3.3 Goals, Objectives, and Thematic Planning

Goals and Objectives Defined To begin your project, you will need to define what you want your student to learn, know and do.
Developing Goals and Objectives Readings and Resources

 

Goals and Objectives Defined

 

Goals are the general or overall concepts we want our students to learn.

Hutchings and Standley see goal setting as vision setting (Global Project Based Learning, p 68). They suggest the following questions:

  • What do I want for my students? 
  • What do I want for myself? 
  • What do I want for my community? 
  • Why do I want to do it? (Connection with curriculum) 
  • How will I reach my final goal? (What are the short term goals to meet final goals?) 

Objectives are what Grant Wiggins and Jay McTighe refer to in Understanding by Design as "enduring understandings." These are the concepts we want to be sure our students truly understand and not just learn.

Objectives are based on goals and are measurable. When writing measurable objectives it is important to consider the following:

  1. What is the intended learning outcome?
  2. What important cognitive skills do I want my students to understand?
  3. What social, effective, and metacognitive skills do I want my students to learn?
  4. What types of problems do I want my students to solve?
  5. What concepts and principles do I want my students to be able to apply? When writing measurable objectives it is important to know how you plan to assess whether the objectives have been met. Traditionally educators have planned curriculum and instruction by planning the activities before planning assessment. A more powerful model is to plan assessment at the same time you plan your objectives. By considering what assessment strategies you will use to measure content learning and understanding up front in the planning process, you are assuring that your objectives will be met. It is important to consider multiple assessment strategies and measures. Some examples are normed reference tests, teacher made tests, checklists, rubrics, portfolios, charts of what students know, want to learn, and actually do learn, projects, journals, and essays.

Finally, when writing a measurable objective consider what students will do to meet the objective. 

  • Will students work independently, with a partner or in a group? 
  • If students are to work in collaborative groups, how many students will be in each group and how will groups be chosen? 
  • What tasks will be done in the classroom, and what tasks will be done elsewhere? 
  • How often and where will students work on the project? 
  • How long will this project take? 
  • Who will determine what is to be learned and who will measure the outcome?

 

Goals and Objectives Readings and Resources:

Readings:

 Web Resources:

This Planning and Classroom Management [PDF] includes the following articles:

  • Project Outcomes; Identifying Skills
  • Habits of Mind
  • Project Activities and Tasks
  • Examples of Project Activities
  • Scaffolding Ideas

 

 

Back to Top