Rpls2
Student #1 and #2
Student #1
Learning Objectives
Unit on To Kill a Mockingbird 6-8th grade: Knowledge-level learning objectives
· The student will list main characters in text.
· The student will define racism and provide textual examples (chapter 1-5).
· The student will recall modern examples of racism, and support with newspaper articles (online or hard copy).
· The student will relate to the character of Scout and find similarities and differences.
· The student will identify Jim Crow laws and detail effects mentioned in the text.
· Select areas of text which may be considered offensive and state why.
Unit on To Kill a Mockingbird 9-12th grade: Higher-level learning objectives
· The student will summarize the Great Depression and describe one prominent event.
· The student will analyze two characters of choice (chapters 6-10).
· The student will compare/contrast judicial processes of the Great Depression era and modern times.
· The student will illustrate how Scout changed from the beginning of the book until well along in the text (chapters 11-15).
· The student will appraise the authors choice to use offensive language.
Focus is extremely important for most activities. This is tremendously true for instruction in the classroom. Without a focus, lessons may be given but they are not tied to any motive. Learning can occur without objectives, but it is aimless. Objectives offer that much needed pathway. “Well-defined and articulated learning objectives are important because they: provide students with a clear purpose to focus their learning efforts. direct your choice of instructional activities. guide your assessment strategies” (University of Colorado, 2007). Teachers need to have learning objectives that are based on skills, units of instruction, or even tied to state standards. However, objectives are not just blanket statements. According to Young (2016), instructional objectives accomplish the following things:
• They provide a direct link between the curriculum content and procedures for students to master that content. • They provide a clear path for assessment, or a way to determine whether students have indeed learned what the instructor intended for them to learn. • They provide clear information to the students about where they are headed and what is expected of them. (p. 15).
Objectives should be aligned to instruction and tests; including formative tests all the way through standardized assessments. This is true for all students.
The objectives in lessons should contain Bloom’s verbs or action verbs that are adapted from Bloom’s Taxonomy; “a taxonomy of educational objectives for the cognitive domain and delineates six levels of cognitive complexity ranging from the knowledge level (simplest) to the evaluation level (most complex)” (Kubiszyn & Borich, 2016, p. 95). These action verbs help teachers determine what students should be able to do. They are important to use for decent objectives. In my lessons, I concentrated on Bloom’s verbs.
In the example of To Kill a Mockingbird lesson plans, objectives were tied to the book, but also real life. Students were to use information from the book to help them achieve the objectives; however, they were also to relay into modern news and life. The 6th-8th grade students were to use primarily knowledge skills. The objectives did not require them to dig deep; however, they would have been able to remember a lot of the text information. Any tests would be surface level about the text. The 9th-12th graders would have been required to delve deeper. The information that they acquire will help them to understand, use, examine, produce, and assess the text. It is more sophisticated learning, but also more valuable. Using this higher-level of learning will help students make a connection to the text that will help on tests. More importantly, it will likely make it something that they remember for years to come. Children who use higher-level thinking skills on such material benefit greatly.
References
Kubiszyn, T., & Borich, G. D. (2016). Educational testing and measurement (11th ed.). Newark, NJ: Wiley Textbooks.
University of Colorado. (n.d.). Module 3: Learning objectives. Retrieved from http://www.ucdenver.edu/faculty_staff/faculty/center-for-faculty-development/Documents/tutorials/Assessment/module3/index.htm.
Young, S. (2016). Writing useful instructional objectives in physical education. Strategies, 29(2), 14-19. doi:10.1080/08924562.2015.1133356
Student #2
Learning objectives puts the focus on the student and learning rather than the teacher and teaching methods. A teacher must determine how the student can best demonstrate his or her abilities and learning objectives can allow students to participate as active and independent learners. Knowledge-level objectives require students to remember and recall what they learned during the instructional time. These objectives should be a clear and concise statement of the skill or skills that your student will be expected to perform after a unit of instruction (Kubiszyn & Borich, 2016). The following are 6 knowledge-level objectives for Social Studies in grades 6-8: Students will learn how an invention shaped history and gain an understanding of Chronological History through the creation of annotated timeline.
1. Students will research the history of an important invention.
2. Students will work in pairs to select an invention or innovation that shaped history.
3. After researching students will find and identify important dates in the history of the invention.
4. Students will list each important date in chronological order.
5. Students will work in pairs to write journal entries describing historical fiction accounts of each important date.
6. Students will write a cited page to cite images and research sources.
Comprehension level objectives require some level of understanding ( Kubiszyn & Borich, 2016). Students must be able to comprehend the meaning and interpretation of instruction and problems. The following are 6-Comprehension-level objectives for Social Studies in grades 9-12: Students will learn about democracy in America through an examination and study of Colonial Times in American and through the American Revolution.
1. Students will identify the economics, social and geographic factors that influence the colonization efforts.
2. Students will describe the economic, political, and social patterns evident in the development of the 13 English Colonies.
3. Students will explain historic and modern regional differences that had their orgins in the Colonial period.
4. Students will identify the significant events, ideas, and methods used to justify or resist the Revolutionary movement.
5. Students will describe the contributions of key people and groups to the Revolution.
6. Students will explain how the ideas and events of the American Revolution continues to shape American identity.
Reference
Kubisyn, T., & Borich, G. (2016). Educational testing & measurement: Classroom application and practice (11th ed.) Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons, Inc.