Students can practice the interpersonal skills required to work effectively with different individuals as they achieve essential learning outcomes. Teach goal setting and encourage students to set their own realistic goals. These short-term goals are easily met, yet are stepping stones to larger achievements. Keep it visual. Teach students to monitor and graph their progress toward the goals that they select.
Simple graphs provide excellent visual displays and documentation of student progress.
As an added benefit, these graphs are good learning activities in themselves. Create a schemata. Take time to explore students' prior knowledge before teaching a new concept or skill. Become an expert in creating bridges from students' past experience to new learning. Emphasize ways that new content relates to students' prior knowledge as well as to content that you have presented in class.