Leaders of Their Own Learning

Last year I joined student ambassadors at the Springfield Renaissance School in Springfield, Massachusetts, as they gave Governor Deval Patrick a tour of their school. For the third consecutive year, the school was poised to send 100 percent of its graduates on to college, a remarkable achievement for an urban district school. Governor Patrick was there to honor the school and learn from its success. He posed a question to a student ambassador: “Destiny, would you say you are a good student?”

   Destiny paused before responding: “That’s a hard question,” she said. “My habits of work learning targets are excellent. My academic learning targets are a mix—I’m still struggling to meet some of them.” Now the governor paused: “Learning targets?” he said. Destiny clarified: “The goals for what we need to know and be able to do.” The governor smiled. “Yes. Course objectives, lesson objectives. I know those.” Destiny shook her head. “No, sir. These are not the teacher’s course objectives. Learning targets belong to students. These are the things that I have to demonstrate that I can do well. I need to show evidence that I can factor equations and write essays or explain a concept in history—things like that.”

   The governor nodded. “Interesting. And what are ‘habits of work’” learning targets?” Destiny was quick to answer. “Those are the most important targets of all. They are the study skills and habits we need to succeed in college and life. You have to focus on them here. That’s why we all go to college.”

—Ron Berger

The Foundation of Student-Engaged Assessment

The process of learning shouldn’t be a mystery. Learning targets provide students with tangible goals that they can understand and work toward. Rather than the teacher taking on all of the responsibility for meeting a lesson’s objectives, learning targets, written in student-friendly language and frequently reflected on, transfer ownership for meeting objectives from the teacher to the student. The seemingly simple work of reframing objectives written for teachers to learning targets, written for—and owned by—students, turns assessment on its head. The student becomes the main actor in assessing and improving his or her learning.

When the students in Lori Laliberte’s kindergarten class at the Odyssey School in Denver learned that their “bessbugs” had died, they were sad. They had been observing and caring for the bugs as part of their study of the life cycle. The “bessbug” company agreed to send them new bugs and because one of the Common Core literacy standards for kindergartners (W.K.2) is, Use a combination of drawing, dictating, and writing to inform informative/explanatory texts in which they name what they are writing about and supply some information about the topic, the occasion provided an authentic opportunity to learn how to write a thank-you letter. Two learning targets guided their effort: “I can identify the main parts of a letter” and “I can explain the purpose of sending a letter.” The students knew what their learning targets were from the outset of their lesson. In the accompanying video we see Laliberte’s students actively working toward meeting these learning targets.

By translating standards into learning targets her students could make sense of, Laliberte engaged them as active partners in making progress. She knew they had met the target when they could say, “I can.” The term target is significant. It emphasizes that students are aiming for something specific. Learning targets are meant to focus students in this way, directing their efforts and attention, as would a physical target. Every day, students discuss, reflect, track their progress, and assess their work in relation to learning targets. Learning targets build investment in learning by giving students the language to discuss what they know and what they need to learn. As an eighth-grader at the Odyssey School remarked, “The teacher will take time to break down the target, so we know where we’re going with the learning.”

Why This Practice Matters

Learning targets help students define what they are learning and why they are learning it, enabling them to monitor their progress toward the learning goal and giving them the language for and practice with metacognition. But why do these things matter? How does student ownership of learning make them better learners? How does self-monitoring increase student achievement? What’s so special about metacognition? The answer lies in their power to motivate students to learn. Learning targets help stimulate that motivation.

Learning Targets Represent Clear, Manageable Goals

Among the dynamics for student motivation is the desire to take on challenges that call on a student’s present capacity. In other words, students feel motivated to accomplish a task when they know it is within their reach.

Learning Targets Inherently Provide Short-Term Success

Motivation increases when students feel successful at previous attempts. Learning targets, by definition, break down abstract content standards into smaller learning tasks.

Learning Targets Let Students Know Where They Are

One of the hallmarks of student motivation is a sense of purpose. Motivated students know how the task at hand fits into the larger scheme of things. Reaching, or not quite reaching, a learning target represents critical information for students about what they know and can do, and what they still need to learn.

• The practice of writing learning targets deepens teachers’ understanding of the standards and helps them prioritize the content and skills needed to meet them.
• The Common Core standards represent a big shift in how standards are manifest in K–12 classrooms. They are not simply about coverage of content; instead, they prioritize transferable skills that will enable students to be independent learners across all disciplines. Learning targets increase students’ independence by bringing the standards to life, shifting ownership of meeting them from just the teacher to both the teacher and the student.
• Character learning targets support students in developing the habits of scholarship (e.g., independence, self-direction) named in the standards and necessary to meet them.

GETTING STARTED

Writing Learning Targets

Choose a Standards-Based Lesson with Which to Get Started

Learning targets are derived from a number of sources—from Common Core, state, or local standards, school-developed habits of scholarship, or content area program materials. Some teachers work in schools where they have the autonomy to choose which standards they will address during a given time frame. Some work in schools where curriculum maps have already been developed by school-based leadership teams. Still others work in schools where curriculum decisions are made at the district level. In any case, teachers can employ learning targets in their classrooms to engage students in tracking their learning. When first getting started with learning targets, teachers should choose a lesson that meets required standards, that can be completed in one session, and that can be assessed during that time frame.

Write Learning Targets for the Lesson

It makes good sense to start small. After choosing a lesson, translate the objectives for that lesson into manageable, assessable, and student-friendly learning targets. It is important not to try to cover too much ground with the learning targets, especially when just getting started writing them. It may not be wise, for example, for a second-grade teacher to attempt to create her first learning targets for a daily lesson for the entire Common Core State Standard W.2.1: Write opinion pieces in which they introduce the topic or book they are writing about, state an opinion, supply reasons that support the opinion, use linking words (e.g., because, and, also) to connect opinion and reasons, and provide a concluding statement or section. It would be more reasonable for her to choose one manageable and assessable component of this standard for which to create learning targets. For example, the teacher may decide that the most important place to start is for students to learn to form an opinion of a story they have read, supported by evidence. She may...