G-POWER Goal Setting
A variation of the Hope Map intervention was used by Pedrotti and colleagues (2000) as part of the Making Hope Happen program for children and adolescents, called “G-POWER.” G-POWER is an acronym that will help students develop, plan and accomplish goals. G stands for Goals, followed by Pathways, Obstacles, Willpower, Evaluate the process, and Rethink and try again (Pedrotti et al., 2008,p.103 ). As students use this process in goal-setting, they will be more capable at achieving their goals and will experience increased hope in their ability to achieve said goals (Lopez et al., 2004).
Grade Level: | Upper elementary- 12th |
Materials: | Paper, writing utensil, short story about goal setting |
Duration: | One class session, repeat as desired. |
Implementation: |
1. Begin by introducing each aspect of the G-POWER acronym to your students. 2. Share with them a short story of a character who sets and accomplishes a goal. 3. As students read the story, have them consider and discuss the following questions:
4. Once students have a better understanding of the G-POWER process, instruct them to write down their own goal plan using each letter and assist them with each step. 5. Follow up with your students to evaluate their plan and encourage the formation of new G-POWER goals as each goal is accomplished. |
Does it work?
The G-POWER intervention was implemented by Pedrotti and colleagues in seventh grade classrooms, as part of the Making Hope Happen (MHH) program(Lopez et al., 2004). The MHH program involved five, weekly, 45-minute sessions with small groups of about eight to twelve students, led by a graduate research assistant. The G-POWER intervention was the focus of one of these sessions. Baseline hope measures were taken of both the program participants and control group prior to the start of the program using the Child’s Hope Scale (CHS) (Lopez et al., 2004). At the completion of the program, CHS measures were taken again of all students in the program and control groups. It was discovered that students who had participated in the MHH program reported significant increases in hope following the intervention as compared to the control group. These higher levels of hope were maintained for up to at least six weeks following the intervention(Lopez et al., 2004).
References:
Lopez, S. J., Snyder, C. R., Magyar-Moe, J. L., Edwards, L. M., Pedrotti, J. T., Janowski, K., Turner, J. L., & Pressgrove, C. (2004). Strategies for accentuating hope. In P. A. Linley & S. Joseph (Eds.), Positive psychology in practice (pp. 388–404). John Wiley & Sons, Inc..
Pedrotti, J. T., Lopez, S. J., & Krieshok, T. S. (2000). Making Hope Happen: A program for fostering strengths in adolescents. Unpublished master’s thesis, University of Kansas, Lawrence
Pedrotti, J.T., Edwards, L. & Lopez, S.J. (2008). Promoting hope: Suggestions for school counselors. Professional School Counseling, 12(2), 100-107. https://edtechbooks.org/-SfGf

CC BY-NC: This work is released under a CC BY-NC license, which means that you are free to do with it as you please as long as you (1) properly attribute it and (2) do not use it for commercial gain.
End-of-Chapter Survey
: How would you rate the overall quality of this chapter?- Very Low Quality
- Low Quality
- Moderate Quality
- High Quality
- Very High Quality