Here are my Objectives

Here are my Objectives

Walking into week five this semester I want to briefly ask one question: What are my goals when I teach a single lesson?

With that question in mind I have to remind myself that every day I will have students for 42 minutes and as M. Susie Whittington put it, Objectives Create the Mindset for Learning.

So if I want my students to learn about say the differences between animal breeds instead of a knowledge level objective if I have a Synthesis or Evaluation Level objective the students will be able to learn even more.

Verb-Wheel-Updated
Instead of saying:
  • Students will Identify Different Swine Breeds
  • Students will List Different Beef Cattle Breeds
  • Students will Label Different Horse Breeds
Make them Learn:
  • Students will Decide which Swine Breed will work in a particular situation
  • Students will Create a Twitter account on different  Cattle Breeds
  • Students will Evaluate and Appraise different horse breeds
What is the difference between these three objectives?

Its the level of understanding which goes into each of them the way I look at it, its like creating a multiple step process.  In order for a student to Identify Swine Breeds all they need to be able to do is know when they look at picture A that is a [blank].  Where as, if I give them a situation such as a specific area, farm size, feed available they can look at all the breeds of swine and they will be expected to know and justify their decision to have one breed on a farm over another.  This requires them to identify different breeds but also now apply it further.

To me it would be best to have higher level processing objectives in an overall unit plan and to start some concepts with lower level processing objectives which build upon each other, but I would still have higher level processing objectives as well in a later lesson or two.  The trick is too get students to see what needs accomplished each day so they are engaged learners.

Links for me:
https://teachonline.asu.edu/2012/07/writing-measurable-learning-objectives/


I can't wait to test some of these ideas on objective making in class.

To Be Continued . . .

Comments

  1. Tiffany MoreySeptember 17, 2017 at 2:52 PM

    George, the objectives that you developed were excellent! Please remember to cite your sources in APA format. Thanks for sharing your insights on this week's topic!

    ReplyDelete
  2. CJ RippoleSeptember 18, 2017 at 10:52 AM

    Got to love a good, "SWBAT!" Great job George!

    ReplyDelete
  3. John EwingSeptember 20, 2017 at 7:27 PM

    George,
    Thanks for sharing! There are some great articles out there about aligning your objectives to the level of course being taught, as well.

    ReplyDelete

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