Assessment for Learning
A blog for busy K-16 educators where we share ideas, strategies, and best assessment practices
that move the learning forward.
Cathy Box, PhD
that move the learning forward.
Cathy Box, PhD
It doesn’t matter if you teach college world history or 3rd grade math, it should be perfectly clear to your students what they are expected to learn and be able to do, and what success looks like. It should never be a mystery! For some reason there are still those teachers who just dive right in and expect the students to follow blindly until they get to the end. We've already talked about backwards design and how important it is to start with the end in mind. An effective teacher decides even before starting the unit what the end goal is and what mastery will look like, then that information guides their scaffolding of the lessons. Why not share the learning targets with the students? If you share with your students exactly what the learning targets are and what success looks like, I promise you, they are much more likely to reach that target and do it well. Doesn't it just make sense? If a friend drove up to your house and you hopped in the car, the first thing you'd want to know is "where are we going?" Or here's a sports analogy: A few years ago my daughter was on the cross country team and they had a new coach who was unfamiliar with routes around school. So she had the runners just follow her in her car as she mapped out the two miles for them to run. My daughter's time was terrible at the end and she was NOT HAPPY. She told me later that "it's really hard for me to push myself when I can't even see the finish line…" and that resonated with me and my classroom teaching and assessing. It's much more difficult for students to push themselves if they don’t have any idea where they are going. Bottom line - learning targets and criteria for success should be established early and communicated often. (I recommend Moss and Brookhart's Learning Targets: Helping Students Aim for Understanding in Today's Lesson.) There are MANY ways that that this can be accomplished but I'll share a few practical ways and you can take it from there. Elementary classrooms Before you begin your unit, rewrite your state standard into learning targets with success criteria using kid friendly language. Post them prominently in the room and refer to them before you begin the lesson and most certainly at the end of the lesson. Better yet, provide them with a list before you start the unit and have them self-assess through traffic lighting before and after instruction. Click here to see an example. Here's a third grade math standard in Texas. (10) Personal financial literacy. The student applies mathematical process standards to manage one's financial resources effectively for lifetime financial security. The student is expected to: (A) distinguish between fixed and variable expenses; Seriously, if you write that on the board and expect it to make sense to an 9 year old… Let's write it in language that a 3rd grader can understand. Learning Target We are learning how to manage money so that we can live comfortably for our whole lives. Success criteria: (Particular to A)
Secondary classrooms Just like in elementary, rewrite your state standards into learning targets and success criteria using student friendly language. (It would be really effective if you had your students help you do this.) Provide each student with a handout that has LTs and SC listed and have them self-assess through traffic lighting. Students should keep up with their own progress related to each I Can statement. Here's a high school Biology standard in Texas - (6) Science concepts. The student knows the mechanisms of genetics, including the role of nucleic acids and the principles of Mendelian Genetics. The student is expected to: (F) predict possible outcomes of various genetic combinations such as monohybrid crosses, dihybrid crosses and non-Mendelian inheritance; Learning Target We are learning how Mendelian genetics work, including the role of DNA and RNA in inheritance. Success Criteria: (Particular to F)
College classrooms Many college courses are guided by state or federal requirements for certification purposes. Some courses are not, yet each discipline has overarching goals or objectives that guide their instruction. In my classes, I have taken our state competencies and reworded them into language that is easier to understand then added success criteria. Click here to see the handout I give students in one of my classes at the beginning of the semester. They traffic light each success criteria, and at the end of the semester provide an evidence portfolio that demonstrates progress or mastery of each I Can statement. The students also work in groups to create posters that illustrate each learning target and we post them around them room. I refer to them frequently. Here's a Texas Education Agency competency for pre-service teachers - 003 The teacher understands procedures for designing effective and coherent instruction and assessment based on appropriate learning goals and objectives. Although this is not too difficult to understand, here's what I've written: Learning Target We are learning how to design effective lessons and assessments that make sense and are based on the TEKS. Success Criteria
As the instructor for this course, I know what my students need to be able to do to demonstrate mastery of Competency 003. That information then dictates the learning activities. And as you can guess, my grades are specific to mastery of each objective…but that's for another blog….another day. Just give it a try, friends! You will be amazed at how much better your students perform and how focused and intentional you are about your instruction. It is truly transforming.
140 Comments
Meredith
9/5/2016 07:06:14 am
I absolutely love what your daughter said about being able to see her finish line. Too often we see education as something the students need to "catch" while the teachers throw their fishing pole into the water and see how many latch on. from personal experience, I have always felt like a "pushy" student because I would always ask my teachers to clarify expectations for me. Unfortunately, I have had countless teachers respond to my frequent inquiries, "that if for me to know, and for you to find out." That answer used to infuriate me because I believe students have the right to know exactly what they are learning and what is expected of them. This concept of helping students take ownership of their learning is amazing. I love how it is applicable to ALL areas of learning.
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Meredith
9/5/2016 07:18:23 am
in music?" Students need to understand which skills they are practicing, or else the activity is useless. Music teachers should also be asking themselves, "have I made clear the learning targets for this class period? do my students understand that they should be grasping a new skill today? Do they know which skills they are practicing?"
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Ashley
9/6/2016 04:49:57 pm
The idea of trying to hit a moving target really hits home with me, as an English student and teacher. English, by nature, is a field in which there is one right answer, but there are plenty of wrong answers. For example, there are many was to write an essay. Some teachers want students to ad hear to a formula, while others just want them to write what they feel. Some teachers grade mainly for content, while others focus more on grammar. Some want only strictly formal essays while others are fine with a more relaxed writing style. These many degrees of differences lead to a phenomina which I have named
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Ashley
9/6/2016 04:55:42 pm
"first essay syndrome." The first essay written for English teachers is often extremely difficult and stressful due to lack of clarity of the teachers part when explaining their criteria for the assignment. To combat this "syndrome," it is imperative that a teacher first ask themself: "What learning targets are going to be addressed by this assignment?" Then, they should use these learning targets to create
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Ashley
9/6/2016 04:57:23 pm
aligned criteria. Finally, the teacher should communicate these expectations to their student. Through is process, the students will not have to worry about whether they are writing "right" and focus on writing well.
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Brenda
9/8/2016 04:16:31 pm
I completely agree with you Ashley, students come to us with lack of previous knowledge half the time. As future teachers we should learn from our student teacher experience and start now by introducing targets to the students we have. As of today I have not seen any targets on the board in my class; I cannot wait for our chemistry unit to beginning so that I can introduce this targets to my students and see how they grow in their learning.
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Connie
9/7/2016 08:56:42 am
I am battling the moving target in my classroom. My cooperating teacher writes the learning targets on the board, which is required by the school, but she hasn't once referred to them in class. I am not saying she is right or wrong in her teaching, but it is difficult for me to grasp how to incorporate those targets into my own teaching if I have not seen it modeled in a "real" classroom. At this school, the department agrees on what the learning targets will be and all of the teachers (who teach the same level class) have the same targets on their board (which remain there for an entire 6 weeks) and they are responsible for writing their own success criteria. I find this difficult to do; the targets stay the same and the "I Can" statements change on a daily or weekly basis. I am struggling with writing different success criteria every day while keeping the same learning targets. But, beyond my own struggles as a student teacher, I have definitely noticed how students are just doing work because I, as the teacher, told them to do it. Without reviewing the learning targets and success criteria the students don't understand why they are doing what they are doing or how it applies to the concepts we have been discussing. One of my goals in the next couple of weeks is to reach a point where I am incorporating these things into my lesson. It's just difficult deciding how and where to begin.
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Gina Johnson
9/7/2016 12:33:05 pm
Connie, I am having much the same issue in my classes. My co-operating teacher does not refer to the LT's, Goals or anything else on that board. We have even written a To Do list for the students on another board and it is never acknowledged. We then spend a great deal of time, repeating what we are doing every day in every class. I am struggling to keep everything going forward.
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Brenda
9/7/2016 08:05:59 pm
To many times teachers concentrate in making a lesson fun that they forget about the learning of the students, which can lead into a disaster when they realize that they have to go back and re-teach a lesson because the "fun" activity didn't work. Targets are very important for student learning and growth; no student wants to do a fun activity with no purpose or understanding to it. Targets help the students see the end of the tunnel in a unit and helps them feel accomplish, I believe. Because not only did they learn, but they have made accomplishments and have met struggles along the way to meet does targets. As a student teacher now, I have realized that learning targets are not a priority at the school I was assigned to. Leaving me with a great opportunity to be the first one to teach my students about learning targets and help them grow in their learning!
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Kelsey Hoppel
9/8/2016 08:39:45 am
I think it is a very important thing for students to have "the end in mind." If they do not know where they are going, then how do they even begin to set their plans on how to get there. I believe that there needs to be an ultimate goal and one requirement for a goal is that it needs to be clear. After the fact of setting a clear goal, there needs to be a plan and the steps that plan is going to entail in order to reach that final goal. Throughout the time until the final goal is reached, things will not always go the way that is planned. That is why teachers and students have to work together to redirect or come up with a new step in the right direction. While learning, redirecting, relearning, and closing the gap and all these things are going on, one thing still remains and that is to have clear learning targets and clear ending goals so everyone knows what they are working toward.
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Megan Helm
9/8/2016 05:51:32 pm
I agree that learning targets are so important and should be posted in the classroom. I also believe that referring back to the targets is one of the most important things teachers can do. At the school I am doing my student teaching at they have learning targets that they call EQ. Each student should have a learning target written in a planner that the school requires them to buy. At the beginning of each class no matter the subject the first thing they ask them to do is write the EQ for the day. I have seen teachers do an amazing job at the end of class referencing back to the EQ and some teachers even have the students answer the EQ. When I ask these students about their those classes they have very detailed responses. I have also see students who write the EQ down but the teacher fails to go back over it. When I ask these students about their classes they only remember certain parts of the lesson or nothing at all. The worst part is they were unable to answer the EQ that they had written down in class. I am still new to the teaching world but just from seeing this inside the classroom learning targets are so important for student understanding. The students who write down learning targets at the beginning and go over them at the end of class come away understanding what was being taught.
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Mick
9/8/2016 08:41:46 pm
I agree, I myself have found that in the elementary classroom (not where I intend to be) these targets absolutely must be present in order to successfully portray the goals of the class. Also, it seems that these planners can prove to be helpful in not only the establishing of goals (targets) but also in assuring the students understand such methods and conclusions.
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Mick
9/8/2016 08:34:40 pm
As I find myself in a "foreign land" of some sorts (for me at least), I add that this method of presentation is absolutely crucial in order to convey such instruction. While within the elementary classroom, I believe that to further student's knowledge you must set these targets, especially, at this level. To be entirely honest, I have come to the realization that I am not yet comfortable with explaining fully the main idea of the lesson at-hand at this level. To continue, I agree that the targets to be used at all levels are imperative to student's understanding. Also, I felt that the analogy of the car-ride and knowing the destination resonated perfectly with the lesson as well. Furthermore, I feel that my students should inquire the facets of the learning target(s) that require the lessons and how exactly they may tie to the overarching themes. I feel the consequences are endless in regards to not specifically making the targets clear. I myself have felt that through traditional classroom instruction (through experience) that it is quite insufficient. For this, the realization that I have come to, has been that these targets portrayed are absolutely crucial in understanding and the creation of a cohesively successful classroom.
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Brady
10/5/2016 06:06:56 pm
I was in a science class in high school where the teacher would introduce the new topic with just the title. For example she would say, "we are learning about DNA today" and then she would just start lecturing and then the next day we would have a lab. Of course labs are a great way to see what we just learned applied in a very kinesthetic and visual way. But for me, I never knew what exactly I was supposed to be learning. What about DNA was I supposed to be learning? Am I supposed to memorize certain terms and what exactly was I supposed to be looking for in your lecture to listen intently to and ask questions about so that I completely understand it. Simply giving your lecture a title does not do the students justice to know where the "finish line" is so to speak.
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Dr. Box
10/11/2016 12:57:22 pm
You are right, a title doesn't give us much helpful information. There's an awful lot to DNA and what is significant about it...
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Crystal
10/6/2016 09:06:44 am
I feel like the majority of my K-12 education was spent with me having no idea what I was learning. I may have known what to do or memorized information, but I rarely knew how that information could be applied to situations or how that information was relevant to me. Not knowing what I was supposed to be learning meant I was just going through the motions in class. There are so many important secondary level concepts and ideas that I should know and understand at this point, but I don't. I'm sure knowing "what success looks like" would have encouraged me reach that goal, and I would probably still remember a lot of what I have forgotten or didn't even realize I was learning.
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Dr. Box
10/11/2016 12:54:38 pm
Isn't that a shame? And I know that teachers worked hard and had good intentions, for the most part. I'm glad that we know more about how important it is to be purposeful in our teaching and help students have a clear picture of what we are trying to learn. Hopefully they won't be just going through the motions like you did (:
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Elizabeth
10/7/2016 07:06:01 am
I can clearly remember sitting in my AP statistics class my senior year of high school and having absolutely no idea what my teacher was saying. All I got were a bunch of words and formulas that she had thrown up on the board with a lot of arrows. She had a really bad habit of doing part of the problem in her head and the other half of it on the board while still expecting all of us to keep up. She never prefaced the problem with what we were looking for or what the solution should resemble. She picked a problem, worked it out, and that was supposed to be our homework/ test help. By the end of the year my motivation to work in that class had declined immensly. Every time it was time for class to start I would check out and either doodle or work on other homework. I knew that once she was done "teaching" and gave us our homework she would leave the work book open at the back of the room for us to "check" our answers and grade ourselves. I still to this day do not know what I was supposed to have learned in her class.
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Dr. Box
10/11/2016 11:33:38 am
It's interesting how many of you have mentioned the decrease in motivation. That is an important observation. All of us at times have students who are not motivated and we wonder why. Maybe it's that we are not making the learning relevant, clear, or purposeful! A worthy goal...
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Brandon Ramirez
10/7/2016 08:50:39 am
It seems to be common practice nowadays to display learning targets in the classroom. In my experience I’ve been left to wonder, on some occasions, whether or not this was done for the benefit of the students. One daily routine that I’ve seen is for the teacher to display the objective, verbatim from the state standards, at the beginning of the class, and then to have the students copy them down daily before completing the bell ringer. The teacher may read it aloud, and pick up or check the students’ lists for completion from time to time, but they generally are not used any further. Less common is the inclusion of success criteria, a supplemental component to the learning target that gives the students concrete goals to work towards and easy means to assess their own learning. In many cases, students are left to decipher not only the meaning of the standards themselves, but also the criteria against which their understanding will be measured. Without an understanding of their learning goals, students may be hard pressed to see the point in what they are doing and consequently fail to become engaged with the material or process. Furthermore, a lack of understanding the criteria for their success deprives the student of a valuable tool for self-assessment. While learning can still happen without effectively using learning targets and criteria for success, the method above is largely inefficient; the use of the routine amounts more to a method classroom management than a tool for student learning.
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Dr. Box
10/11/2016 11:29:33 am
You are spot on in your analysis. I hope that you'll be able to break that cycle and get full advantage from learning targets and success criteria. Especially in empowering students in their own learning...
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Katie Turnipseed
10/9/2016 06:23:58 pm
The class that stands out in my mind of "just getting through" was my Pre-Calculus class in high school. We just changed from block schedule to eight classes a day but that didn't seem to stop her from trying to cram in two lessons every time we met. We never met that quote, so she felt we were behind constantly and would skip over key components in the notes. She would begin class with saying very little about what we would be taking notes over and then jump straight into writing notes on the board. We would go through problems but nothing was every explained as to why it had to be worked out that specific way. It was "just how it's done." I was thankful had a good background of higher level algebra but that almost wasn't enough. I would become frustrated in class and could care less to what was happening. The homework was all odds, so the answers were all in the back of the book. There were numerous questions I wouldn't work out because I didn't know how to do it, even with notes. My attitude was terrible with that class and to this day, I can only remember SOH CAH TOA from it.
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Dr. Box
10/11/2016 11:27:28 am
Oh my. What a waste. Just think what you could've been learning! Maybe what you learned - how not to teach :)
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Kayle
10/9/2016 08:51:00 pm
I took Spanish most of my primary and secondary school career. Of course, as a primary student you learn the basics of conversation. I made it to Spanish I in high school and that was the best foreign language class I had ever had. Then the next year in Spanish II, I think I learned more about the instructor's personal life than anything else. It was never clear what aspect of the language we were learning (although there was something about infinitives in there), and I think I regressed some in my conversational abilities. The teacher never came out and said "This is what you should be able to do", or "this is what we are learning today". Rather there was little to no classroom management. We took a field trip to a restaurant at one point, and I don't know if it was so we could order in Spanish, learn about another culture, or if the teacher just wanted some food. Coming from a class where I was starting to read and make basic conversation to an environment that had absolutely no structure was very disappointing. My only measure of success were the grades I received. I don't believe the grading was unbiased by any means, rather it was lessened or heightened by the favorability of the student. For that matter, I don't think the instructor even knew how to assess our knowledge and understanding effectively. It became very difficult to be prepared in that class, because I just had no idea for what I was preparing. This may also have been because there was no specific curriculum the teacher used. Whatever they turned in as lesson plans certainly did not reflect what I learned as a student. For situations like the one I encountered, it seems like a good idea to explain and go over the learning targets. Granted even if someone gave me the overview of the lesson or unit, I may still not realize what I am supposed to be learning without a few reminders to tie it back to the target. I think the targets should be gone over not just at the beginning and the end, but it should be referenced during the lesson. That way the students begin to look for that connection while they are learning and can assess themselves in their understanding. It keeps them in a dual mindset about this is what I am supposed to be learning, and this is how it works, integrates, etc. Surely it is easier to assess student understanding if they know how to assess it themselves.
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Dr. Box
10/11/2016 11:25:56 am
Yes it is definitely easier to assess students if they know enough about the learning targets and what mastery looks like, to assess themselves. You had a rotten experience and it makes me sad. However, maybe it was a life lesson that will help you avoid the same pitfalls and hinder the learning of students, like your Spanish teacher did...
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Bradley Cummins
10/10/2016 03:50:05 am
I had just such a teacher in 3rd grade. Having just been transferred from a wonderful private school, Brookside Academy, I was thrust into the public school system. Our teacher was beloved by the students and hated by the parents. Not knowing how public school worked, very different from private, I was not prepared. I felt behind, alone and kinda stupid. As it turns out, our teacher never taught us anything. Class was a series of science experiments, student drawing and just goofing off. I do not remember any sort of lesson ever and I never felt he tried to help a new student out in any way. Not only did I have no idea what I was supposed to be learning, I had no leadership or teaching. This made the next year difficult for me, specially math, which I have struggled with since. The students ridiculed me for my ignorance as well, all in all, a tough year for me.
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Dr. Box
10/11/2016 11:22:25 am
Isn't it amazing how a bad experience can mar us for life. I've had similar experiences and am working hard toward having a growth mindset. Even in math. Even in art (:
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Laura Lynn
10/10/2016 06:21:24 am
I can remember being frustrated in my middle school years because I never understood the importance of learning certain objectives. If the objectives were not clearly stated then I would ask for assistance on an assignment. I can distinctly recall teachers who would get frustrated with our class for asking questions, but they had not given enough direction or instruction for the assignment. I had one teacher who would make up a rubric after assigning an assignment. I am a competitive individual and if I had an end goal I would be more willing to work towards it. In my classes the TEKS were written on the board which were not in kid friendly language. You were just expected to learn the information for the standardized tests and our goal was to pass. I knew I needed to understand the concepts, but I was the student that would have to seek extra help on assignments from different teachers in the same department because I did not have a grasp on what was the main concept in my own class. As I got into high school the “I Can Statements” were required to be written on the board, and I can definitely tell a difference in my learning from my middle school to high school years. I will definitely use kid friendly language with learning targets to help my students be more successful and track their progress.
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Dr. Box
10/11/2016 11:20:49 am
Many teachers make the mistake of coming up with a rubric after the fact. It's really not fair to students. I think students should know exactly what quality work looks like so that they can strive to reach it...
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Jessica
10/10/2016 08:00:27 am
I had a chemistry class were the teacher told us to read the chapter to ourselves and then answer the questions at the end. I felt like i was swimming under dark water. I could swim, but couldn't see where i was going. Somebody finally complained to the principal. My teacher was frustrated when he finally came up in front of the class and taught us how to balance chemical equations. He would say, "what does your book say" and, "it's the same as in your math class". After that lesson, I felt like i could see out of the water a little bit. That was the only lesson he taught us. We saw he didn't care and that he was going to pass us along, so we didn't care either. We would do our work, get a check mark and move on. I have also had a teacher tell the class, it's not enough to know the facts, you need to understand it. But they would never explain what there was to understand. It was also hard to ask for help in that class because any question I asked, the response from the teacher would make me feel small. "How could you not know?" But I would ask anyway.
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Dr. Box
10/11/2016 11:19:02 am
I like the metaphor of swimming in dark water - I know the feeling! I hope that with purposeful design where the end is clear and the learning targets are clear, you will be able to avoid that teacher trap that harms the learning.
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Nick
10/10/2016 09:45:26 am
My favorite (or least favorite example of this) was in high school physics. Honestly, to this day, I cannot explain why we learned what we did, besides to pass a test. There were no learning targets or I can statements, just formulas and notes. I never felt engaged, and when assessments were given in the class, I did poorly on all of them. Not only did this kill my confidence in the subject, it helped keep my disengaged, because I knew that no matter how hard I tried to pass and study, there was no application and I did not care about passing tests. I did not care at all what was being taught, because there was no purpose. We sat and took notes over PowerPoint slides, that were often moved through way too fast to copy. When tests came around and we asked where we learned something that we could not retain, the teacher's response was, "It was on the PowerPoint."
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Dr. Box
10/11/2016 10:34:34 am
Sorry to dredge up bad memories! so you recognize your challenge - make in relevant, meaningful, and clear what the purpose of the science lesson is....
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Matthew
10/10/2016 10:30:56 am
I have had several classes where I felt completely overloaded and swamped with information. I wasn't able to have a grasp on the content and I was far from understanding "the big picture" of the learning that was suppose to be taking place. In situations like these I have a tendency to become very frustrated and unmotivated to participate in learning. My lack of understanding and frustration led me to be very disconnected from the lesson as class progressed and I generally never had a true understanding of the content by the end of the unit.
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Dr. Box
10/11/2016 10:32:55 am
And that's what happens to our students as well. Frustrated and unmotivated at times. I hope we can avoid putting students in that situation!
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K.D.
10/10/2016 02:13:24 pm
Have you ever sat through a class and had no idea what you were supposed to be learning? How did it affect your engagement and understanding of the topic?
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Dr. Box
10/11/2016 10:30:17 am
I think in art it is especially important! We want to keep creativity but have students understand what quality work looks like at the same time...
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K.D. Nixon
1/27/2017 04:49:53 pm
As you observe and teach in the classroom, what questions should you be asking about student understandings of the learning targets? What questions should your students be asking about the learning targets? What are the consequences associated with the failure or the ability of the teacher to make learning targets clear? Give specific examples from your experiences in the classroom.
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Crystal Salinas
1/28/2017 11:28:52 am
When observing and teaching, I need to be asking if the learning targets are clear and the students recognize exactly what the end result(s) of instruction should be. To find out, I need to be asking the students. I also need to ask what type of learning target (knowledge-level, reasoning-level, skill-level, or product-level) is being presented in order to insure that instruction, assignments, and assessments match with the learning target. Students also need to be asking/assessing their own understanding/clarity of the learning targets. They need to know where they are headed. The need to be able to reason how/why an activity/instruction fits with the learning target. Failure by the instructor to make the learning targets clear leaves the students with no goal. They don't know what they need to accomplish, and therefore, they cannot grow towards mastery if they don't recognize what mastery looks like in the first place. I have never really seen learning targets made clear or addressed frequently in the classroom. I have noticed that the students rely on grades to reflect mastery or failure. Often in my content area it is the little mathematical mistakes (adding/subtracting/multiplying/dividing wrong) that leads to poor grades not a misunderstanding of the learning target. However, the students think they don't understand based on a poor grade.
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Brady ByBee
1/28/2017 01:52:54 pm
As you observe and teach in the classroom, what questions should you be asking about student understandings of the learning targets?
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Bradley Cummins
1/29/2017 06:46:48 am
What questions should I ask about the learning targets? i need to know that the written targets are clear, easy to read and understand. By using kid friendly language I can make my targets accessible to every student in the classroom. The students will have a clear goal to shoot for and an understanding of how long it should take to get there. Art projects are fluid, some kids work faster than others. By presenting a written handout with a clear rubric along with teacher completed examples of the final artwork I can set the targets and end result from day one eliminating any confusion.
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Brandon Ramirez
1/29/2017 04:04:04 pm
What questions should you be asking about student understandings of the learning targets? As I work to write and present the learning targets to students in the classroom, I need to ask myself if each learning target provides a clear and understandable vision of what the student is expected to know and be able to do with respect to their learning. What type of learning target will we be working with? Classifying the type of learning target will enable me to know how to structure the lesson, clarify which activities or assignments will best lead to mastery, and determine which methods of assessment will reflect student learning most accurately. This will also help me to identify the best route for presenting the learning targets to students - whether presenting them as is, converting them to student friendly language, or utilizing a rubric - as well as the best point in time at which to share them.
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Paige Stout
1/29/2017 04:11:21 pm
I need to make sure my learning target matches what I am trying to teach. A lot of times the learning target is very broad, or too specific and isn't actually the main idea for the day. The students should ask questions at the end of the lesson if they feel like they have not met the learning target or if they still don't understand it. When the learning target is unclear, the students are lost or uninterested because they don't know what their goal is or what they are trying to do. My cooperating teacher puts the learning target on the board each day and has them write it in their agenda, but never goes over it as a class. The students need to hear about how it applies besides having something to write in their planners.
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Matthew Pugh
1/29/2017 05:54:40 pm
I think far too often as teachers we can set our learning targets to meet the TEKS but do not make the "I Can" statements meet those learning targets. I think that instead of finding "I Can" statements that fit the learning targets they are instead set to complete the day's activities or lesson. Instead of showing higher thinking in the "I Can" statements, they instead just show some menial level of completing the day's lesson. Instead, "I Can" statements should be set to challenge students to meet higher thinking standards. Instead of setting the "I Can" statements where students feel comfortable achieving them, set the standards where students are challenged to achieve higher standards and thinking.
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Blake Jackson
1/29/2017 07:40:51 pm
As you observe and teach in the classroom, what questions should you be asking about student understandings of the learning targets?
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Katie Turnipseed
1/30/2017 06:32:36 pm
When focusing on my learning targets, I need to make sure that I center them around my students and what needs to be taught. I can do this by really pinning down the "I Can" statements that flow well with the daily activities.. I need to be asking myself if I am following through with those statements to help not only guide my lessons but my students' overall learning.I feel my students should be asking how to complete the "I Cans" throughout their days. They should be asking for details throughout the lessons that may not be the direct answers to the statements but go beyond the basic understanding of them. As the teacher, you must be clear with learning targets to keep the questioning and confusion down. Students always want to know what they are doing that day in class and that's okay as long as you the teacher know. If you're not clear with your learning targets, student understanding will decrease as well as engagement.
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Kayle
1/30/2017 09:04:30 pm
I am learning that backwards design is essential to developing the learning targets. I have been blessed to be with a cooperating teacher that uses backwards design and I can see that it has made a difference for her students to have a clear understanding of where they are going. It seems that at times we develop criteria around the activities we want to do and find the TEKS that could match. You have to ask yourself why you use the activities you use. Is it to fulfill a specific learning targets or success criteria? I've found that if I don't make clear where we are supposed to end up, I myself lose sight of the end goal. This also makes reviewing the learning targets at the beginning and the end of class so important. It gives the whole class, teacher included, a chance to reflect on the lesson and see if the goal was achieved, or not. Students need to be aware of their final destination, and if they don't they will not ask the questions they need answered, because they won't know they don't know. If there are student questions, I think that's a good thing. They are clarifying for themselves what they need to improve, and giving themselves a point of reference for what they still need to accomplish. Any questions that help them get to their destination are the questions they need to be asking. Again, they need to know what that is to know what to ask. The consequence of not knowing clearly what they are supposed to be learning, I would think, would give them little cause to learn. I know when I had classes that I didn't know what I was supposed to be learning it resulted that I was less engaged in the subject matter. Why would student care to learn if there is no obvious objective? It is unrewarding to complete tasks that seemingly have no purpose.
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Elizabeth Patterson
1/31/2017 09:54:17 am
As a teacher in the classroom I want to be sure that my learning targets are clear and concise for the students. How am I supposed to expect them to learn if they don't have a very clear understanding of what they are supposed to be learning? I know, from being a student myself, that when a student doesn't see the relevance of what they are learning then they don't see a point in learning it. I hear teachers comment all the time on how their students just don't seem motivated or are lazy. They try to blame the student for not wanting to learn, but when I was just an observer I was getting tired of walking around in the dark while the students silently read to themselves and took notes. Students should always be engaged in the learning and asking lots of questions to gain more understanding of the learning.
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Jared Colley
1/31/2017 08:18:01 pm
I think it is vitally important to create clear learning targets and not only create them but also have the students be able to see them and have the importance of the learning targets explained to them. As the teacher I should be asking myself if they are truly learning and mastering the content. If the answer is no then I need to be asking why are they not getting it? What are some misconceptions they may have? We're there other factors that affected their attitude/effort that day? What can I do? Do I need to restructure my instruction? As for the questions the students should be asking, there is one phrase I have said multiple times while teaching: "So what?". The so what means how is this relevant to me as a student and my world? Why should I put forth the effort? And lastly, and most importantly, how does what we are learning tie back into learning.
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Laura Lynn Sims
2/1/2017 03:34:19 am
The question I should be asking about a learning target is if it is clear. There is a great deal of importance to putting the learning target into kid friendly language. I also think that I should make sure the students understand the learning target. It is easy for a student to copy down a LT in their spiral, but if they understand why they are writing the LT, it may be more attainable. I know that one of the problems I have seen recently in observing is that the students do not see the importance of learning the topic. I believe wholeheartedly if the student knows where we are going then they will be more engaged in the lesson than without knowing the purpose. The LT should be used through questioning and guidance in a lesson.
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Nick Kopper
2/1/2017 04:19:17 am
what questions should you be asking about student understandings of the learning targets? As a teacher, I should be asking if a student can read and understand what they should be able to do. The finish line example is great for this, as student's are more motivated when they see there is a purpose and goal for them to reach by the end of a lesson. Questions I should ask include: Does the LT make sense? Is the purpose clearly stated? Are student goals present in the learning targets?
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Sara
2/1/2017 08:52:24 am
We want students to be successful, so why wouldn’t we tell them what that success looks like! In my clinical teaching class we talk about the “I Can” statement or statements at the beginning of each class and it written clearly on the board. At the beginning of each unit, students are given a copy of the TEKS for the unit to put in their interactive notebook. We revisit these TEKS at the end of the unit and students are given the opportunity to rate themselves. We also provide opportunities for self-reflection throughout the unit. During class we use “fist to five,” so students can rate their understanding as we go. Any time we do a Kahoot, the last question is a self-reflective question related to a TEK!
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Jessica Rodriguez
2/1/2017 11:08:48 am
I should be asking my students does the learning target make sense to them. If it is not clear, then I have already failed them as a teacher. At the end of my lesson, I should make sure that they still understand the learning target by asking about the target in a different way. Depending on how they answer, I can see if the learning targets were actually met. If learning targets are not clear, then students will either lose interest because it doesn't feel relevant to them. I see that teachers will make a game plan for their class, but I think that they need to let the students in on what is expected of them for that day and refer back to it through the lesson because it could get lost.
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Jalayna
2/26/2017 07:11:42 pm
Many times throughout high school and college, I walked in on the first day of class and the teacher/professor just started lecturing. There may have been some mention about an AP test or final exam, but more often than not we dove right into our first lesson, full speed. These classes I remember vividly because I found what I would need to do to get an A, and then pretty much zoned out for the rest of the semester/year. I understand the importance of lectures, but it is not how I learn best, and when the entirety of a class is taught with this method, i have an extremely difficult time focusing, or even staying awake. I did what I needed to to get by, but there was very little that I took away from those classes.
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Lexi
2/27/2017 10:21:18 am
Our classroom goals and objectives should be no secret to our students. For us to be able to work together and reach these goals as a team, we have to all be on the same page. I have been a part of a classroom before where I had no idea what was going on, I just finished the assignments to the best of my ability and prayed that I would make it through the class in one piece. Do you think I remember anything that was taught or that I begrudgingly memorized? Absolutely not. As someone who hopes to teach elementary music, I really appreciate that you said it is important that we take the educational language and turn it into kid friendly language and post it in the classroom for all to see. When the students know what will be taught and what they will be doing in the classroom, they are much more engaged and ready to learn.
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Brisa Brown
2/27/2017 02:01:52 pm
In high school and (more so) in college, I've found myself in a couple of classes where I had no clue what I was learning. There were no specified goals for each unit, and lessons fell under one of the notorious "twin sins" of traditional design: coverage. We plowed through content, but I for one was unable to see an ultimate purpose besides retaining fact after fact. I tried to be attentive in each instance; however, I wasn't very engaged in the lesson at all, because I had little idea what was going on or what I was supposed to be taking from the lesson. I followed class requirements and ended up with As... but that doesn't mean that I truly took anything useful and/or relevant away from the class. I like your sports analogy a lot: if students are able to see where we want them to go, then they'll have an easier time getting there instead of floundering around and hoping for the best.
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Gerardo Arzaga
2/27/2017 04:26:35 pm
Yes I have sat through a class and had no idea what I was suppose to be learning. The teacher would tell us but I had no idea what they were saying because it was not translated in anyway. My engagement went completely away from the teacher and basically would take the day off if it made no sense to me. I just disregarded the topic and had to learn it on my own time, my own understanding. What we are learning for the day, week, month or year should be no secret. We should have some understanding or make sense of the idea before we attack it. Students understanding what they are going to learn is students being engaged. I love the idea of traffic light before units. It allows students to track their understanding and at the end of the unit, see improvement.
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Sydney Reynolds
2/28/2017 09:32:37 am
When I sit through classes where I don't know what I am supposed to be learning I usually get lost in the lesson. Instead of paying attention to what is going on I am trying to understand what the goal is and wind up missing the content of the lesson. When I have a stating point and an end goal to get to it is much easier for me to fill in the gap and understand where I am going. When I don't know what is going on I tend to sit back and passively listen to the lesson rather than engage and grow from it.
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Evan McCullough
2/28/2017 10:50:54 am
I have sat through many classes without knowing what exactly I was supposed to be learning. Ironically, many of them have been social studies or history classes. It may be something about history teachers, especially at the college level. They teach (lecture) what they want to cover and expect us to keep up. However, it would be much more effective if we as students were to know before-hand what we are to learn about. Without having an idea, it is easy to get overwhelmed or just bored. With a goal in mind, however, it is much more natural to stay engaged and attentive to learn the targets that the teacher provides.
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Toni Gamez
2/28/2017 08:56:46 pm
There are all of the sayings that say that the destination is does not matter as much as the journey to get there. Well, sometimes classes feel like the longest road trip of my life that end up at a place that I never wanted to go to in the first place. By the time a class is over, I feel like i was just fed information and never reached a firm understanding of it all or knew what we really were supposed to have grasped from the class. Sometimes, the journey is even more enjoyable and worthwhile when the destination is known. Then there could be the anticipation of the destination through the journey. That's what it should be like for students.
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Stephanie Perales
10/10/2017 01:21:17 pm
I think learning targets are so important in the classroom. They give the students a finish line and allow students to see what they are working towards. Just like your daughter, it is hard to push myself and get to the end when I cannot even see the finish. I have sat through classes where I had no idea what I was supposed to be learning and it is the most frustrating thing. When a teacher just dives straight in my engagement and understanding of the topic is negative. I am not engaged as much as I could be because I do not see a point in doing something when I can not see the ending goal, and then that affects my understanding because I haven't been fully engaged.
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Dr. Box
10/11/2017 08:18:19 am
I agree, Stephanie. It's hard to stay engaged if you don't know the point of the lesson!
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Amariz Antillon
10/10/2017 05:15:30 pm
I have definitely sat through multiple classes where I had no idea what I was supposed to be learning. Particularly in math class, I was always so lost and unmotivated and I never saw myself reaching any type of target or goal. I believe, for me, it was when it is was very lecture based and the teacher started lecturing as soon as the bell rang. I had no idea what we were fixing to be lectured over, so I was already not paying attention or just completely lost and because of that I feel that I never fully understood math. If I was able to see what my end result was supposed to be in math then I would have been motivated and worked hard to understand it. Learning targets are so important and I completely believe in sharing them with the students, I can't wait to give it a try in my own classroom one day!
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Dr. Box
10/11/2017 08:19:23 am
I look forward to seeing how it works for you! It really does make all the difference in the world.
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Emily Beaulieu
10/10/2017 05:42:30 pm
I have sat in many classes where I had no idea what I was supposed to be learning. I felt like I was just being fed loads of informations but not knowing what areas I was supposed to utilize and know and then since I didn't have that information prior to the end of the class I didn't ever get good practice with the aspect of the unit that I needed to know I ended up not grasping it. I tried to stay engaged and keep up but it just made me feel lost and it was hard for me to wan to put forth the effort of learning.
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Dr. Box
10/11/2017 08:20:24 am
Don't you wonder why teachers do that? Maybe in the interest of "coverage"? What do you think?
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Tyler Heffington
10/10/2017 08:21:32 pm
I can definitely think back to a class where it seemed like we were just getting new information dumped onto us a shovel full at a time and had no idea what it was actually aging and no way to connect it back to the individual learning target. It made me feel extremely overwhelmed even though I was doing ok in the class according to my grades, but as far as mastery, or even proficiency, goes I was nowhere near those standards since i had no real clue what all that information was supposed to mean or how it all tied back together. I definitely agree that these should be done in student friendly language because even as someone who in the future will be responsible for teaching these learning targets they can be very hard to understand.
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Dr. Box
10/11/2017 08:21:26 am
Yes, it's a two way street. Translating them into kid friendly language is as good for the teacher as it is for the student!
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KaLee Gattis
10/11/2017 07:02:41 am
Personally, I like to have a target or goal to work towards. As I have learned, my students would like the same thing. I have sat through a few classes where I had no clue what we were supposed to be learning, why we were learning it, or I had difficulty with following the steps to do it. When I didn't see the target, my motivation to learn diminished. I have had this issue with one math class in particular. I feel that I can understand most of the math that is taught to me, but on this day in class the concept did not make any sense to me, and I struggled with seeing the importance of the concept. Since I didn't understand why I had to learn it, I didn't want to learn it. This is such a common mindset in math classes. When I become a math teacher, I plan to relate how I learned math to my students. I want my students to know what their goal is, and I don't want them to lose their motivation to learn.
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Dr. Box
10/11/2017 08:23:05 am
Yes, it's just a downward spiral isn't it? And has a HUGE effect on motivation.
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Amira McKee
10/11/2017 07:21:09 am
Very often, I have no idea where classes are going, or what I was supposed to learn that day, week, or even semester. Personally, I am not very extrinsically motivated so it doesn't always matter to me what I'm supposed to be learning because I know that I can always learn something from every experience. Going with the running analogy, I actually prefer not to know where I am running but instead ask if I am giving my best at every turn. My exception for this is with grades because I usually want to ensure that I do not have to re-take classes so I like to know what I have to do to pass. I do, however, understand that many students are extrinsically motivated and goal-oriented and in order to promote a good learning environment for them, I will need to inform them of daily, weekly, semester-long goals and learning objectives. This way, they can consciously work towards understanding the concepts I am trying to teach and get to feel a sense of accomplishment when they understand them.
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Dr. Box
10/11/2017 08:25:38 am
And we want to help students become intrinsically motivated! Extrinsic is fleeting (: But having clear targets helps students focus and understand why they are learning what they're learning - leading to intrinsic motivation and a desire to learn.
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Tanner Giles
10/11/2017 08:43:03 am
There have been many classes I've sat through without being introduced to the objective or where the lesson was ultimately going. Those classes are difficult to follow along and stay engaged. Instead of using the new material to build a better understanding, I'm left wondering where the teacher is going with the new material and how it will apply to the big picture. If I know the objective beforehand, then I can focus on the big picture and application, which in turn helps to foster understanding rather than just knowledge or memorization. When the goal is introduced, students can see how one things is connected to another, and this helps them to understand the concept.
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Reed Myers
10/11/2017 10:21:53 am
There have been a few times in my life that I either sat in class thinking that the teacher had no idea what they were talking about (and therefore the students did not either) or the material was taught in such a way that I just did not understand what it was that I was supposed to be learning/understanding. This made me turn off my brain and turn off my ears from listening. It seemed as though these teachers did not realize that they weren't getting through. With that, I became less and less engaged with the topic or class as a whole. Typically, this kind of thing happened in my high school science class. My Biology teacher was very traditional, and she never realized her lack of engagement in her teaching. Because she didn't engage her students, and because her "withitness" level was very low, she just didn't see where she was going wrong with her lessons. Eventually, I understood what she was trying to teach us, but only after making the extra efforts to go in before and/or after school. Eventually, I got to the point that I would just use class time to work on other things and would just go in before and/or after school to have the one-on-one time with my teacher, since that's the only time I could trust to truly understand what I needed to learn.
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Logan
10/16/2017 11:29:42 am
I remember a math class in high school being a class where I felt like I had no clue of anything that was going on. Even with attempts to come in for tutoring, study groups, and outside research/learning, I felt as if I could never catch up or truly understand what was going on. As time went by, there grew a lack of interest and a feeling of “just getting by to pass” because I felt as if no matter how much I tried I wouldn’t understand it anyways: so why keep trying?
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Cami Cates
1/28/2018 06:46:52 pm
As a teacher, I will need to identify the learning objective, and through out the lesson I can ask low level questions that relate back to the learning objective at the beginning. Then, as the lesson progresses, I can raise the level of questioning. My students can then look at the learning objective and ask how that relates to what they are learning, if they don't understand. It is near the end of the lesson that I can ask the highest level question. By having my students think about what they are trying to learn, as they are learning, will help them understand the content the way that I would want them to. It would help lead them to what they need. to know. I have seen my cooperating teacher constantly let the students know what they are learning. She starts her class with her classroom chat, which is where she shows the learning objectives for the day, and going through the agenda of the day. As we complete each item on the agenda, she will as a question that relates it back to the main learning objectives. After all the agenda items are complete, she asks how each task relates back to the learning objective and asks a high blooms level question as an exit ticket. Every student knows what to expect from her class, and what they are going to be learning.
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Lexi Willis
1/29/2018 02:07:58 pm
Cami, I like the way you said you would ask lower level questions when presenting the lesson, but towards the end you would start asking higher level questions. This is important because it supports the idea of gradual learning. You can't ask the highest level questions right at the beginning or you will stump your students and they could feel discouraged from the start. It's a good idea to start lower (while still challenging and encourages thinking and discussion) and get to the mastery level questions at the end.
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Michael Stephen
1/31/2018 11:00:58 am
We have learned how to identify the Learning Objective, but I still find myself not referring to it in my lessons. I like how you State you need to ask low level questions to refer them back to the LT, i will too do this.
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Lexi Willis
1/29/2018 02:04:49 pm
Our classroom goals and objectives should be no secret to our students. For us to be able to work together and reach these goals as a team, we have to all be on the same page. I have been a part of a classroom before where I had no idea what was going on, I just finished the assignments to the best of my ability and prayed that I would make it through the class in one piece. Do you think I remember anything that was taught or that I begrudgingly memorized? Absolutely not. As someone who hopes to teach elementary music, I really appreciate that you said it is important that we take the educational language and turn it into kid friendly language and post it in the classroom for all to see. When the students know what will be taught and what they will be doing in the classroom, they are much more engaged and ready to learn. I think it is key to lean on the learning target. For example, asking questions that point back to our objective, or when you reach your goal, circling back around to your objective to let the students recognize their mastery. Honestly, students aren't shy. If what you are teaching doesn't line up with the visible learning target that is (hopefully) discussed often, they're going to let you know. At least, even a couple of weeks into student teaching, I know that I have some students that would call me and out and get us back on track, which I appreciate. A clearly stated learning target with a clear cut lesson to accompany it should run smoothly and successfully so that when at the end of the lesson, the students can look at the learning target and say that they absolutely know what to do regarding this objective.
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Cami Cates
1/29/2018 03:23:33 pm
Lexi, you are so right about classes where you just work to finish the assignment. It made me think back to my classes like that, and I realized that sometimes I would finish the assignment, make a 100, and never understand how it connects to what we are supposed to be learning. Getting from point A to point B can be really hard without knowing what I'm aiming for.
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Tyler Heffington
1/30/2018 05:26:32 pm
Learning targets are something that have helped me out just as much as they help the students because they let me focus on exactly what content knowledge, vocabulary, or skills that the students will need to have in order to be successful so i can make sure that my lessons are based on them, so often in science classes in middle school or high school it seemed like there was always that one lab or activity that the teacher just liked to do because it is fun to teach or the product was something edible but it provides little to no educational value. having those targets in mind makes it so much easier to discard the "fun" activities when I've been planning lessons.
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Alyssa Willis
1/30/2018 06:17:37 pm
It is ridiculous at how I personally have "mastered" the classroom as a student. I can walk into a lot of classrooms and have NO idea what I am doing and walk out of there with an A. It is a horrible practice, and yet it is one so many have been happy doing. It makes learning targets completely pointless and it also makes real learning impossible. Until college, I never have had a teacher use learning targets. Sure, I've had the typical "this is what we're doing today" section of the board in a classroom, but never an end goal.
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KaLee Gattis
1/30/2018 06:57:10 pm
Without a learning target in mind, formative assessments really can feel like a waste of time. I like the part of this blog post where Dr. Box mentions your typical response when getting into a vehicle with someone else. You can drive around all day, with no destination in mind, and realize that you did in deed waste your time (and energy). You may even feel lost and confused.
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KaLee Gattis
1/30/2018 06:46:46 pm
From my observations, my cooperating teacher writes the learning targets and success criteria on the board, along with an agenda for the class period. At the beginning of the lesson, he will address the learning target and success criteria. This is usually the only time during the class that he will refer back to it. The questions that I, or the teacher, should be asking the students is "why are we doing this" or "what is the point of learning this". Many students have already had similar questions when it comes to learning algebra. By communicating a clear learning target and success criteria with the students, the students can easily answer these questions. The students will know where the finish line is, and can work towards reaching that goal. When learning targets are not clear, the students' motivation to learn will diminish, and the students cannot effectively observe the link between topics. As I mentioned, my cooperating teacher does not regularly refer to the learning target. He focuses more on referring to the success criteria. The students were taught how to add and subtract polynomials, then how to multiply and divide polynomials. This includes learning exponential rules. As we progressed into more complex problems, the students often struggled with the simple addition and subtraction. They had trouble making a connection to the new topics. I have been guilty of not stating the learning targets and success criteria to the students often. I know how beneficial this simple step is, and I plan to get better at referring to these more often throughout the class period.
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Toni Gamez
1/31/2018 08:52:05 am
Something that I have noticed being in the classroom everyday is that there are many days when the students do not even look at the board for their Learning Target, or Essential Questions as they call them. They are always posted but it never fails that someone will walk in asking what we are doing for that day. Even after working on something for several days, I'll mention something about the Learning Target and they'll look at me as if I spoke a foreign language. Without telling students what the goal is, they just work through their assignments like zombies without any understanding of what they're working towards. There is nothing driving them. My teacher never really addresses the Essential Question at the beginning or at the end of the unit but kind of just takes their answers about what they've learned to form a summary.
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Logan Bertrand
1/31/2018 09:35:02 am
One thing i have notices about my teacher is that she doesnt use any time of structured lesson planning. She doesnt use backwards design or 5E lesson planning. I also noticed that she doesnt necessarily have end goals or learning objectives displayed displayed around the classroom for student access or even in her lesson design. I know that my teacher discusses her learning objectives/TEKS during her weekly PLCs. I feel like these groups are beneficial and help build an overall understanding of what the "end goal" is and how to accomplish it, but i do wish that it was utilized more in the classroom. I want my students to be able to use learning target throughout the learning progress. I feel like they should be asking things like what kind of lessons are involved in reaching the learning objectives, I want them to address or make references to common misconceptions about the content. I want them to see the growth; to know that it is okay to be a "red" at the beginning of a unit. This allows students to individually see their growth and understanding, thus finding the value in the lesson and unit and its application. Some of the consequences of not having a set goal or using learning targets it a lack of student understanding. I know that using I can statements on the board and discussing them at the beginning of every class helps students understand the goals and expectations as well as the path in which to reach that goal. I think learning objectives help the students see the progression of a unit with out the teacher stating it. Instead of the teaching having to say, "See how the last article correlates with this one?" students are able to make the connection on their own and can relate them to the learning objectives.
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Tanner Giles
1/31/2018 10:37:48 am
As we begin new lessons, I should ask students questions that assess their understanding and knowledge of the content before hand. These question should be aimed to gauge where students are, where misconceptions are, and what I need to do and what they need to do. Students should ask questions for clarification when they are unclear of where we aim to go, and when they're unclear what progress looks like. For instance, we had a lesson about how to create an outline which incorporated the required content. During the lesson, I gave students a copy of what an outline looks like (what I expect), but still let them work in pairs to create their own. As they were going, I would come and give them both praise on where they were doing a good job, and also tips with explanations where they could make their outlines better. As a class, we brainstormed when it would be good to use an outline in areas other than what we were working on (writing a paper, giving a speech, doing a presentation, etc.), and we were also able to connect information from the required content more easily (which also showed where we would be going).
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Michael Stephen
1/31/2018 10:58:50 am
I have found through my observations and student teachings that it is fairly easy to forget to frequently address the Learning Targets with our students. We got so caught up with the lesson and meeting the TEKS that we don’t even remember to bring it back up aside from the beginning of the class. My cooperating teacher typically writes the LTs on the board or a PPt and in the beginning is the only time she will refer to them normally. However , I believe as a teacher, you must give your students the end goal. Otherwise students may not make links between topics as well, and the meaning of the lesson may whither away with time. I need to do a bette job of refering to my learning targets more, this is crucial if I want to maintain an effective learning environment. The use of Learning Targets will show students exactly where they are going. It will allow them to successfully assess their progress on the way, and they will know exactly what they will accomplish/learn on the way to meeting the end goal.
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Amariz Antillon
1/31/2018 11:36:15 am
When I began my first week of student teaching my teacher had the student’s doing a project so I wasn’t really able to observe her teaching. Going into week two I got to see her teach a little but she quickly let me take over, which was a little scary but also very exciting. During the few times I saw her teach she was beginning a new unit and she made it clear to the students what they were going to be learning but it wasn’t written anywhere. The students are aware of what unit they are in and how it is connecting back to their previous units. Now that I am teaching I have begun to write the I can statements, that relate to the lesson for the day, on the board every morning. The students are able to read them when they walk in to class and they know what they should have accomplished by the end of the period. After attendance, we read the statements together as a class and then some students will ask me what we are doing that pertains to that statement. It’s new to these students but I can already tell, for some students, that is really helpful and motivating. As a teacher, they help me stay focused on the lesson rather than going off-task. When I was a student in middle school and high school I never had anything like this and, in classes like math or science, I was always very confused and unmotivated. Throughout my time at LCU and my student teaching, I have learned how important it is for the teacher to give the students a clear understanding of the learning targets.
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Emily Beaulieu
1/31/2018 12:26:52 pm
Establishing learning targets is one of the most crucial things that we can do to help our students learning. It is hard for people at any age to understand that greater purpose of something that is happening in this moment if it is not explicitly said. I think we need to put forth the extra effort as good teachers to clearly establish the end goal for our students. I have been working with my students on duo scenes over the past few weeks, focusing on a different performance element every day, making sure to explain to my students that each element that we are focusing on will make our scenes better. Today we worked on peer scene critiques and a lot of them were confused as to way they were "grading" each other if the official performance isn't until next week. It was up to me to bring them back to the bigger picture by asking questions like, "is your scene 100% perfect and ready for performance?" and "do you think it would benefit your scene to have other people watch it?" and "do we think other people will notice things about our scenes that we haven't?" I encouraged them to see how the critiques could take their scenes to the next level and how we are now at the point of fine-tuning before the actual performance. This critique also outlined all of the different elements we have been talking about in terms of good scene work and reminds the students of what elements will be focused on for their own scenes. Being able to hear from each other and having the rubric in hand before the performance as a reminder of the learning targets really helped improve the students' scenes.
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Scout
3/5/2018 04:51:52 pm
Have you ever sat through a class and had no idea what you were supposed to be learning? Yes, mostly in Jr. High though.
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Dr. B.
3/7/2018 11:16:34 am
How sad - at least you asked your parents for help. That’s more than what some students do...
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Samantha Matthews
3/6/2018 10:25:53 am
I have had a class before that I felt was in a different language. The teacher would go to the board and start writing definitions and doing examples. I would be so worried about writing things down I could not keep up with what was going on. Because class was moving too fast for me and I was not seeing the end goal, I would leave and go watch hours worth of videos just trying to catch up.
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Dr. B.
3/7/2018 11:16:02 am
At least you tried to catch up! That’s better than some...
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Cameron
3/6/2018 12:07:56 pm
In High School I had a Spanish class that's overarching goal was clearly to teach us Spanish, how we were going to get to that point? that was never expressed to us. although I had personal motivation to learn, there was no end-goal to our class, at least it felt like there wasn't any. I quickly lost interest and was disengaged in the class, simply doing the work that was required of me. My understanding of Spanish is the same as it was before I entered that classroom.
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Dr. B.
3/7/2018 11:15:34 am
What wasted time! Think how much you could’ve learned if the teacher had been more purposeful...
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Bailey
3/6/2018 06:35:22 pm
I have sat through many classes that I had absolutely no idea what the teacher was trying to teach me. It is one of the most frustrating things I've ever experienced. I would almost automatically zone out when this happened. I remember many different lessons with one of my science teachers that talked around the topic more than actually teaching us the topic. It made it difficult to follow along and truly decide what it was I was supposed to get out of her lessons. In the end, I honestly retained next to nothing of her lessons. Even the topics that truly interested me would get lost in translation.
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Dr. B.
3/7/2018 11:14:50 am
Such a shame and a waste of time. And time is something we can’t spare...
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J. R. Allred
3/7/2018 09:09:59 am
When I first started my instrument I had no idea what was going on and nobody really checked to make sure I was doing the right thing. I started a few years behind everybody else and the director really didnt have the time to teach someone who should know whats going on already. As a result while I was in band I would check out and have no idea what was going on. I had no idea what was required of me or even how to achieve what was wanted.As a result fundamental skills that are learned during this time still evade me today.
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Dr. B.
3/7/2018 11:14:13 am
Clear targets could’ve helped you get better! You will change that in your own band I’m sure (:
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Tabitha Duzan
3/7/2018 09:10:16 am
I have been in a class and sat through an entire lesson taking notes but getting absolutely nothing out of the lesson. This is extremely discouraging for me because it makes me feel as though I am not smart enough to understand the material that is being given to me. I have heard of classrooms where the student asks for a review of certain topics and the teacher tells them they should know because they learned it last year. This not only turns the student offf form asking questions, but it also makes it harder for the student to understand the given material and will likely cause them to zone out and not make an effort to learn the new material because they were not given a chance to be engaged witcprvious knowledge before hand! As teachers we should spend all of our time trying to get out students engaged because engagement means they are listening and wanting to learn what you have to tech them!
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Dr. B.
3/7/2018 11:13:26 am
I feel dumb too when I have no idea what we are supposed to be learning. A simple thing to remedy...
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Freddie Savage
3/7/2018 10:04:03 am
I have been in quite a few classes where the objectives were not referenced so when it came time for the test I was surprised at the content. Even though we had discussed what was on the tests I took away different concepts. What was i suppose to do open the teachers head and pull out what i needed to learn? I believe that the best way to have your students learn is to tell them what they need to know not dance around it, or shovel on facts in the hopes that the right things will stick.
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Dr.B.
3/7/2018 11:12:26 am
There are those teachers who just hope the right thing sticks (: I trust you will not be one of them!
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Kregg Fehr
2/11/2020 08:16:18 am
This seems a key strategy for effective learning. Not only does it help the student to navigate their way through the class, it should provide motivation as well. Clearly explaining what is expected and what is considered success should lead to further discussion of why those particular expectations are attached to the class and how they will benefit the learner. This approach should help the student to answer one of the most common complaints/questions that they voice to one another--"Why do I have to learn this?"
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David Fraze
2/11/2020 09:06:25 am
Hitting the Target! It is rather sad that educators need to be reminded of this truth. Dr. Box is right on target in her assessment and helpful direction. Our students have to see the “finish line.” A clearly explained (in their words/context) “what” and “why” provides that line. With a line in view, every type of learning has something to shoot for and understands how and why they are going to be assessed.
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Chris Huggins
2/11/2020 08:20:46 pm
Throughout almost any other facet of life, we want (expect) to know and understand the purpose and goal of our efforts. Why should our higher education be any different? I can relate to the example of "blindly following our instructors" until the end of the course. Outlining the expectations for our will allow them to better focus their efforts more purposefully and allow them to reach their goals. This will allow our students to outline their "why", allowing them to remain motivated throughout their coursework.
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Jessica Rogers
2/18/2020 10:53:43 am
I think expressing the learning targets in my own classes better will help my students tie the new information to other information already in their brain. In other words, I think this will help with retrieval because you are giving it a place to go in the file cabinet of the brain.
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Jim
2/28/2023 08:06:32 am
I like how you delineate between the Learning Target and the Success Criteria. It's one thing to have an idea about what you have to be able to do, but another world entirely on seeing the process breakdown to be able to reach that target. I think a lot of times students may get thrown off by seeing a looming target ahead of them, but not exactly know how to reach it. Seeing it broken down into steps really allows them to know what they need to do in order make sure they see success in their classroom. #TMSPD
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AuthorI am a former science teacher and currently work at Lubbock Christian University as the QEP Director and in the School of Education preparing future teachers. I am passionate about helping teachers find practical ways to improve learning! Archives
January 2018
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