5 Learning Targets for Secondary English Class

Although it hasn't been without stress and hard work, we have learned a lot about learning targets this year.  Here are five examples from the department in the past couple months.  They represent excellent thinking.  This post ends with a review of Moss and Brookhart's definition of "learning targets" and their reminder that listing the learning target at the beginning of class is a part of a larger opening-class communication.

English 1:

I can  have a lengthy, natural, literary conversation about a novel with their peers.

I am able to name our first three comma rules (FANBOYS, coordinate adjectives, and Restrictive vs. non-restrictive).  

I am able to create a "rule" for FANBOY comma use after reviewing three example sentences.

English 2:

Given a rhetorical situation and evidence, I can analyze the impact of that evidence on a specific audience.

English 1H:  

I can identify examples of figurative language in a short chapter and discuss its purpose

I can find signposts and discuss the revealed deeper meaning on characterization, theme, author's purpose

English 2H: 
Students learning targets for the lesson:

Review:

• I can define tone.
• I can identify words and phrases that create a particular tone.

New:

• I can choose “strong” tone words and phrases to describe a passage.
• I can identify multiple “snippets” of evidence to support a conclusion about the tone(s) of a passage.

AP Language:  

In a group discussion, I will display the attributes of successful communication, such as listening, articulating and exchanging. 

When I am leading the discussion, I will demonstrate an ability to facilitate through questions created, which will prompt my classmates to think differently and creatively about the topic, rather than summarize the sources. 

In Learning Targets: Helping Students Aim for Understanding Today's Lessons, Moss and Brookhart write, "A learning target describes, in language that students understand, the lesson-sized chunk of information, skills, and reasoning processes that students will come to know deeply and thoroughly."

Moss and Brookhart make plain that learning targets don't stand alone as just a inert sentence on the overhead.  They are embedded in developing an understanding of what students will be doing in class for that lesson.  They say:

Students must know what good word means in today's lesson

- what they are expected to learn

- how well they are expected to learn it

-what they will be asked to do to demonstrate their learning

-How well they will be expected to do it

This can be done by providing "look fors" and "listen fors" for students.