Folding Laundry 101

Having walked through a little bit about learning targets these past few days, I can't help but think of my 7-year-old daughter, Lilly. Lilly is the oldest of three and a huge help around the house. She has the opportunity to earn an allowance, given a variety of chores she can complete for a certain amount each time. One of these chores is to fold the laundry. After years of watching me fold laundry day in and day out, you'd think this child would have picked up *something* about folding clothes. Does she start inside or right side out? How do you match up shoulder seams? Do you fold down, up, or across? How do socks get stuffed inside each other like that? However, I now realize that my thinking like this can only be compared to the classroom...surely students have picked up - by sheer osmosis, mind you (and yes, science teachers, I am fully aware that it's not really osmosis because there's no solvents involved - diffusion, perhaps?), how to perform simple tasks, engage in authentic conversation, and meet an instructional objective after being in our classrooms for years, right? Wrong.

All the time we've been using instructional objectives, unit objectives...giving the kids the bigger picture...we've missed the boat - and they've missed out on some learning. Don't get me wrong - it's great to envision the destination. The end result can be very motivating to some who have an intrinsic organization about them. However, for the majority of us, if we cannot see what's directly in front of us - that next step in climbing to the mountaintop - we have increased our chances of falling off track or derailing completely. The same applies to our students. Some of them will succeed knowing the end result of the chapter - chapter test means I need to pay attention, do my homework, and participate in class. Done! However, what does that mean for the rest of them? Do they make connections? Do they stay engaged? What does it mean in the whole scheme of learning? They need daily steps - baby steps or small, consistent wins - to ensure they continue on toward the end goal. Enter learning targets!

Just a few reminders from our PD convos as you go about planning your lessons and implementing said targets:

• What do you want students to learn *today*? Is it brand new material or does it build upon yesterday's lesson? How does it prepare them for what they'll learn tomorrow?

• What kinds of thinking will be involved? Use Bloom's Taxonomy for cues on levels of thinking. Are students being challenged to not only know today's lesson info, but can they explain and apply it?

• How will you know students have learned? What kinds of performance tasks will you require of them (keep in mind, there can be multiple kinds of tasks for any given learning target)? You'll want some evidence they've picked up on it before moving on!

• How will you make the target student-focused? Some great reminders include using student-friendly language with stems such as, "I can..." and, "Today we will learn..." In addition, relating the learning target to students' real-life experiences can create a connection that will provide a great background and lay a foundation upon which they will build the new knowledge you'll provide and they will discover that day!

The concept of my daughter earning an allowance by folding clothes is not far-fetched. To not show her the process by means of learning targets, however, is. After breaking this process down into 5 mini-lessons learned throughout the week, you'll be pleased to know we now have clean *and* folded laundry. Well, she does anyway... :)