Learning Goals Need To Be Everywhere!

Between the books I've been reading and the webinars I'm attending, one thing has come through loud and clear.  It is important to do more than just post learning goals on the board.  It is important to do more than just have students write them down in their notebooks.  

As we all know, learning goals are the ideas or concepts we want our students to learn in each section.  We usually phrase them as something like "Students will be able to" followed by the goal.  We might also include success criteria for each goal so students can determine if they've learned the material and reached the goal.

When I went to college to become a teacher, we included learning goals in our lesson plans but nowhere else.  Many years later, I was instructed to write the goals on the boards as "I can" statements for students but that was about it.  Then I read a teacher needs to create success criteria so the students can determine if they mastered the material. Recently, I learned it is important to revisit the goals on a regular basis.

Furthermore, one should highlight learning goals on a regular basis such as listing the part of the learning goal being covered by the current lesson, or at the end of the direct instruction, or as part of the introduction to an activity or as part of the homework.  For homework, identify the learning goal associated with each problem.

If you use choice boards, it is important to list both the learning goals and success criteria at the top and identify which activity is associated with each goal so students are aware that every choice is going to help students meet the learning goal. 

You may be wondering why one should emphasize the use of learning targets throughout a lesson.  The idea is for students to use the learning goal as a guide to help with understanding the lesson itself.  The learning target identifies the important ideas within a topic and students won't know what they are unless they are told.  When students are reminded of the learning goals throughout the unit or section, they know where they are headed in their learning.

In addition, learning goals guide students and allow them the opportunity to see where they started and help them gauge how far they've moved towards the goal.  It allows them to determine if they've met the goal, and it helps them take ownership of their learning.  The constant reminders also help students answer the question "What are you studying" or "What are you learning". 

So overall, learning goals provide goals for students and by revisiting them on a regular basis, students can see how well they are meeting the goals and learning the material.  Since learning goals establish a purpose for the lesson, it helps prime students to learn new material and increase their learning because the goals provide a set of expectations.

Now, I'm working on reminding students of the goals by asking students to read the statements and comment on how they related to what they learned the day before, or have them connect the goals with what they already learned in an earlier section, or I ask them what they can tell me about the material we covered so far in regard to the goals.  I just have to start connecting the goals with the activities.  I am learning.  Let me know what you think, I'd love to hear.  Have a great day.

Learning Goals

I've just moved to a new school district. The evaluation tool is a different one from the ones I've used before so I'm having to learn a whole new system.   Using learning goals is one I'm getting evaluated on this year.  This is an interesting one because as I understand it, this one in the evaluation refers to what the student is supposed to learn in the section or chapter and how well they are progressing towards it.

Usually, I just post the objectives in the form of "I can" statements but I've never taken the time to discuss them with my students.  I'd write them up, students would copy them down but we didn't do anything with them, so now I need to.

It has been stated that teacher clarity is extremely important.  One part of teacher clarity is communicating what will be learned and how a student knows they've learned it. In other words, a learning goal is the mathematical concept they are learning and to name the way they will show they learned it. So there are three suggestions for improving the implementation of learning goals.

First, one should create learning goals or learning intentions complete with a balanced set of both procedural and higher level thinking skills for rating success.  One should consider whether the learning intention focuses on the most important concepts in the lesson or are they referring to activities or tasks the students will complete.  At least one of the success criteria should include an element which allows the student to explain how to do something or actually do it.  Another element of the success criteria should allow students to justify, model or explain at a higher level.

Based on this, there should be the learning goal focused on the most important concept in the lesson and at least two ways the student can show how they know they've learned it.  The learning goal might be "I can solve one step equations."  The two ways to show they've learned it is by showing they can solve the problems and then show someone else how to do it.

Second, create and use routines that help focus students on the success criteria as they go through the lesson.  One of the routines a teacher can use is "Take Stock".  This is where the teacher might ask what they have done so far, ask a student to describe what the success criteria means in their own words. and asking how what they've done connects to the criteria.  Another possible routine is to create an anchor chart with three statements on knowing they are track because.........., they haven't met the learning goal yet because........., and what do they still need to do to reach the goal.

Finally, use responses to determine the next step.  For instance, if students are almost there, you might provide whole group feed back to help them the last bit of the way. If there is a bit of a gap between where the students are and the learning goal, you might want to provide further instruction.  If you get responses that don't tell you enough, you might want to gather additional evidence before making a decision, and if students are on track, move on.

Part of this has shown me that I need to work on setting better learning goals because I have not supplied the second part or how they know they've met the goal.  Since I have to create a professional learning goal, I think I'm going to make learning goals and success criteria as my goal for this year.  I want to learn to write them better.

Let me know what you think, I'd love to hear.  Have a great day.