day. Genre Goals
• Read a book from the ________ genre this month.
• Read ___ books in the ___________ genre this month.
• Try reading a book from the __________ series this month because I haven’t tried this series before.
• Read ____ chapter books this month.
• Become an expert on _________ by reading books about this topic.

Thinking Goals

• Stop after every chapter and think about what I am reading.
• Use Post-it notes as stop signs to make myself “stop and think.”
• Reread when something doesn’t make sense.

Reading Behavior Goals

• Remember to record every book I read.
• Read without distracting others.
• Read only books that are just right for me.
• Always do the IDR task that is assigned.