Page 6 of the ISBE Student Learning Objective Guidebook
A learning goal is a description of what students will be able to do at the end of a specified period of time aligned to appropriate learning standards. The development of a learning goal provides a foundation for meaningful, goal directed instruction and assessment. The guiding questions and statements included within this element help teachers and evaluators reflect on the process of developing a meaningful learning goal. The learning goal may include one big idea. A big idea integrates multiple content standards, and links units of instruction together. The big idea chosen should be representative of the most important learning and typical student growth in a specific content area, grade level, or classroom. A teacher covers many big ideas over the course of a school year or course, but chooses one big idea per SLO. In addition, educators assigned to teach multiple courses, subjects, or grade levels may choose a specific course, subject, or grade level for each SLO in collaboration with the evaluator.
To access the entire document: http://www.nciea.org/wp-content/uploads/3_Instructional-Guide-for-Developing-Student-Learning-Objectives.pdf
A SLO comprises three aspects: a learning goal, assessment(s), and targets.
A learning goal is:
When developing Learning Goal big ideas and enduring understandings should be considered. Big ideas are the thread that links units, lessons, and year-to-year teaching. They provide a way to focus daily classroom activity on meaningful goals. They are a way to think about our curriculum that helps us answer the question: Why does it matter?
Important or “big ideas” are central to a discipline or course and have lasting value beyond the classroom. Big ideas synthesize what students should understand—not just know or do—as a result of studying a particular content area. Moreover, they articulate what students should “revisit” over the course of their lifetimes in relationship to the content area.
The first section of the template begins with a description of the Learning Goal for this SLO. In order to ensure that the learning goal has the right size, detail, and depth necessary, use the planning information and the SMART review.
| Learning Goal: A description of what students will be able to do at the end of the course or grade based on course- or grade-level content standards and curriculum. | |
|---|---|
| Learning Goal for this SLO: | |
| Describe the learning goal for this SLO. |
To help map out the different pieces of the Learning Goal section, it is necessary to understand the SMART acronym and which questions will help guide this review.
The SMART approach stands for the following:
S is for Specific
M is for Measurable
A is for Appropriate
R is for Realistic
T is for Time Limited
Specific
The learning goal must be focused on specific expectations.
For example, a learning goal can be specific by content standards, competencies, or by learners’ needs (e.g., a high level idea based on a pre-test that students are struggling with).
The issue with Specific is: What’s the right grain size? Also known as the Goldilocks Dilemma:
Writing a learning goal is getting past the Goldilocks Dilemma and finding out what is “just right”! Just as Goldilocks needed to find the right fit, it will be necessary to keep trying to refine the learning goal so that it is the right size, representing the most important learning in the course, but narrow enough to be measured through one or more summative assessments.
| Planning Information for Writing the Learning Goal | |
|---|---|
| Which big idea is supported by the learning goal? | |
| Which content standards are associated with this big idea? List all standards that apply, including the text of the standards (not just the code). |
Measurable
Measurable relates to assessments. We want to know that there is something being used that can actually measure the goal. Not only that, but the instrument or measure selected to assess the learning goal must be appropriate and a high quality assessment. It is critical that valid tools to measure the degree to which students achieve the learning goal are identified.
[Determining high quality assessments that support and measure the learning goal will be discussed further in the Assessments section of the template.]
Appropriate
When thinking about Appropriate, it means making sure that the learning goal is within the teacher’s control to effect change and is a worthwhile focus for the students’ academic year. The learning goal must be designed in ways that the teacher feels that s/he has a fair chance to succeed, yet is ambitious enough to require high quality teaching to achieve.
Appropriate is addressed in the “important and meaningful” and “deep understanding” sections of the SLO template.
| Planning Information for Writing the Learning Goal | |
|---|---|
| Why is this learning goal important and meaningful for students to learn? | |
| In what ways does the learning goal require students to demonstrate deep understanding of the knowledge and skills of the standards or big idea being measured? |
Time limited
When thinking about time limited, it is to ensure that the learning goal is contained within a single school year or appropriate unit of time. For instance, a semester long course would have the time frame limited to when a teacher has students to teach. Similarly, the learning goal must be written so it can be summatively evaluated within the time under the teacher’s control. The Targets section will allow for the collected data to show the progress that students have made in this time span.
Time Limited is addressed in the two “time span” sections of the SLO template. Note: the first time span section of the template is used for evaluating whether the learning goal is both realistic as well as time limited.
| Planning Information for Writing the Learning Goal | |
|---|---|
| Identify the time span for teaching the learning goal (e.g., daily class-45 minutes for the entire school year). | |
| Explain how this time span is appropriate and sufficient for teaching the learning goal. |
Explaining the learning goal with enough specificity allows for a solid SLO, which is the foundation that the other two parts of the SLO are built on. Think of the learning goal as the foundation to the SLO. If that is done well, then everything built around it will have the potential to be stable and strong.
Back to topExamples of Learning Goals: