ELM 555 || Topic 1: Learning Objectives and Lesson Alignment

Instruction is based on academic standards and aligned to learning objectives. Accurate alignment will guide your lesson planning and enhance student academic success.

As teachers, you will constantly evaluate lesson plans for alignment between academic standards and objectives. This assignment provides the opportunity to practice aligning learning objectives to academic standards.

Part 1: Lesson Plan Analysis

Review the "COE Lesson Plan Example" (attached) located in Topic Materials. On the "Aligning Standards and Learning Objectives" (attached) template, write 250-500 words, responding to the following prompts, as they relate to the lesson plan:

• What is the academic standard?
• What is the learning objective?
• Are the standard and objective aligned? How do you know? Provide a rationale. 
• What is the lesson about? What does this lesson cover?
• Do the assessments effectively measure the academic standard and learning objective? Justify your response.

Part 2: Unwrapping the Standards

Below your analysis, complete the template by selecting a grade level K-8 and an Arizona K-12 academic standard (different from the one provided in Part 1).

(AZ recently revised there standards to reflect grades K – 5 & grades 6 – 12.  Please select one standard from each of the grade level ranges for the activity.)

Review Arizona K-12 Academic Standards: English Language Arts, located on the Arizona Department of Education website.

http://www.azed.gov/standards-practices/k-12standards/english-language-arts-standards/

• Write three objectives aligned to the standard selected following the Know, Understand, and Do guidelines.
• For each objective, write a rationale supporting how the standard and objective are properly aligned.

Explain how your objective will demonstrate that the child has met the standard.

• Write a summary of a lesson that could teach the objectives created.

Include a brief summary of what you would teach, the resources students could use, and approach you would use.  For example:

After a guided lesson on citing text evidence, students would work collaboratively to highlight text evidence within an informational text from Newsela.  Students would complete a graphic organizer to demonstrate the ability to identify text evidence.

While GCU format is not required for the body of this assignment, solid academic writing is expected, and in-text citations and references should be presented using GCU documentation guidelines, which can be found in the GCU Style Guide, located in the Student Success Center.

This assignment uses a rubric. Review the rubric prior to beginning the assignment to become familiar with the expectations for successful completion.

You are required to submit this assignment to LopesWrite. Refer to the LopesWrite Technical Support articles for assistance.

Aligning Standards and Learning Objectives

Part 1: Lesson Plan Analysis

Review the "COE Lesson Plan Example" located in Topic Materials. On the "Aligning Standards and Learning Objectives" template, write 250-500 words, responding to the following prompts, as they relate to the lesson plan:

• What is the academic standard?
• What is the learning objective?
• Are the standard and objective aligned? How do you know? Provide a rationale.
• What is the lesson about? What does this lesson cover?
• Do the assessments effectively measure the academic standard and learning objective? Justify your response.

Part 2: Unwrapping the Standards

Select an AZ K – 5 ELA Standard:

http://www.azed.gov/standards-practices/k-12standards/english-language-arts-standards/

Select an AZ 6 -12 Standard

http://www.azed.gov/standards-practices/k-12standards/english-language-arts-standards/

Writing Objectives and Learning Goals

Table 7.3 Bloom’s Taxonomy

When writing a learning objective, it is important to utilize the correct verbs for the different categories.

Table 7.5 Verbs and Categories

Learning objectives should utilize verbs to describe how students will demonstrate their knowledge and understanding of the skills and content outlined in the standards. Below are some guiding questions to help write learning objectives:

• What knowledge and skills are students learning during this lesson?
• What performances will students complete to demonstrate their new knowledge and skills?
• How will students be assessed to determine if they have mastered the objectives?

Examples:

• When completing a lab experiment, students will be able to describe, analyze, and explain their experiment and the results on the Lab Templateusing correct grammar and topic-relevant vocabulary.
• Estimate lengths using units of inches, feet, centimeters, and meters.
• Assess the extent to which the reasoning and evidence in a text support the author's claim.

Grand Canyon University. (Ed.). (2016). Teaching with a Purpose: Learning, Leading, Serving (2nd ed.).