Goals and the Five-Step Decision Model

Standards

Enduring understanding and essential question

Big idea: A goal without steps is a wish with a date on it. A decision without a method is a coin flip. The goal ladder turns a long-term goal into the next thing you do this week, and the five-step decision model turns a hard choice into something you can explain to another person.
Essential question: When you face a real choice, what do you actually do, and could you teach it to someone else?

Objectives

By the end of this lesson, students will be able to:

1. (Low) Given a long-term goal, distinguish it from a short-term goal, and list the five steps of the decision model (name the choice, list options, weigh each against what matters, decide, look back) in order.
2. (Mid) Construct a goal ladder for one SMART goal from Lesson 2.4: three to five steps in order, a first step dated within one week, one likely obstacle, and one person who helps.
3. (High) Apply the five-step decision model to a real choice (from six scenario cards or their own) by completing the decision grid, and defend the decision in two sentences that name which value or goal decided it.

Vocabulary

Tier 2 (general academic): option, obstacle, weigh, consequence
Tier 3 (FACS): short-term goal, long-term goal, goal ladder, decision model, decision grid, look back (the fifth step). See the unit vocabulary list for Turkish, Portuguese, and Spanish.

Materials and setup

• Handout 02.05 - Goal Ladder and Decision Grid.md, one per student: the ladder (page 1), the six scenario cards and the decision grid (page 2), the Goal Plan cover and mini rubric (page 3)
• Students' Lesson 2.4 SMART Goal Builder and Lesson 2.1 sort sheet, from the FACS folder
• Slides: Slides 02.05 - Goals and the Five-Step Decision Model (Day 1 and Day 2 labeled)
• The five-step decision model poster from Unit 0, on the wall [Sal: if the Unit 0 poster is not up, print slide 12 as a page and tape it up before Day 2]
• Timer visible to the class
• Setup notes: Day 1 needs the "needs more" pile from Lesson 2.4 (goals without a number or date) so those students get five minutes to fix the goal before they build a ladder on it. Day 2 needs nothing beyond the handout. Both days are paper only.

Pre-assessment

Lesson 2.4's exit cards. A student whose school goal already has a number and a date builds the ladder on it without help. A student in the "needs more" pile fixes the goal first (Day 1, Step 1). On Day 2, the do now shows whether students remember the five steps from Unit 0; expect most to get three of five.

Do now and hook (Time: Day 1, 4 min; Day 2, 4 min)

Day 1, on the board: "Write one thing you want that will take more than a year to get. Then write one thing you want that you could have by Friday. Two lines." Debrief: cold call four. Label the first column "long-term" and the second "short-term." Then the hook: "Nobody gets the long-term one without a lot of short-term ones stacked up. Today you stack them."

Day 2, on the board: "Write the five steps of the decision model from Unit 0, in order, without looking at the wall." Debrief: count who got all five. Reveal slide 12. Then the hook: "Today you use all five on a choice you are actually facing. Not a made-up one. A real one, unless you want a card."

Procedure

Questions to ask

Monitor understanding:

• Is "get better at free throws" a rung or a result? What would the rung be?
• Your first step is dated three months out. What could you do this week instead?
• In your grid, "fun" got a plus for every option. Does it help you decide, then? What would?

Deepen learning:

• Two people with the same goal build different ladders. What changes the rungs: the goal or the person?
• The look-back step is the one most people skip. Why? What happens to a decision nobody looks back at?
• You weighed the choice against your values and the answer is the option you did not want. Now what?

Check for understanding

Day 1: clipboard walk during Step 2, yes or no on "every rung is an action" and "bottom rung dated within a week." A "got it" rung reads "ask the coach when open gym is, Tuesday," not "get more serious." Day 2: clipboard walk during Step 2, yes or no on "three options" and "the what-matters rows come from the sort sheet or the ladder." A grid whose rows are "cost, fun, cool" without a value or goal from the student's own sheets gets the question, "Where did these come from?"

Closure (Time: Day 1, 0 min beyond Step 4's exit line; Day 2, 4 min)

Day 1: the exit line at the bottom of page 1, taken inside Step 4: "My first step is ___ and I will do it on ___ (day). The person who helps is ___." Two students read theirs. Page 1 stays in the FACS folder for tomorrow.

Day 2: after the Goal Plan is turned in, a one-line index card: "The step of the decision model I will most likely skip in real life is ___ because ___." Three students read theirs. Not scored; the answers open Lesson 2.6, where the weekly plan makes the first rung of the ladder a scheduled hour.

Differentiation and supports

• ELL: the five steps are on the wall poster with a picture each (a question mark, a list, a scale, a check mark, a mirror) and printed on page 2 with the Turkish, Portuguese, and Spanish words for goal, step, option, decide; the ladder is a drawing, and rungs may be written in the home language with an English verb; the grid uses plus and minus signs, not sentences, in the cells; sentence frames for the two-sentence defense are printed ("I decided to ___ because ___ matters more to me than ___"). Pair with a bilingual peer for the Day 1 partner turn.
• IEP and 504 (general): the ladder may have three rungs instead of five; the grid may use two options and two rows; steps and decisions may be dictated; printed steps; extended time by taking the Goal Plan assembly (Day 2, Step 3) into the first ten minutes of Lesson 2.6; a student who does not want to share a real choice always has the six cards; fidgets allowed.
• Grade 6 support: the ladder has three rungs and one obstacle (no helper line required, though it is encouraged); the grid uses two options and two what-matters rows, and the scenario is chosen from the cards, not the student's own.
• Grade 8 stretch: build a second, shorter ladder for the other SMART goal from Lesson 2.4 (the one not used on page 1); in the grid, add a fourth option nobody at the table thought of, and add a row for "what it costs in money or time" (this previews the budget in Topic 2.3); the look-back plan names a date and a number ("on June 1, do I have $120").
• UDL checkpoint used: multiple means of engagement (the goal and the choice are the student's own, with a card as a safe alternative); multiple means of representation (the ladder is a picture, the model is a list, the grid is a table).
• No-kitchen or no-machine alternative: not needed; no equipment is used.

Assessment

This lesson is the Topic 2.2 formal check. The product is the Goal Plan: one SMART goal with a ladder (page 1) and a decision grid on a real choice (page 2), with the cover and self-score on page 3. It is assembled in the last 10 minutes of Day 2 (Step 3) and scored by the teacher after class on the three-criterion rubric printed on page 3 of Handout 02.05 - Goal Ladder and Decision Grid.md (SMART, Ladder, Decision grid; 12 points). The check goes in the grade book under "Quizzes and topic checks." The first rung of the ladder is scheduled in Lesson 2.6, which is the "implement" in IGLR 2. d); the look-back is revisited at the end of the unit (see Teacher notes).

Homework

None. Optional: do the first rung of your ladder before Lesson 2.6 and be ready to say so in one sentence.

Connections

Inside the building: the school counselor, whose grade 8 planning conference uses a short-term and long-term goal pair; the health teacher, if the health class teaches a decision model (agree on one wording so students hear the same five steps in both rooms). [Sal: check the health teacher's decision model before Day 2; if it has six steps, say so and map them.] Community: none this lesson.

Sources

• NYS Middle Level CTE FACS Content Module 01, Individual Growth and Life Readiness (nyctecenter.org, June 2018), lines 2. c) and 2. d). Copy in 02 Standards/NYS Module PDFs/.
• NYS Middle Level CTE Theme Module, Problem Solving and Innovation, line 1. e); Career and Community Opportunities, line 4. d). Same folder.
• NYS Learning Standards for Health, Physical Education, and Family and Consumer Sciences (1996), Standard 3, Intermediate, FACS strand. Wording per 02 Standards/STANDARDS SOURCES - web research.md, section 2. [Sal: confirm against the NYSED PDF.]
• NYS CDOS Standard 3a, Intermediate, Thinking Skills. Same file.
• National Standards for Family and Consumer Sciences Education 3.0 (LEAD FCS Education, 2018), competencies 2.1.1 and 2.1.2.
• The five-step decision model (name the choice, list options, weigh each against what matters, decide, look back) is this course's own wording, introduced in Unit 0 and used in every unit.
• Sal's own materials: the airplane-crash decision-making simulation described in 01 Source Analysis/Brentwood Work and Simulations.md is the origin of the "weigh each against what matters" step as students already know it from Unit 0; the Your Mission Statement packet's Activity 2 ("my action, how it shows my mission, when I'll do it") supplied the dated-step habit on the ladder.

Teacher notes

• If Day 1 runs short, cut the partner turn in Step 3 and keep the obstacle and helper. Never cut the dated first rung; without it the ladder is a list of wishes.
• If Day 2 runs short, the self-score on page 3 becomes homework and the teacher scores from pages 1 and 2. Never cut the 10-minute assembly window; the check needs its slot.
• Common mistake on the ladder: rungs that are results ("get better," "be more focused"). The test is "could someone watch you do it?" If not, it is not a rung.
• Common mistake on the grid: every row gets a plus for the option the student already wanted. Say once: "If the grid agrees with you on everything, you filled it in backwards." Then ask them to find one honest minus.
• The six scenario cards are safe choices for students who will not bring a real one. About a third of the class will use a card; that is fine and still meets the rubric.
• The look-back step needs a real date. Put a note in your own calendar for four weeks after Day 2: hand the Goal Plans back for five minutes at the start of a Topic 2.4 lesson and have students write one line on the cover: "Did I do the first rung? Did the decision hold?" That is the "evaluate" in IGLR 2. d), and it is the part most goal lessons skip. [Sal: pick the day; Lesson 2.15 or 2.16 has room.]
• Keep the Goal Plans in the FACS folder after scoring. Lesson 2.6 schedules the first rung; Topic 2.3 uses the money goals for the budget; Unit 7 revisits the career stretch goals.