EEX 3257 LESSON PLANNING: Objectives

LESSON OBJECTIVE What should you accomplish by the end of this lesson? – Write a precise lesson objective addressing one of the 6 levels of Bloom’s taxonomy

A Teacher’s Task is to Uncover What Should Be Learned Stop asking, What activity am I going to do? What video should I show? What information should I cover? Start asking, What do I want my students to learn, achieve, accomplish? Remember learning has everything to do with what the student accomplishes not what the teacher covers

Creating Effective Lessons Ineffective lessons involve the teacher telling the class what will be covered. Effective lessons let the students know up front what they are to master or accomplish at the end of the lesson. Effective lessons begin with well-defined goals and objectives.

What Are Objectives and How Do They Help Teachers? Objectives are what a student must achieve to accomplish what the teacher states is to be learned, comprehended, or mastered. Objectives help teachers assign and assess.

Creating Effective Objectives Consider three important learning levels when developing student goals and objectives Acquisition: What information or skill has been acquired? Comprehension: Does the student show an understanding of what has been learned? Mastery: Can the student use what has been comprehended?

How Do You Write Objectives? First: Consider the learning level: – Acquisition: Students demonstrate knowledge of information, a skill, or strategy – Comprehension: Students demonstrate they understand information, a skill, or strategy – Mastery: Students demonstrate they can apply learning, or analyze, synthesize, and evaluate information they have learned

How Do You Write Objectives? Second: Write the Objective – Consider objectives from various learning levels – Pick a verb that clearly states what you want the students to do. The verb must be active (e.g., describe, compare, construct, explain) – Complete the sentence (Describe what happens when 2 molds grow together.)

More Tips for Writing Objective Objectives must be written before that lesson begins. They guide what activities and materials to use. The more understandable the sentence (objective), the greater the chance that the student will do what is intended. Do not use verbs that convey unobservable behaviors (e.g., understand, enjoy, appreciate)

Keys to Assignment Success Structure – The assignment must have a consistent and familiar format that the students can recognize – The assignment should be posed daily and in a consistent location Preciseness – The assignment must state clearly and simply what students are to accomplish Accomplishment – Give the students objectives so they know what they are responsible for accomplishing and procedures for meeting those objectives

Verbs to Use Recall – Memorize, tell, identify Comprehension – Describe, summarize, retell in your own words Application – Construct, demonstrate, determine Analysis – Analyze, compare, distinguish Synthesis – Predict, compose, invent Evaluation – Appraise, judge, support