 Hello, my name is Heidi Rethmeyer. I'm a professional development coordinator at ESD-Waite and this is a webinar for the Marzano Instructional Series where we will take some time to cover the elements of the Marzano Instructional Model and this one in particular will be covering providing and communicating clear learning goals for students. So a question to ask is what is the most significant factor in student learning? If you're familiar with the research by either John Hattie or Marzano's research, it is clear that the teacher in the classroom is the most important factor in terms of student achievement. The strategies the teacher uses, the relationships with the students, we found far outweigh many of the factors that are outside the control of teachers. So it's important for us to focus on those factors that the teacher has control out and what specific factors research shows to be the most effective in improving student learning. So where should a school district to begin? While developing a common language of instruction is a great place to start and there are some other webinars on developing a common language of instruction and specifically we will be focusing on the Marzano Instructional Model as many of our districts are taking part in our Marzano Instructional Leadership Series that we will be having. So the Marzano Instructional Model uses the art and science of teaching. This is designed to address all grade levels in all content areas and it provides plenty of autonomy for teachers as professionals to decide what elements, what strategies, what categories will work best for their students and for their teaching style. So here's how that model for the art and science of teaching is organized. We have three specific categories, feedback, content and context. And specifically we're going to be focusing over on the feedback side which is providing and communicating clear learning goals. So really again just to give you the big picture of the model, the feedback, the content and the context are the three categories that we use and then there are specific elements under each of those categories. Now the categories are broken down as such so the feedback will provide specific information to and from the teacher to help students in their learning and provide feedback both for students and teachers as to how the learning is going for specific goals. The content are the ways in which these lessons progress. It may be that the content may be delivered through direct instruction, through different activities to review either the knowledge or the skills that the students will know and be able to do. And then the context addresses the psychological needs of the students. We address engagement, belonging, high expectations. The context really revolves around the relationships that are built with the students. Again, 43 research based elements. And these elements are considered different categories of practice that have a clear and consistent effect on learning. These are research based. So when we talk about a significant effect size, the research shows that there is a significant quantifiable measurement that we can show that the students are improving through the use of these specific elements. So again, the elements are the specific categories of instructional best practice and then the strategies are really up to the teachers to implement that particular element. So the teacher will choose what strategy to address that particular element. And again, it provides plenty of autonomy because different teachers have different strengths in terms of their teaching styles and maybe the needs of the students might also dictate specific strategies. So there's plenty of autonomy there to address specific elements in this particular model. So some things to remember when you are working with the art and science of teaching. First of all, you do not try to necessarily address all 43 elements in a lesson. You don't go through one through 43. You may only use a handful in a particular lesson. Also, they're interdependent and ongoing. And strategies for one element often work for other elements. For example, maybe you're using a game where the students are up and moving around to preview knowledge. Right there, we have maybe three different elements that are being incorporated by doing that. They're using academic games. They're doing physical movement and they're previewing knowledge. So again, you can find that the strategies will overlap for a lot of these elements. So that was really to give you a big picture. So now we're going to dive into specifics in terms of some of the elements under feedback. And that's providing and communicating clear learning goals. So the question the teacher should ask him or herself is, what should the students know or be able to do by the end of the lesson today? There are two different formats for learning goals. There's either declarative knowledge or procedural knowledge. So declarative knowledge is what the student will know or understand. And this is developed through review, error analysis, similarities and differences. Again, a lot of different strategies. And a statement for declarative knowledge would begin with something like students will understand. And then the second type of format would be the procedural knowledge. These are the practices or the skills, processes that the students must be able to do. So again, a starter statement for procedural knowledge would be students will be able to do. So these are two specific formats that will help you as a teacher guide you in developing those learning goals and either students will understand or students will be able to do. So now let's take a moment to talk about the differences between learning goals, learning activities, and agendas. And I think a good example I could give you is I have children at home of my own and I have made the mistake in the past at the dinner table saying, so what did you do in school today? Well, quite often you're going to get answers such as, I did a worksheet in science. Well, now we're talking about learning activities. I really need to rephrase my questioning. So what did you learn about today? Or what can you, what do you know how to do today or know today that you didn't know yesterday? So the learning goals are the what. What do we want the students to know or be able to do? The learning activities or how do we get there? Are we going to do worksheets? So we're going to do some other different types of activities or games to help them learn that particular goal. And then the agenda is the when. It will show the students what they can expect for the day to try to obtain that particular learning goal. So this particular image is to remind you that we need to be very clear with our students about expectations. Those learning goals should not be a secret. Students should hear them, they should see them, they should do something with them, and they should have opportunities to reflect on them and do some self analysis of how they are doing in that outcome. Do they still need some work? Are there things that they still need some help on? So let's take a moment to look at some of these statements and decide are these statements written as a learning goal or an activity? So the first one, students will be able to recognize the protagonist theme and voice of a piece of literature. In this case, this is a goal the students will be able to. So this is some procedural knowledge that we will expect of our students. The second one, students will produce a book report on a book of their choice, including a table of contents and proper formatting. This is an activity. So a teacher could ask him or herself, what is the end goal of this particular activity? What do I want the students to know or be able to do through this activity? The third one, students will practice solving one-step equations. Again, this is an activity, which is a means to a particular goal. So again, we should ask ourselves, what is the learning goal for that particular activity? Why are we doing that activity? And then the last one, students will understand the differences and similarities between metamorphic, igneous, and sedimentary rocks. And this one is a goal. Again, you can see that sentence starter students will understand, okay? So again, using those sentence starters will really help a teacher to determine am I talking about declarative knowledge, procedural knowledge, or am I dictating an activity? So again, we wanna be able to give students the opportunity to be able to communicate the goals themselves, reflect on that learning goals. If we really wanna engage them, we gotta tell them the why, what's the purpose of this lesson? What do we want them to walk out of there with at the end of the day? So I've provided you with some examples. You can find many more like these, maybe in your own school, as well as on Pinterest. So lots of places you can look for some ideas on how to communicate objectives. This one we have today I will understand. So in this case, we have some declarative knowledge that these students are working on. I really like the statement, I'll know I've got it when, that really provides some great feedback to the students about where they are in their learning. Also, you can see this particular teacher has an agenda, the when, to help the students know how their day is going to progress. Here are a couple other examples. They don't need to be anything fancy. Again, what do we want the students to know or be able to do? We also have a list of activities, which is great to break down the activities versus the objectives. Some schools call them learning objectives. Some schools call them learning goals. That's just a conversation you can have internally as to what you want that language to be. So again, I just wanted to provide some quick examples, but most importantly, just, I think we need to be purposeful in providing this information to our students. What do I expect them to know or be able to do by the end of the day? Again, teachers I think have a general idea of that, but are we really communicating that with our students? And could they communicate that back to us? If someone came down and sat in your classroom next to any student, could that student answer what they're really learning that particular day? Not what the worksheet is, but what their end goal is for that day. Thank you for listening to the webinar on learning goals. Please feel free to contact me if you have any questions. Have a great day.