A learning target, a specific and student-friendly instructional objective for the day, can be shared effectively through several methods.
Methods for Sharing Learning Targets
According to the reference provided, teachers can share learning targets in the following ways:
- Verbally: Clearly state the learning target aloud to the students.
- Visually: Display the learning target using a written format, such as on a whiteboard, projector, or handout.
- Sharing Student Exemplars: Use examples of student work, both strong and weak, to illustrate the learning target. This helps students understand what successful achievement looks like.
- Contextualization: Explain how the current lesson connects to previous lessons and what will follow. This helps students understand the bigger picture and the relevance of the learning target.
Example
Let's say the learning target is: "Students will be able to identify the main idea of a paragraph."
Here's how you might share it using the methods described:
| Method | Description |
|---|---|
| Verbally | "Today, our goal is to be able to find the main idea in any paragraph we read." |
| Visually | Display the words "I can identify the main idea of a paragraph" on the board. |
| Student Exemplars | Show examples of paragraphs with correctly and incorrectly identified main ideas, explaining why each is right/wrong. |
| Contextualization | "Yesterday, we worked on understanding sentences. Today, we're using those sentence skills to understand whole paragraphs. Tomorrow, we'll use paragraph understanding to read entire stories." |
By utilizing these multiple approaches, teachers can ensure students understand and internalize the learning target, increasing the likelihood of successful learning outcomes.
