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Day 3: Advocacy + SMART Goals

Lesson Overview
Time 50 minutes
Objectives Understand advocacy as a form of assertive communication; introduce the H&L Powerskills "Advocacy" module; write a personal SMART goal for career exploration
TEKS d(4)(A), d(4)(B)
Deliverable SMART Goal worksheet (1 personal career exploration goal, all 5 components)
Materials Chromebooks, H&L Powerskills Workbook (pp. 30-32), printed SMART Goal worksheet, projector

Warm-Up (5 min)

WARM-UP: What is the difference between being assertive and being aggressive? Can you be assertive AND respectful?

Take 3-4 responses. Bridge: assertive communication is the middle path between passive (saying nothing) and aggressive (yelling). Today the class explores how advocates use assertive communication to make change.

Activity 1: Advocacy + Self-Advocacy Lens (10 min)

Source: H&L Powerskills Workbook, pp. 30-32, "Advocacy"

Read the workbook intro aloud: "Advocacy is the act of supporting or standing up for someone or something, whether it is a person, a cause, or an idea. In the workplace, advocacy is important because it helps people voice their opinions, make decisions, and improve working conditions for themselves or others."

Project the workbook's two types of advocacy (p. 30):

  • Self-advocacy: Speaking up for your own needs or rights
  • Group advocacy: Working with others to reach a goal and speaking up for group needs

Connect to healthcare: nurses are constant advocates. They advocate for patients (asking the doctor to reconsider a treatment), for colleagues (defending a CNA's workload), and for themselves (negotiating shifts and pay).

Self-advocacy for career explorers. Students will apply self-advocacy to their own career exploration journey in the next activity. Ask: "What does self-advocacy look like for a student who is exploring careers? Who are you 'standing up for' when you set a goal for yourself?" Take 2-3 responses. The bridge to SMART goals: a strong goal is how you advocate for your own future, it names what you want, makes it measurable, and holds you accountable.

Activity 2: SMART Goal Setting Demo (10 min)

Project a SMART goal example on the board:

Vague goal: "I want to explore careers."

SMART goal: "By the end of the 4th Six Weeks (June 1), I will have explored at least 8 career clusters in H&L AND favorited at least 15 careers in my Climber Profile."

Walk through each SMART component:

  • S, Specific: Names exactly what will be done (8 clusters, 15 favorites)
  • M, Measurable: Can be counted (8 and 15 are numbers)
  • A, Achievable: Realistic given the time and tools available (we are halfway through year, 8 clusters is reasonable)
  • R, Relevant: Connects to the bigger goal (career exploration is the year's purpose)
  • T, Time-bound: Has a deadline (June 1)

Show a non-example for contrast:

Not SMART: "I want to be successful." (Vague, no measurement, no deadline.)

Facilitation Tip

The most common SMART goal failure is the deadline. Students write "I will explore careers" with no end date. Push them: "When? By Friday? By June? By college?" The deadline turns a wish into a goal.

Activity 3: Write Your SMART Goal (20 min)

Distribute the SMART Goal worksheet. Each student writes ONE personal goal for their career exploration journey. The worksheet has 5 sections (S, M, A, R, T) plus a final sentence box where the student writes the complete goal as one sentence.

Examples of student goals:

  • "By the end of the 6th Six Weeks (June), I will explore the Health Science cluster fully, complete at least 6 H&L Hat Research templates, and write a 4-year high school plan for the Singley Academy Nursing Science pathway."
  • "By the end of this semester, I will read at least 3 BLS career profiles for emerging tech jobs and add 2 of them to my H&L Climber Profile."

Students share their goals with a partner who checks: Is it Specific? Measurable? Achievable? Relevant? Time-bound? The partner gives one piece of feedback using the feedback sandwich from Day 2.

DOK 4: Design a SMART goal for a student who is interested in healthcare careers but is not sure which pathway to pursue. How would you make the goal specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound?

Exit Ticket (5 min)

EXIT TICKET (Short Constructed Response) · Printable PDF:

  1. Write my SMART career exploration goal in ONE complete sentence:

  1. Circle the SMART component that was HARDEST for me to write: S / M / A / R / T

  2. In ONE sentence, why was that component hardest? (Was the deadline unrealistic? The measurement unclear? The action too big?)

  1. ONE specific action I will take THIS week to move toward my goal:

(d(4)(A))

Differentiation

  • Support: Provide a SMART goal template with each component as a sentence stem: "By [date], I will [action] by [measurement]." Provide 3 example student goals.
  • Extension: Students write THREE SMART goals, one for this six weeks, one for the semester, one for high school. Each must build on the others.
  • ELL: Bilingual SMART goal worksheet. Pre-teach: Goal = Meta, Specific = Específico, Measurable = Medible, Achievable = Alcanzable, Time-bound = Con Plazo. Use a visual SMART acronym poster.