Ensure Students Get Personal

Learning Objectives for Each Lesson

“...providing students with challenging yet achievable short-term goals is one of the most powerful strategies at an educator’s disposal.”
— The 12 touchstones of good teaching: a checklist for staying focused every day

As described by Marzano and Brown (2009), learning objectives or goals set out what students will learn in a unit or section.  They have a specific format:

  • Students will understand ____________.

    And

  • Students will be able to _____________.

The phrase “will understand” is usually used when referring to an informational learning goal (declarative).  The phrase “will be able” us used when referring to a process learning goal (procedural).  

Creating a classroom in which the student voice is heard and incorporated into instruction is becoming more common (Digital Learning, 2017).  This empowerment of the student in learning can easily be integrated and if used as a goal can be much more likely to motivate those students to success (Usher, Kober, Jennings & Rentner 2012, p. 16).  Using learning goals in this context could be an easy start to empowering students. This empowerment of students to steer their own learning destiny has a strong link to achievement (Goodwin & Hubbell, 2013).

Adapting the learning objectives from above to those created by students can provide this empowerment.  You can provide students with objective starters like the following from Goodwin and Hubbell (2013):

  • I can…

  • I will…

  • I want to know if…

  • I know that …, but I want to know more about...

Learning Objectives Resources

References

Goodwin, B., & Hubble, E. R. (2013). The 12 touchstones of good teaching: a checklist for staying focused every day. ASCD, McREL International.

Marzano, R. J., & Brown, J. L. (2009). Module 2: Establishing and Communicating Learning Goals. In Handbook for the Art and Science of Teaching. ASCD publications. Retrieved from http://www.ascd.org/publications/books/108049/chapters/Module-2@-Establishing-and-Communicating-Learning-Goals.aspx

Transforming school education practices through innovation. (2017, 06). Digital Learning, Retrieved from https://csuglobal.idm.oclc.org/login?url=https://search-proquest-com.csuglobal.idm.oclc.org/docview/1909791198?accountid=38569

Usher, A., Kober, N., Jennings, J., & Rentner, D. (2012). Can Goals Motivate Students?  Center on Education Policy. Retrieved from https://www.cep-dc.org/cfcontent_file.cfm?Attachment=UsherKober_Background3_Motivation_5.22.12.pdf