Where Am I Taking My Students? How Will I Get Them There?

Oh my!  We learned so much today about planning our lessons and how useful it is to think about the larger, lasting instructional concepts as Enduring Understanding or the lasting understanding that exceeds the curriculum content.  I realize that Enduring Understanding is the ultimate goal of my instructional planning which my students will develop through meaningful engagement based on the carefully planned Essential Questions I will formulate.  These questions help my students dig deeper and make connections between content and concepts they are learning. I must focus on designing questions that spark inquiry that invokes a deeper connection for students between concepts and connections they are learning on a daily basis. 

I learned that there are four types of learning targets which are based on what I ask my students to do: Knowledge (K), Reasoning (R), Skill (S) and Product (P). These were adapted from Stiggins et al. Classroom Assessment for Student Learning.   I recognized that based on what I ask my students to do I must ask, "What is the goal of instruction?"  Once I have answered that question, I select a learning target or targets that will align with my instructional goal.

Instructional Goal                       Types of Learning Targets                            Key Verbs
Recall basic information            Knowledge (K)                                             Name, identify, describe
and facts

Think and develop an                 Reasoning/Understanding,  (R)                     Explain, compare and
understanding                                                                                                  contrast, predict
                                                                                                                     
Apply knowledge and                Skill (S)                                                         Use, solve, calculate
reasoning

Synthesize to create                    Product (P)                                                     Create, write, present
original work

So much to learn and so little time to learn it.  I am thankful that there are only four critical areas
in second grade math.  I have a lot more to learn especially when it comes to Quad D Moments.
Well I will save my study on that for another day.