Developing Measurable Learning Objectives

Posted: January 5th, 2023

Week 1: Developing Measurable Learning Objectives

Your Name

EDU 645: Assessment for Learning

Instructor’s Name

Date

Assignment 1-645

My path:     

PK -6

7-12

Corporate Trainer

Military Trainer

Healthcare Trainer

Other: (type response here)

Name of Standards: Common Core State Standards

Content Area: Mathematics

Grade or Audience: Kindergarten

Standard (Copy and paste your standard below):

Counting and Cardinality

• Know number names and the count sequence.

• Count to tell the number of objects.

• Compare numbers.

Measurable Learning Objectives/Outcomes/Targets

1. By the end of the unit, the students will be able to write numbers 0 to 20 in less than one minute (cognitive level – Remembering)
2. By the end of the unit, the students will be able to compare two groups of items according to their numbers from 0 to 10 less than 2 minutes (Cognitive level – Understanding)
3. By the end of the unit, the student will be able to classify the total number of objects from 0 to 10 and write down their number in less than 10 minutes (Cognitive Level- Applying)

Introduction

Creating engaging lessons is increasingly becoming challenging as students are encountering more distractions while in the learning setup. Therefore, it is pertinent that teachers design their lessons in a manner that promotes scaffolding in the learning process (Bowen, 2017). The backward design model is useful in ensuring that teachers identify their desired outcomes of their students and use these to design their lessons. Backward design ensures that the educator incorporates all the components and artifacts needed to achieve the desired learning objectives (Bowen, 2017). In addition, it ensures that the teacher clarifies the formative and summative assessments to be undertaken during and at the end of the learning session or experience (Lefranҫois, 2020). This model is used alongside the Bloom’s taxonomy and action verb wheel to identify the appropriate cognitive levels that each learning experience should target, based on the learning abilities and age of the students and the wording that should be used to present learning objectives that target different cognitive levels (Integrant Consultoria, 2016).  

I am a kindergarten teacher in California, which uses the Common Core State Standards (CCSS) to guide the learning process by providing the appropriate standards of different skills in different subjects to be acquired by each student at a key-stage level. My area of interest is mathematics and I teach a mixed-abilities class. A unit that intends to have students learn about counting and cardinality is presented, by articulating the smart objectives and the cognitive level that they target.  

Standard

California Common Core State Standards for Mathematics

Kindergarten instructional time should focus in on two essential areas

1. Represent, relate and operate whole numbers, initially using sets of objects
2. Describe shapes and space, with more time being devoted to numbers

CCSS Counting and Cardinality (K.CC)

            The students will know the names of numbers, write numbers from 0 to 20, and represent a number of objects with written numbers

Key Concepts

1. Counting

Telling the number of things in a group of items

• Cardinality

The final number of the counting sequence represents the amount of items counted (California Common Core State Standard, 2013; National Governors Association Center for Best Practices and Council of Chief State School Officers, 2010).

Learning Objectives

1. By the end of the unit, the students will be able to write numbers 0 to 20 in less than one minute (cognitive level – Remembering)
2. By the end of the unit, the students will be able to compare two groups of items according to their numbers from 0 to 10 less than 2 minutes (Cognitive level – Understanding)
3. By the end of the unit, the student will be able to classify the total number of objects from 0 to 10 and write down their number in less than 10 minutes (Cognitive Level- Applying)

These objectives are SMART because they are specific, measurable, achievable, relevant and time-bound. For instance, firstly, objective 1, 2 and 3 are specific because they clearly and precisely articulate the expected outcome of the learning process. In this regard, the use of action verbs (write, compare, and classify) are used to articulate the expected cognitive outcomes among the kindergarten children, which have been derived from the Bloom’s wheel of action verbs (Integrant Consultoria, 2016). In this regard, the objectives target the first three cognitive levels, namely knowledge, comprehension and application are targeted by the learning objectives. Secondly, the objectives are measurable because the teacher can compare the performance of the students against the expected outcomes. For instance, students that will be able to write the numbers 1 to 20 in less than 1 minute will be judged as having performed at the expected level while those that take longer may require more help to improve on their recollection and writing speeds. Thirdly, the objects are achievable because they consider the cognitive and psychomotor development of the children that are at kindergarten level. The cognitive level is associated with the counting ability while the psychomotor level is associated with the arranging and writing speeds as a reflection of the eye-hand coordination. Moreover, the three objectives are arranged hierarchically, thus accommodating children of different learning abilities that constitute the kindergarten class. In this regard, the first objectives targets students the lowest ability students while the third objectives targets those with the highest ability in the classroom.  Fourthly, the objectives are relevant because they address a pertinent and critical skill in mathematics that forms the basis of developing numerical literacy, subsequently leaning to the development of mathematical skills that are applicable in daily-life. Lastly, the objectives are time bound because they indicate the time within which the child will have developed the said cognitive abilities. In this regard, the concepts of counting and cardinality are expected to be learned within a unit that may take up to two weeks, depending with the learning pace and abilities of the students in the classroom. In my case, this may take two weeks considering that I teach a mixed-abilities kindergarten class.

The objectives accommodate formative and summative assessment of the kindergarten students when there are presented in the SMART format (Lefranҫois, 2020). Specifically, I can use formative assessment to track the progress of students as they learn the concepts of counting and cardinality by defining and looking for accuracy and time targets in every lesson, and facilitating continuous improvements until the desirable performance level articulated I the objective is attained by a majority of the students. I will also use summative assessment at the end of the unit to determine whether the students have achieved, internalized and retained the desired level of performance.     

References

Bowen, R. S. (2017). Understanding by design . Vanderbilt University Center for Teaching. Retrieved from https://cft.vandebilt.edu/understanding-by-design/.

California Common Core State Standard (2013). Mathematics. California State Board of Education. Retrieved from https://www.cde.ca.gov/be/st/ss/documents/ccssmathstandardaug2013.pdf.

Integrant Consultoria (2016, May 12). Using Bloom’s Taxonomy to write learning objectives  [Video File]. Retrieved from https://youtu.be/Ywhc07KWR-g.

Lefranҫois, G. R. (2020). Of learning and assessment (2^nd Ed.). Zovio.

National Governors Association Center for Best Practices and Council of Chief State School Officers (2010). Common core state standards (Mathematics). Washington D.C.. retrieved from http://corestandards.org/http://www.corestandards.org/Math/