SWBAT... Understand Objectives by What They Are Supposed to Know and Do

To begin with the end in mind means to start with a clear understanding of your destination. It means to know where you're going so that you can better understand where you are now so that the steps you take are always in the right direction.

-Stephen R. Covey

One of the problems in education today is that ideas are constantly in flux. Teachers often have concepts, trends, books, and programs shoved down our throats at such a rapid pace they become hard to digest. One of the paramount issues is the use of objectives in our classroom.

We are told to write objectives on our board, but that leads to a lot of questions. Should objectives be written in student-friendly language or more formally? Should we also have our Essential Questions and Enduring Understandings on our boards? Should students read the objectives aloud each day? Should objectives be written using Bloom's Taxonomy verbs, or should we say what students will be about to do and how they will able to do it? Should objectives be written with explicit references to Common Core State Standards (CCSS) and question stems?

All of these questions have definitive answers, but the journey to best practices can be nebulous. All teachers can likely that Understanding by Design (Wiggins, McTighe) has completely revolutionized lesson and unit planning. Of all the education books that have been released over the past decade, this has arguably been the most influential.

1. Connect your objective to your daily assessments, including your Do Nows and Exit Slips. As you frame your lesson, make your objectives a part of your assessments at the beginning and end of class. You can reinforce what you are teaching to your students, and you can also continue your objective from the previous lesson if your students did not demonstrate mastery. While I always select my Exit Slip based on what I have just taught that day, the Do Now can serve as a "hook" for a lesson, development of background knowledge, or assessment from the previous lesson.

2. Engage students by having them read the objective aloud. (I write my objectives on my board so that all my students can do this easily.) When you Control the Game (another technique from Teach Like A Champion), you cold call students for a guided reading session. This dramatically increases your ratio, or the amount of learning that is occurring in your classroom at a specific point in time. You can cold call students to read the objective aloud. This way they are focused on paying attention on the lesson, what they need to be able to demonstrate, and the skills/strategies/content you will be teaching. Here's an example of what it may look like in a classroom:

Teacher: "Scholars, what does SWBAT stand for?"
Class (simultaneously): "Students will be able to!"
Teacher: "And what will you be able to do today (pause for cold call) Giselle?"
Student (reading the objective on the board): "Provide evidence for evolution and analyze branching trees."
Teacher: "Great job, Giselle. Let's give her some snaps." (Students snap fingers together.)

In addition to being a pacing technique, giving students "props", and just adding some energy to your room, this technique is a reminder to students of they will be assessed on. The students reading the objective is a way for them to take ownership; it's no longer the students being told what to do- they are now an integral component of creating a scenario of what the lesson will look like.

3. Use Bloom's Taxonomy verbs in your objective, and/or discuss what students will be able to know and do. (I use the caveat because I believe in using language that is comfortable to students, which I discuss next.) This has been the focus of debate in the past couple of years. I do not think that for the objectives posted in the front of the classroom it is necessary to add how students will be assessed. That can make your objectives long and cumbersome to understand for students' sake, especially depending on the method of assessment. You could write those on your lesson plan. Personally, I still love Bloom's Taxonomy verbs and think that beginning your objectives with them is a simple, concise way to help students not only understand what you are asking them do know, but the level of complexity required in their thinking. I have used a Bloom's question board in the back of my classroom for the past few years, but I am going to switch to a CCSS question stem board next. Regardless of how you use Bloom's in your room, it is a great way to create and focus your vision of your lesson.

4. Write your objectives in student-friendly language, not necessarily explicitly mentioning CCSS. Students may not be able to comprehend what you are trying to get them to do if you say that they should "cite textual evidence and make logical inferences." This should be done if you are reading the objective aloud. For your lesson plans, you can directly mention the standards, but I recommend that if you read your objective out loud, phrase it in a way so that students can understand. Again, your students should be able to comprehend what you are asking them to do, in addition to how you will be asking them to show mastery.

Yes, you could use the word "tantamount" in writing an objective, but is it necessary? No, and vocabulary that is far outside their Zone of Proximal Development may confuse them further.

5. Embed your objective continually throughout your lesson. In addition to the Do Nows and Exit Slips, use informal assessments such as cold calling and dipsticking to see if students are meeting your objective. This way you can be flexible and adjust your instruction as necessary. If you are teaching your students literary elements and they still cannot properly identify the difference between rising action and climax, you will need to adjust your instruction. You may need to change your objective if your students do not demonstrate background knowledge and skills that are required for what you intended to teach.

While I believe in embedding elements of UbD throughout units, I do not believe that it is necessary to write Enduring Understandings or Essential Questions on your board, although in the past I have done so with the latter. I would suggest only doing this if you are continually returning to these components of UbD and want to explicitly show your students that you are doing so. Having said that, embedding these elements into your units and lessons is essential, but I do not believe that writing them on the board for students is required.

6. Use CHAMP or a strong behavioral management system to remind students of your expectations to meet your objective. The vast majority of classroom management problems occur because students are not clear and what they are expected to do. I love CHAMP because it helps prevent these problems before they occur. Additionally, discipline is ineffective when it is punitive and students do not know why they are being disciplined, especially if the instructor did not make expectations clear from the beginning. I have heard several acronyms for CHAMP, but I use Conversation, Help, Activity, Movement, Product.

CHAMP poster for small-group work

CHAMP poster for independent work

Discipline should be pragmatic; every action and expectation is for a purpose. When students understand this, classrooms can run flawlessly. If you reinforce that your behavioral expectations are for helping students meet and exceed the objective, students will have a better grasp of why they are doing what they are required to do. For example, entering the classroom silently and beginning the Do Now immediately will not only earn them a "class point" (for a group reward system) but will also save time, and the more efficient the classroom is, the more instruction, guided practice, and assessment can occur. All of these factors will help students meet the objective.

7. Maximize best practices to meet your objective. Forget your teaching "methods"; think about techniques that will not only help your classroom run smoothly, but will also help you meet your objective. Cold Call, Normalize Error, Positive Framing, Right Means Right, 100%, No Opt Out, Right Means Right, Stretch It, First Five/Last Five (also referred to as Entry Routine), and frequent checks for understanding can all help your students meet and exceed your expectations.

8. Avoid misinterpretations of the Gradual Release of Responsibility. I discussed this in my first post about teaching To Kill A Mockingbird. While the "I do/We do/You do" method is great, it should be noted that it is nonlinear. Lessons often do not go in this formation. For example, every class period I begin with a Do Now. This is independent work. I do not begin in each class with modeling how to complete a Do Now effectively. This should be modeled in the beginning of the year through teaching procedures; that instance would be a good example of I/We/You. But if you begin each day with a Do Now, you are starting with a You Do. and it becomes clear that the destination to student mastery may have multiple paths.

I misinterpreted these methods a lot during my first year teaching when I taught only science. I thought that I should model how to complete a specific experiment, then students do certain components of the experiment with me (We Do), and then students complete the experiment in their groups. The reality is that this was not only non-productive but also could be confusing to students. When we do experiments today, I model the procedures (or at least parts of them without spoiling what will occur during the process of an experiment), and then students complete the experiment in their groups. What could be practical for a science classroom is using I/We/You to show students how to correctly answer analysis questions after an experiment. Essentially, a correct execution of the Gradual Release of Responsibility can help immensely in having your students meet their objectives. In juxtaposition, doing so incorrectly can prevent or hinder students from meeting what you are expecting them to know and do.

Objectives are essential- units, weeks, lessons, components of lessons. Understanding by Design revolutionized education and shows us that backwards design is not a way to teach, it is the way to teach. By using the techniques and strategies described above, you can help your students meet and exceed your expectations and help them realize their full potential.