Two Strategies for Developing Meaningful Learning Targets

Learning targets, also known as learning objectives, or “I can” statements, are established goals for student learning. Educators set learning targets ahead of a lesson so that students understand what they are supposed to be learning, why it is important for them to learn, and how they should be able to demonstrate that they understand the concept. 

Developing High Quality Learning Targets 

To establish high quality goals for student learning, anchor on these practices (Berger et al., 2014): 

• Introduce the objectives at the beginning of the lesson 

• Write the objectives in a way that makes sense to students 

• Ensure that when asked, students can reflect on their progress toward the learning objective 

• That students understand how to make changes to their academic behaviors, if needed, to reach the goal 

• At the end of the lesson, students should be able to reflect upon their mastery of the learning target  

Example Strategies to Integrate and Reach Learning Targets 

Strategy 1: Academic Integration  

Align academic standards with necessary social-emotional and behavioral skills for whole student success. As an educator, one of the best tools in your toolbox is helping students to see which dispositions or academic mindsets they will need to be successful in meeting a standard. When using an assessment tool like the DESSA, educators can map social-emotional skills students may be demonstrating, or not yet demonstrating, and connect them to academic learning objectives. 

Social emotional “I can” statements that align with academic concepts take planning. As you plan for meaningful instruction, many educators typically start with the what. What standards are we teaching? We also plan for the how of instruction. How are we going to get students to master the standards? 

If we stop there, though, we’re missing a crucial piece of instruction if we want students to be partners with us in learning experience. As students master the standards, what skills will they need to use to intentionally grow their knowledge and interact effectively with each other in the process of learning? 

Let’s think about the types of social-emotional skills students might need during instruction to be successful partners in the learning process. 

Think: 

• What do you want students to learn? 

• What social-emotional skills do you need students to practice during the lesson to make the lesson productive and successful? 

When we clarify why students are learning the content and explicitly sharing what skills we are wanting them to learn, we are helping them make a connection to the content and the relevance of the skills in their own lives. 

Strategy 2: Connecting Learning Targets to College & Career Readiness Skills 

When we intentionally foster students’ social-emotional skills through instruction, we also support the lifelong skills that students need to become better citizens. This also equips students with the skills to be college or career ready. Traditional definitions of being “college and career ready” have typically centered on academic and technical knowledge. But in addition to those requirements, students also need to: 

• Acquire and effectively apply knowledge 

• Understand and manage emotions 

• Set and achieve goals 

• Feel and establish empathy for others 

• Build and maintain positive relationships 

• Make responsible decisions 

Now, more than ever, we must ensure students are prepared to enter post-secondary and work environments with skills that will enable them to adapt and succeed in a quickly changing environment. We explore the connection between college and career readiness and social-emotional skills in our white paper. 

Download Our College & Career Readiness Guide

Conclusion 

By establishing learning targets, educators clearly communicate to students what is expected of them in the learning process and invite them to take ownership over that learning. Using strategies that connect social-emotional skills to academics and to students’ future endeavors promotes engagement in what, how, and why students learn. Intentionally instructing and providing practice on students’ social-emotional skills has tremendous positive impacts on their lives as students and as citizens.