Simple tried and tested strategies to build connection with the learning objective. All strategies require that the learning objective contains 3 components:
Verb
The skill of a learning objective is the measurable verb, or what the students will be doing
Noun
The concept or big idea of the lesson
Context
The restricting condition of the lesson. “Context describes the circumstances of the content in which the verb is to be used” (Biggs and Tang 2007). Without context, information is susceptible to misinterpretation.Focusing on all three components provides clarity on the what, the how and the why, and can be useful in decreasing the cognitive load for students.
Process: (5 minutes)Students work in small groups or pairsEach group has a sheet of large paper divided into 3 columnsHave students collaborate to bullet concepts, ideas, skills etc.. learnt in the previous lesson / learning episode.Ask students to write today’s learning objective on their sheet, taking care to break it down using the three columns on their sheetCheck that each group has managed to identify all three components
