Creating Objectives

I think one of the most difficult things about teaching, at least at first, is making attainable objectives. Teachers have a tendency to write objectives that are vague and can be achieved in many ways. For some learners this can be an issue, in part, because they want to have mastered the objective and, in part, because for some students the goal is just not going to happen. I know we have our percentages of students that we want to have attained their goal by the end of the class, or the thought that they will have achieved the goal in part and that might be what we are looking for. However, I would argue that this line of thinking can cause more problems for some of our students than solutions.

In light of that, DESE's ESL department has put out many documents that can help us narrow things down. On their website, there is a document called Next Generation ESL Project: Curriculum Resource Guide. Even though in the title it claims to be for ESL students, there are great tools in this (quite long and thorough) document for any sort of classroom teacher. (See link below)

In this document there are multiple suggestions for writing specific, S.M.A.R.T, goals, or rather objectives (Specific/Strategic, Measurable, Action-oriented, Rigorous/Realistic/Results-focused, Timed).

There are five ways modeled in the document in section 5.3 (in mine that is page 136 but I'm not sure that will transfer to yours since you will be downloading to a different computer and computers are fickle creatures). I will highlight one below (because it is the one that I like and use the most and therefore have the most experience with).

All of the objectives (now, please mind that these are ESL specific but can be easily modified to fit any classroom) (tired of parenthesis yet?) begin with "Students will be able to" some schools may change this to an "I can" statement when presenting these to the class in students friendly language.

Model number three used "Students will be able to..." and then a key academic practice such as, compare and contrast characters in the story, state an opinion about Rosa Parks' protest, or explain how to find the sum. Finally, we specify the language that will be used to perform the academic practice such as, using conjunctions in complex sentences, using the simple present tense, or using ordinal numbers (first, second, third).

Your objectives will then look something like this:
Students will be able to + key academic practice + specific academic language form or feature

"Students will be able to compare and contrast characters in the story using conjunctions in complex sentences."

"Students will be able to state an opinion about Rosa Parks' protest using the simple past tense."

"Students will be able to explain how to find the sum using ordinal numbers (first, second, third)."

I actually enjoy making objectives with these guides because they help me get more specific with what I want the students to be able to do. It also helps the students to know what they will be working on. Some of the models even have what supports you will be using with the students, such as, groups, partners, graphic organizers, etc. These can really help your students to be more successful.

Here is the link, if you are interested, to the downloadable PDF version:  

www.doe.mass.edu/ell/curriculum/ResourceGuide.pdf 

Assessments: Do we have to do them?

Well, yes, of course we do! But the real question is how, how are we going to assess our students? Real people in real life don't always take multiple choice tests...there are other options. Are those other options good for our students? Yes! Tests should have more meaning to the students so that they can actually learn from the material that we are teaching them! What better way to do that than project based learning with a real and tangible outcome that can also be used as a test or rather an assessment. 

I would like to expand on that thought through the lens of the project I have been working on with CAL and the state of Mass for writing units. We have talked about learning goals, knowledge, skills, understandings, essential questions and how to work through each of these. Now using all of that information we must make an assessment. We are working with the end in mind, therefore, what is it that you want your students to glean from this experience? How will they show what they have learned? Well first, you need to know what you are evaluating the students on-look back at your knowledge and skills, what are you really teaching these students?

Once you have that down you can design your test. I encourage you to put that multiple choice/essay test back in the drawer and brainstorm some real life situation that could impact your students in a deeper way. Get them to create something where they have to transfer their learning into ideas that will possible make the world a better place, or make them a better person because they applied their learning to something bigger than them. Social justice is a great place to start with many things. Perhaps you can have them build or design something in math, write a convincing letter to the principal or the president for some kind of change in their world, a public service announcement, or if you're not feeling that adventurous simply have them create a video, song, or even just a poster outlining something they learned (just to change things up a little).

If you're stuck because it's the end of the year, think forward to next year, embellish on the unit that you're working on and create your CEPA (Curriculum Embedded Performance Assessment) in a way that you feel comfortable (or not, be adventurous!) and that will help your students focus more on what they can so for the world and less on what the world can do for them.

In that light, this past week at CAL we talked about argumentation. Most students love to argue and it is an important part of learning. Here are some great resources for teaching argumentation in the classroom:

http://www.argumentationtoolkit.org/

https://www.scoe.org/files/Argumentation-Activities.pdf 

Happy Planning!