Outstanding Lessons 3: Learning Objectives

 I recently read The Managing Workload Pocketbook from the brilliant Teachers' Pocketbooks series. The book was written by Caroline Bentley-Davies.

In my third in a series of posts, I look at advice given about learning objectives.

It is often good practice to share lesson objectives with the class at the start of the lesson. In many classes these are recorded on the whiteboard and explained to the students. When used effectively they can:

• Signpost the learning, keying pupils in to the purpose of the lesson and making clear what the teacher will be focusing on.
• Ensure that the lesson actually helps the pupils' learning because the activities clearly focus on the objective.
• Make a distinction between the tasks and the learning.
• Allow a clear way to review learning during and at the end of the lesson.

However, if every lesson starts with an explanation of what pupils will be learning - and especially if students have to copy this down - lessons soon become tedious, routine and ineffective. Those who are slow writers or who find literacy challenging will struggle. Sometimes you will want to:

• Surprise the pupils
• Make them think!
• Disguise the 'unpopular topic'
• Develop pupil independence by getting them consider: what is it you already know about this topic? And what do you think you need to know about it?

Outstanding teachers ensure it is clear what pupils are learning but they know there are many ways to convey this.