Classroom!

Learning objectives, targets, etc.....if you're in the field of education, chances are you've heard about these! I've posted my targets for years, but that's as far as I took it, until this year. I'm a firm believer that writing something down increases the chances of committing that to memory. This year, I decided to make my 7th grade Social Studies kids more responsible for their learning. So here's what I did.....

Each kids gets a folder.  For my two sections of students, about 40 kids, this cost me about $10.00.  This includes loose left paper, folders and name badges for the front of the folders. Had I been prepared, I'm sure my school would have allowed me to buy these folders and paper before the school year started.  As it turns out, I'm not always that organized.  

Every day the students begin the class by completing a warm-up and then writing the target in their folders/journals.  After completing the warm-up, we discuss the target.  Then we complete our lesson for the day, whatever that may be.  At the end of the day, I save the last five minutes for students to write the response to the target in their journals. 

Example: 
Learning Target: Students will identify the four MAIN causes of WWI.
Response: Militarism, Alliances, Imperialism, Nationalism

On Monday, while the kids are completing their warm-up, I look at their journals to hold them accountable. 

I've only been doing this for a few days, but so far so good!  I'm hoping their assessments can come from these targets.  After all, isn't that the purpose of targets to begin with?!