1)
Write your content and language objectives for your lesson on Thursday or Friday. These will not be set in stone - you can change them, tweak them, narrow them or broaden them as you develop your lesson. Remember:
-a content objective tells what you want students to know and do. For example: Students will read the short story "I Hate Homework" and write about how they relate or don't relate to the main character.
-a language objective tells how students will access the content. For example: Students will learn the vocabulary words: "Book Report" and "Despise". Another example: Students will use the writing structure: "I am similar to the character because..." and "I am different from the character because..."
2) How will you assess your objectives?
3) Why is it important to only assess your objectives?
1.Content Objectives:
ReplyDelete-Students will wirte a snapshot story about a memory they have from something that happened in their life, describing in detail where they were, who was there, what was happening and why.
-Students will make an illustration to go with their writing.
Language Objective: Students will use past tense verbs to describe a memory.
2. I would use a rubric to assess whether students met these objectives. The rubric would only assess whether students incorporated the ideas and grammatical forms which we focused on in the lesson.
3. It is important to only assess what you are teaching so that neither teacher nor students get overwhelmed with what is incorrect. The teacher can also see how well she or he taught something if they only focus on assessing what was taught in students' work.
Content Objectives
ReplyDeleteStudent will be able to identify the main and secondary characters in a story based on the roles the characters play in the story.
Language Objectives
Students will be able to classify into categories the characters of a story (based on their characteristics) and present it aloud to the rest of the class. The categories are:
Is the name of the character on the cover?.
How often is the character name said by other characters?
How many pictures have the character in it?
The students would be assess by completing a worksheet and giving a presentation.
(ask me if you want to see the actual worksheet)
It is important to only assess my objective because that is what I am teaching, and it is fair.
Imagine if I spend an entire week learning about whales and I give you a test on ancient Pompeii.
Not fair right?
Context: This lesson is for a class of high school beginning ELL students in a contained classroom.
ReplyDelete1. Content and Language Objectives:
Content Objective: Students will produce a one-page narrative about a typical day in their lives.
Language Objective: Students will use vocabulary to write about a sequence of events: “first”, “next”, “then”, “after that”, “later”, “finally” and telling the time.
2. Like Zelda, I would use a rubric to assess whether students met the objectives (length and usage of vocabulary for expressing a sequence of events)
3. It is important to assess only our objectives so that the student does not become frustrated to the point of shutting down. If a student is returned a piece of work that is covered with marks and notes, it is impossible for him/her to know what progress he/she is making. In this case, while the student might have performed well in the objective for the assignment, if a multitude of other mistakes are marked, the student may think that he/she is not successful despite his/her hard work and may give up. If we assess only our objectives, the student can be more aware of his/her progress, will feel a sense of accomplishment when he/she does well, and will better understand the areas in which he/she needs additional assistance with less risk of the level of frustration that can come with excessive correcting.
Content Objective: Students will be able to summarize the Aztec Ritual of Human Sacrificing.
ReplyDeleteLanguage Objective: Students will use content specific academic vocabulary correctly (sacrifice, bloodletting, ritual, captives and temples) while discussing and summarizing Aztec Sacrifice
I will be assessing the use of correct content vocabulary and summary of the historical reading around Aztec sacrifices through story boarding. The students will create a storyboard summarizing the reading with dialogue with correct vocabulary.
It is important to only assess the students on the objectives that were provided to the students at the beginning of the lesson so they know exactly what we are looking for. If we corrected and assessed on every little thing the students would feel defeated and frustrated with the class and material. Similar to what Elise said, the point of education is to create life long learners and if we are always correcting it is hard for students to see their progress if we are always pointing out everything they are doing wrong.
Content objective:
ReplyDeleteStudents will gain background knowledge about the author of Animal Farm, George Orwell.
Language objective:
Students will learn about concepts necessary in the comprehension of the themes in Animal Farm
Vocabulary:
Totalitarianism: Total control of the people by the govt
Socialism: The people control themselves equally
Communism: People control themselves through the structure of govt
Pen name: A fake name some authors give themselves to keep their real identity a secret
Assessment: After the reading I will have the students individually create timelines of George Orwell's life and illustrate three key events they find important and interesting.
It is important to only assess the students on the objective defined beforehand because that is what they have been focusing on during the lesson. When the objective is clearly stated, the students can try to achieve that goal and feel more relaxed in all the other aspects of the lesson. This way they will be more motivated to participate and learn without feeling that they may be assessed on something they can't grasp fully. Hopefully when they are in this relaxed state their internalization of the lesson will be greater.
Does anyone have any advice for my vocab definitions. I tried to make them very simple but I think it may have just made them more confusing. suggestions?
ReplyDeleteOK, as of this moment, my objectives are:
ReplyDeleteContent Objective: The student will describe the link between an object/picture/photograph of their choice and a personal memory by writing a sentence to be used as the beginning of a longer story.
Language Objective: The student will correctly use past tense verbs within the sentence structure: This reminds me of__(who, what, where, how, when)__because___(why)___.
My language objective assessment would be to check that verb tense(s) were correct and the sentence structure was used and give the student feedback.
My content assessment would be to ask the student how they felt about their sentence and to tell me their ideas about the story they are planning to write.
An authentic assessment would be to include the writing exercise in an individual writing portfolio.
It is important to focus only on correcting the immediate objective(s) because you do not want to discourage the student by pointing out any other errors. It could become overwhelming and inhibiting. Errors outside the immediate objective(s) are valuable information that can become the objectives of future lessons.
1) Content Objective:
ReplyDeleteStudents will summarize the main points from a news article about the effects of being “unplugged” from technology for a day.
Language Objective:
Students will be able to use the following vocabulary words/phrases correctly in summarizing the article: unplugged, denied access, log on to, survey, participant, online technology, digital technology.
2) How will you assess your objectives?
I am still brainstorming ideas of what activity the students will do in summarizing the article. I’ve thought of having pairs of students create a dialogue discussing the article where they use the vocabulary words. I’ve also thought of having the students create a cognitive map about the article and then take turns retelling/summarizing the article with a partner. I’ve also thought of having the students write sentences using the vocabulary or even doing a chain type of game where they pull one of the vocab words from a hat and having to verbally create a sentence and the next student tells if the sentence is correct and if not makes a correction and then grabs their own word. All of these activities would be ways to assess the objectives.
3) Why is it important to only assess your objectives?
If you assessed the students on things other than the objectives, the students would not know what is expected of them and it could create an environment where they are afraid to make mistakes because they might be graded on their unsuccessful risks they took with English or corrected for language structures or words that they haven’t learned the correct forms or meanings yet.
Content Objective
ReplyDeleteStudents will choose between two superpowers to write about and explain their reasons for making that decision.
Language Objective
Students will use supporting details and specific descriptive words such as verbs, adjectives, and adverbs to explain how they would use their chosen superpower.
I will assess the objectives during the lesson by asking the students to describe their superpowers through informal evaluation. Once the students have finished their writing, we will use a rubric for self and teacher assessment.
It is important to only assess the two specific objectives because otherwise the assessment could be overwhelming or unfair to students, especially those in earlier stages of the language. Although we do want to be helping students develop accuracy, we do not want to damage their confidence by critiquing them too harshly. For English Language Learners, the lesson should be focusing solely on the objectives being covered as those are the goals to develop for this particular lesson.
Hi all,
ReplyDeleteYour objectives look fantastic.
Martha - In the Socialism definition - change "themselves" to "society". Communism: A system (an idea of a system) in which property and profit belong to everyone. Other definitions look great.
Kelly - I have an assessment idea for you - remind me tomorrow.
Content Objective: Students will be able to read a short article about the benefits of working in groups (or something else?) and summarize the main ideas and details to the rest of the class.
ReplyDeleteLanguage Objective: Students will create semantic webs to learn the vocabulary words and predict what the article will be about.
Formative Assessment: 1) Teacher will check the main idea and sentences underlined. 2) Teacher will assess students’ ideas about group work (or other topic). Students will talk or write about what they like about group work (or other topic) and what they dislike about group work (or other topic).
I'm over-thinking my topic a bit and keep changing it because I think it's no good. I'm having a hard time finding reading excerpts at the right level. I want to keep the content objective of reading for main ideas and details, so I might try to find a story with a family theme like I was thinking before.
My objectives as of right now...(I reserve the right to change them)
ReplyDeleteContent Objective:
Students will be able to describe a picture as if they were in it, by using their senses.
Language Objective:
Students will use expressive adjectives to describe 'their setting', making their writing more interesting.
Assessment:
During the process, I would make informal assessments, to see if I needed to re-teach, or elaborate on anything. On their final writing piece I would use a rubric to assess whether or not they used expressive adjectives as they relate to the senses in their writing.
Why only assess the objective? So that the students can really focus in on the learning points, and not have to worry about making mistakes, or having to think about too much!
Not focusing on EVERYTHING promotes confidence, risk taking, and creativity.
Jen - I have searched all over for a family reading but am having no luck. I spoke with Sherry from WAL tonight - she is delivering some copies to me before 8AM tomorrow. She said she would look for a few family readings (maybe from the True Stories series) to bring over. Hopefully we can come up with something!
ReplyDeleteIn response to Sean's objectives:
ReplyDeleteI really like your "choosing a superpower" idea. It will be a fun way for the students to connect with a topic that is interesting to them. It reminds me of one of my favorite activities I did with my students. I gave every student a picture of a person from a magazine. The pictures had more than just a person's face but told somethings about the person. I then told the class that all the people in the pictures where special because they were all heroes or had super powers. They had to come up with a story about what that person did to make them a hero or superman/woman/baby. They then told their stories to each other and in groups of three they discussed the stories they had heard and who they thought was the greatest hero/superperson. After all the groups had nominated someone, each of the nominees told their stories to the whole class and then we voted on who was the greatest. In almost every single class the one year old girl won.
I look forward to discussing superpowers on Friday!
Jen.....perhaps there are stories about barn-raising....this was certainly an example of the benefits of working in a group...also for a more contemporary example, a story about Habitat for Humanity and how a group can get so much done.
ReplyDeleteI completely understand your "overthinking" ...;-)...I do that, too. I think your idea is good because of the life-lesson that the students would acquire...plow on....
Cool lesson Kelly! I want to do it myself!
ReplyDeleteSean, your lesson made me think of this great story I heard on NPR a couple of months ago:
ReplyDeletehttp://www.thisamericanlife.org/radio-archives/episode/178/superpowers
I don't know if listening to and responding to an excerpt might be useful during some of your pre-writing activities, but you might enjoy listening to this anyway just for fun. It was one of my favorite pieces I heard this year (hence why I immediately remembered it months later!) My favorite part was Act 3. Ooh, Act 1 was good, too...The whole thing is good!