journal 61 setting goals

I've noticed that in my meetings at the end of the Dailies that my students always say something they're going to work on the next time but then we never really go back to that because we move directly into Math time.  I had also noticed that a few students looked as though they would start in their Daily on task and doing it well and then about 25 minutes into it they would become unfocused.  I thought about what I could do to maybe improve this and I thought that before going into the Daily of the day we could think about a goal for the Daily they are going to that day.  Then at our meeting we would talk about if they met that goal or not.  Wow has this worked wonders!  They were so focused today!  I did keep an eye on the little guy that was off task yesterday and he seemed off task today too so I'm going to have to have a conference with him.  Other than him, they really worked hard to complete their goals.  Some of the goals included:
"I want to read 2 chapters."
"I want to listen to an entire book in listening to reading."
"I want to write a whole page to you in work on writing about reading."
"I want to read a whole book with my partner." 
"I want to stay in the same spot the entire time and not think about anything but reading."

They did work to complete these goals I could see them.  I had one little guy even come up to me and he looked so excited that even though I was working with another student I let him talk to me.  He said "I met my goal and even more!  I wanted to read 4 chapters and I read 6 and finished a book!"  He was beaming from ear to ear.  It was a great sight.  I think the goals helped with making them more independent.  I wonder if I did this with them earlier in the year if it would have had the same effect?  I wonder...

Also today I brought in the Level S books for my highest kids.  Wow they were so excited.  One kid even thanked me for bringing him harder books!  I did have to warn them about some of the content.  I explained that not all authors think a third grader can read a fourth or fifth grade level book so sometimes things are a little bit more mature!  They seemed to understand what I was saying and were excited!  Yay!