Protocol for communicating the lesson goals

Consider these two similar class openings that might precede the same exact lesson and assessment.

Opening #1
Teacher:  Today, we're learning how to use participles at the beginning, middle, and end of a sentence.  We're going to review the definitions, then you'll work in groups on a creative writing assignment that asks you to use what you've learned.  Finally, we'll do a quick quiz that tests your knowledge.

Opening #2
Teacher:  Today, by the end of class, you'll be able to demonstrate your skill in writing sentences with participles at the beginning, middle, and end of a sentence.  After reviewing the definitions, we'll  practice several times in groups and pairs to make sure that you've learned it correctly and deeply. These practices will also be little creative writing exercises.   At the end of class, we'll do a quick quiz to help me see how well each of us understands.

The small difference is crucial.  The first one emphasizes what the teacher is presenting and what the students are "doing" in the class.  In contrast, the second emphasizes what the students should be learning and how (and why) they'll be learning and assessed.     Dylan Wiliam might say that the key question of teaching has shifted from in these two openings from  “what am I going to teach and what are the pupils going to do?” towards “how am I going to teach this and what are the pupils going to learn?" 

I am trying to use class openings like the second one because I believe it has a positive effect on student engagement.  It casts the teacher as a coach and organizer of learning activities.  It makes the quiz at the end about feedback rather than individual performance.

Moss and Brookhart might suggest that we add two other pieces to the opening: a preview of the assessment task and an explanation about why this learning is important for the class and for life.  

Those two things would be easy to add to Opening #2.  The teacher might add, orally, the quiz format (The quiz will be something like this: I'll give you a sentence stem, like 'The zombie ate my shoulder" and I'll ask you to add to this, like by adding a past participle phrase after the subject of the sentence.  That'll be the whole quiz.)  The teacher might also add a quick reflection about the importance of this skill.  (We've been talking about how its important to have a variety of sentence types in your writing, and we've been practicing both compound (FANBOY) and complex sentences.  Those will get you pretty far in school and in life.  But the next step in sophistication, something that professional authors do all the time to bring life to their writing, is using past and presenting participles.  If you are able to use them in your writing in a variety of ways, you'll be on your way to writing life a professional.  It's a good tool to have in your tool belt.)