Reach for the Stars

A journey in self-discovery and goal setting for success.

A WebQuest for High School Students

This WebQuest was designed by Tina Hohlfeld to assist high school students experience more academic success by focusing on their dreams, understanding their individual strengths and limitations, setting academic goals, and creating individualized action plans.

INTRODUCTION

Successful athletes, entrepreneurs, politicians, scientists, and students use goals to attain their dreams. These goals are broken down into attainable short-term goals with specific action plans. People motivated to succeed maintain their focus and commitment to their goals by keeping their goals visible.

TASK

Students will write an action plan for their goals for each subject for next quarter and create a motivational personal goal poster.

PROCESS

Step 1: Discover who you are. E-mail a copy of your journals to your teacher. This is your backup copy.
Mrs. Hohlfeld

Take the Keirsey Temperament Sorter on-line test.  Open Journal 1 and save Your Temperament page to your disk for future use. Do you agree or disagree with the results of your Temperament test? E-mail a copy of Journal 1 to your teacher. Mrs. Hohlfeld

Next read about what the letters mean to help you determine your Sub Variant. What are your four letters and your Sub Variant? Share your findings with someone who knows you well.  Give examples from your life experiences of how you fit each letter of your Sub Variant. Discuss how you interact with friends, parents, teachers, and other students. Add this information to Journal 2.

UNDERSTANDING YOUR RESULTS
What Do Those Letters Represent...?
What the Letters Mean
The Sixteen Roles of Temperament
What is Temperament
Careers by Temperament

Identify your dreams. What do you value? What is most important to you? What do you want to be known for when you are 50 years old? What will you be doing 20 years from now? 5 years from now? Add information to Journal 2

Identify your personal attributes. What are your strengths and talents? What do you really enjoy doing? What are your limitations? What is very difficult for you? What do you always seem to try to avoid? Record this information in Journal 2. E-mail a copy to your teacher. Mrs. Hohlfeld

Step 2: Record your report card grades in the Transcript Spreadsheet to determine your current grade point average is. What grade point average do you need to attain your goals? With the credits you have left to take what average do you need to maintain next report period? Choose reasonable grade goals for next quarter for each subject. Fill in the Column 1, 2, 3, and 4 on the Setting Goals Form. Attach a copy of both your completed Transcript Calculator and your Setting Goals Form to the e-mail for your teacher. Mrs. Hohlfeld

Step 3: Determine your learning style? Take the on-line Learning Style Inventories.  Open Journal 3 and save the results of your Learning Styles Questionnaire and VARK Inventory to your disk for future use.  Follow the links on your results page. Reflect in your Journal 3 how your personal learning style is enhanced by your strengths. Give examples of your learning methods for a time that you were successful. Add this information to Journal 3. E-mail a copy to your teacher. Mrs. Hohlfeld

LEARNING STYLE INVENTORIES
Index of Learning Styles Questionnaire
VARK Inventory

UNDERSTANDING YOUR RESULTS
Learning Styles And Strategies
How to Understand and Use the VARK Results

Step 4: Create an action plan with study strategies to attain these goals. Your action plan will include specific tasks performed for specific durations on a specific timetable. Study harder is not a specific action plan. Read my notes out-loud one time every school night is a specific action plan. Use your specific Learning Style preferences to choose strategies that will work for you. Complete the Setting Goals Form. Attach a copy of your completed Setting Goals Form to the e-mail for your teacher. Mrs. Hohlfeld

WRITING GOALS
http://www.coun.uvic.ca/learn/program/hndouts/goals.html
http://webnz.com/checkers/GoalSetting.html

STUDY STRATEGIES
http://muskingum.edu/~cal/database/genpurpose.html
http://www.iss.stthomas.edu/studyguides/
http://www.ucc.vt.edu/stdysk/stdyhlp.html

ASSESSMENT
Goals Rubric

Step 5: Create a motivational poster. Use PhotoShop, Canvas, or another graphics program to create a digital poster. Include your goal, a picture that is meaningful to you, and an inspirational quotation. Use landscape format because this poster will be both printed and saved for computer display. Display your poster at home and use it as your screen saver.

IMAGES
Lycos Advanced Search
AP Photo Archive
MSDN Online Design Multimedia Gallery
The Clip Art Gallery

QUOTATIONS
Bartlett’s Familiar Quotations
Quoteland.com – The Internet’s premier Quotations resource

MUSIC
Classical MIDI Archives © 2000 Classical Archives, LLC

ART
CGFA- A Virtual Art Museum
Mark Harden’s Artchive
Web Gallery of Art
Artcyclopedia

ASSESSMENT
Poster Rubric

RESOURCES

Setting Goals Links

SELF-KNOWLEDGE
Keirsey Temperament Sorter
What Do Those Letters Represent...?
What the Letters Mean
The Sixteen Roles of Temperament
What is Temperament
The Four Temperaments
Careers by Temperament
VARK Inventory
Index of Learning Styles Questionnaire
How to Understand and Use the VARK Results
Learning Styles And Strategies

WRITING GOALS
http://www.coun.uvic.ca/learn/program/hndouts/goals.html
http://webnz.com/checkers/GoalSetting.html

STUDY STRATEGIES
http://muskingum.edu/~cal/database/genpurpose.html
http://www.iss.stthomas.edu/studyguides/
http://www.ucc.vt.edu/stdysk/stdyhlp.html

Digital Poster Links

SEARCHES AND ARCHIVES
Lycos Advanced Search
AP Photo Archive
MSDN Online Design Multimedia Gallery
The Clip Art Gallery
Bartlett’s Familiar Quotations
Quoteland.com – The Internet’s premier Quotations resource
Classical MIDI Archives © 2000 Classical Archives, LLC
CGFA - A Virtual Art Museum
Mark Harden’s Artchive
Web Gallery of Art
Artcyclopedia

Work Sheets

JOURNALS
Journal 1
Journal 2
Journal 3

INFORMATION ORGANIZERS
Transcript Calculator
Setting Goals Form

RUBRICS
Goals Rubric
Poster Rubric
Self-ssessment Rubric

EVALUATION

Please complete the Self-ssessment Rubric about the following criteria:

• Did the on-line Keirsey Temperament Sorter test accurately depict your temperament type?
• Did the on-line Learning Styles Questionnaire accurately depict your learning style preference?
• Did the on-line VARK Inventory accurately depict your learning style preference?
• Do you know your strengths and limitations?
• Do you know your most effective study strategies?
• Do you have a long range goal?
• Did you create an academic action plan for the next quarter?
• Did you choose attainable goals that you will attain?
• Did you choose study strategies that utilize your learning style?
• Will you use your action plan?
• Did you make an inspirational digital poster?
• Will you display your poster?
• Did you improve your technology skills?

CONCLUSION

You have learned about your personal strengths, limitations, personal learning style, and goals. You have created an action plan for attaining your goals for the next quarter, and you have created a motivating digital poster to help you maintain your focus commitment to these goals. These skills will help you achieve your dreams.

SUPPORTING LINKS for Teachers and Parents

The WebQuest Page
Technology Standards at WSD
Guidance Standards at WSD

Comments, Questions or Suggestions please e-mail:

thohlfeld@wsd.k12.pa.us