LEARNING TARGETS

Adapted from: Moss, C. M., & Brookhart, S. M. (2012). Learning Targets: Helping
Students Aim for Understanding in Today's Lesson. Alexandria, VA: ASCD.

Chalk talk

Go around the room Silently and

Answer the questions

Comment on what other people have written

What is a Learning target?

What it is

Learning Target is NOT an instructional Objective

Instructional objective
Teacher Language
Guide instruction
Purpose: unify outcomes across a series of related lessons or an entire
unit

Learning Target
Student friendly language
Use it to aim for understanding in the days lesson
Lesson sized chunks of:

Information
Skills

Words, pictures, actions or a combination of the three

Learning Targets in a nutshell

Teacher shares the target with

the students by:

TELLING
SHOWING
ENGAGING

Students need to be engaged in a

performance of understanding
Activity- that simultaneously
shows students:

TEVAL:

C1

Communicates lesson objectives

and content clearly

C2

Activities aligned with student

knowledge and skills,
differentiating as appropriate

what the target is

develop their understanding of
concepts and skills that make up
the target
produce evidence of their
progress towards the target

What makes assessments

meaningful?

Learning Target Sentence stems

I can
To be able to do this, I
must learn and
understand that

I will show I can do this

by

Stems

similar to these are

used in the middle school

What will I be able to do

when I finish todays
lesson?
What idea, topic, subject
is important for me to
learn and understand so I
can use this information to
do it?
How will I be asked to
show that I can do this?
How well will I have to do
it?

Just because you have done it in the

past does not mean that it works for
kids today.

Effective lessons contain:

Performance of understanding
What

will I be able to do at when Ive

finished this lesson

Deepen their understanding

What

important idea, topic, or subject

is important for me to learn and
understand so that I can hit the target?

Produce evidence
What

will I do to show that I

understand the target, and how well
will I have to do it?

At the end of a lesson

Reflect
Did students deepen their understanding of essential content
and skills?
What

evidence did the students produce that supports your

conclusions about what they knew or were able to do?

Student
How

question:

will I know when I am producing quality work?

Teacher

shares criteria with students

Working with your content areas

Working with your content areas

Is your learning target and SLO (that you brought)

student friendly?
Does it fit the criteria presented today?
Is it aligned with your curriculum?
Is it vertically aligned?
Share with your groups!

Questions to consider
From the student view point:
What will I be able to do at the end of todays lesson?
What will I have to learn and understand so that I can
use this information to do it?
How will I be asked to show that I can do it?
How well will I have to do it?
From the teacher view point:
How does this align with your course curriculum?
How does this align vertically with the other grade level
courses?

Exit Slip
What are you taking away from
today?
Any questions?