Multiple Goals For Student Success

Keeping students focused, on task, and exceeding expectations.

Teaching can feel like juggling, with flaming torches. You’re managing materials, personalities, wildly different skill levels, and that inevitable moment when a student asks, “Am I done yet?” while others are just getting started. Over the years, I’ve learned that the problem isn’t motivation, it’s what happens when students reach a single finish line. One simple shift in how I structure goals has saved my sanity and kept students meaningfully engaged from start to finish.
 
I have addressed in previous posts (click bold words for links) on how:

• I plan my year
• Scaffold Art Lessons
• Dealing with “Am I Done Yet?”
• Meeting Project Expectations

 
Instead of setting a single clear goal for students to meet, my advice is to set multiple goals for every art exploration. This way when some meet your main goal, there is another they can aim for, and another, and another to keep them all on task and pushing their own abilities.
 
Students, in general, enjoy art class, but often their goal is to earn an “A.” I recognize that and for every project I outline 3 things they can do to earn 90% of an “A.”  Then I have them note 3 additional things they can do to exceed expectations and get closer to 100%. I tell them, “Everyone can earn an “A,” but to earn 100% takes additional focus and work.” I address this more HERE.
 
Every assignment I do now incorporates this idea of “What can students do to improve the quality of their work AND STAY ON TASK meaningfully?” No one likes busy work. “Just make another one” is sort of the lazy way out. Telling them to do a “free project” often leads to wasted materials. But if I have a concrete technique they can employ to improve their work, that will engage them and perhaps challenge their artistic growth.
 
These are my common “exceed expectations” goals.

• Use color Triads, Complements, Analogous colors…
• Complicated/detailed pattern
• Varied widths of line
• Detailed crosshatching or stippling in shadows
• Unexpected media use
• Using researched techniques I did not teach you
• A miniature version of the same project
• Incorporate sophisticated textures thoughtfully
• Increase the sense of depth in 2D work
• Use rich cool colors in your shadows
• Use rich warm colors in your highlights
• Incorporate gradients
• Experiment with an unexpected media within your work

 
How about an example? 

This is from my color wheel project. Students have to hand-mix colors to create a symbolic color wheel, plus add a tint or shade to the composition. They outline with paint pens, and meet expectations.

Meet Expectations (Earn 90%)
1. Overlap shapes and incorporate personal symbols
2. Give every shape/space a unique, hand-mixed color
3. Incorporate tints or shades

Exceed Expectations (Move closer to 100%)
1. Layer colors to include gradients within shapes
2. Add patterns within patterns
3. Incorporate both tints and shades

Meeting expectations means that students have covered the main theme of the lesson. (learning to hand mix colors). I design my lesson in a way that meeting expectations is fairly easy if they stay on task. (More about that HERE)

About 75% of my students will be able to move on to at least one of the "exceed expectations" techniques. This means they will stay on task and enhance their work.

A few will do all the techniques and earn 100% based on my rubric. All students, regardless of their ability level, will pass. Most earn 90% or above on projects, assuming they have been fully participating. 

Here's another example of my "Parody Products" lesson.

Meet Expectations (Earn 90%)
1. Front and back hangtag label (based on our exemplars)
2. Dynamic bold name in block letters (not stick letters)
3. Dynamic illustration

Exceed Expectations (Move closer to 100%)
1. Layer colors to include gradients within shapes
2. Incorporate the illusion of space/depth
3. Add shading and/or highlighting

Each example took the students the same amount of time. Though the first is simple, the student did layer colors. The others had a knack for art and progressed quickly. They looked to the "exceeds expectations" list to enhance their work with 3D block letters, layers of color, gradients, and even some shading. All achieved success, and all were meaningfully occupied.​

Designing assignments with multiple goals shifts the classroom from a race to “finish” into a studio where growth continues as long as time allows. Clear expectations give students confidence, while intentional extensions give them purpose beyond compliance.

Instead of asking, “Am I done yet?” students begin asking, “What can I improve?” That small shift keeps students engaged, differentiates naturally, and respects both their abilities and your materials.

​When the goal isn’t just completion, but continual refinement, everyone stays on task, learning deepens, and the work gets better.

THIS is my Project Progress Document. I copy it back-to-back and use it for all assignments now. 

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