Week 3: Setting goals and writing objectives
January 28-February 3, 2008
Getting there...
Objectives
By the end of Week 3, we should all have:
- Worked on the objectives for a class plan after having defined and analysed our students' profiles and needs (carried out in Week 2).
- Thought about what we want to achieve in our class and how we should go about doing it
- Read the online articles on the Goals and Objectives Links folder in Yahoo Groups.
- Written the goals and objectives for a class plan based on the information from our Needs Analysis (Google docs).
- Posted the link to our Goals and Objectives Google documents into the Corresponding folder in Yahoo Links (Our Google documents).
- Looked at the goals and objectives written by other groups in their Google docs (See other groups' links at Our Google documents in YG)
- Sent comments on this experience through the message thread in Yahoo Group Messages
- Discussed our impressions with our group colleagues in a meeting in WizIQ
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- Any problems or doubts we might have had while writing our goals and objectives
- Any problems we might foresee while trying to implement these
- Group feedback – opinions, ideas, suggestions
- Any problems or doubts we might have had while writing our goals and objectives
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Made adjustments to our goals and objectives if needed.
Activities
Reflecting on goals and objectives
Now that you have a better idea of your students and their needs, we can now concentrate on setting goals and writing objectives for one class. We suggest that you continue working with a group of teachers who have similar teaching situations and students with similar needs. If you prefer to work on your own, that's fine as well.
Let's be honest...
Do you really write goals and objectives for each one of your classes? Do you ever think about them, even if you don't write them? If you do, think about the difficulties you have had while trying to write these goals and objectives? Why do you think that this is so difficult to do, even after years of teaching? Tell us about it by commenting in our post on Goals and Objectives in our Lesson Planning blog.
What other people have to say.
Let's take a look at these articles we have selected for you. You can find additional reading material on our Goals and Objectives Links folder in our Yahoo Group.
The three articles cover the same material, albeit to different degrees.
- In Why do we need Learning Objectives, taken from the PENN STATE Research on Teaching, Learning & Technology site, the authors look at the difference between goals and objectives before going on look at the different types of learning objectives.
- In How to write Clear Objectives, taken from the same site, the authors look at the ABCD method and give some examples.
- In Writing Quality Learning Objectives, taken from Park University, the authors look at the purpose of learning objectives and give both guidelines on writing objectives as well as tips for improving them. There is also a Review checklist.
Remember, you can get more reading material from our Folder as well as the links at the end of each of the above articles.
Giving your own views.
Now that you have read the articles, do you agree with what the authors have written? Have you used any of the stages they suggest in their texts? How useful have they been? How useful do you think they will be when you write your own objectives? Is there any additional information you think you could add that might make the writing process easier or clearer? Let us know by posting your comment to our in Yahoo Group Messages thread.
Working together
"Coming together is a beginning, staying together is progress, and working together is success."
Henry Ford
Now let's get down to work. We'd like you to work with a group of participants who teach in the same area. You could choose to work with the same group you formed in Week 2, when you looked at your own and your students' needs, or you might decide to form a new group, or work on your own. It's up to you! We think that working collaboratively is a good way for more experienced teachers to support those who have just begun to teach. New teachers also have unique ways of looking at situations which might lead more experienced colleagues to get rid of the mental cobwebs and get fresh ideas.
Writing goals and objectives for a class
So as a group, we'd like you to write the goals and objectives for one class. First of all, you'd have to think about a learning environment, get a students profile, the general course objectives and then write the goals and objectives for one class. You can have initial conversations through any of the applicatons available: Yahoo Messenger or Skype if you'd like to have your own group meeting or through a thread at our Yahoo Group email. Then, you can work collaboratively by using a Google document where each person can add their bit. If you need to refresh your memory on how Google documents work, take a look at this video.
Discussing our impressions (Called off until Sunday, Feb 10th at 15 GMT)
Let's discuss our impressions with our group colleagues in a meeting in WiZiQ.
For a clearer idea of what WiZiQ is and how it works, please watch this video.
Topics for discussion:
- Any problems or doubts we might have had while writing our goals and objectives
- Any problems we might foresee while trying to implement these
Group feedback – opinions, ideas, suggestions
We don't want to let Week 3 go without sharing this message of collaborativeness with you. Click on the image below.
Homework
- If needed, make adjustments to your class goals and objectives before entering the world of Materials and writing your Lesson Plan