EDRL 474
Module Two: Assignment One
What are some advantages to writing both content and language objectives for students to hear and see?
According to Echevarria, Vogt, and Short (2013) some advantages of writing content and language objectives are the following:
- they allow the teacher to focus on planning and teaching
- they assess progress to mastery
- they guide student learning
- they help support language development
Constant assessment is necessary in teaching all students not just ELLs. In the video, Vogt (n.d) also highlights assessment as being "a constant cycle of assessment, teaching, reteaching, assessing again..." I believe that writing content and language objectives is important and it is an area that I need to work on. Even though I do include them in my lesson, I often fail to write them in student friendly language and to use them as an assessment at the closing of my lesson.
How might written objectives affect teacher and student performance in the classroom?
Written objectives affect teachers and students in many ways. In my opinion it makes teachers more focused and aware of the lessons we are teaching and it forces us (through assessment) to simplify our lessons to our students' proficiency level. As Echevarria, Vogt, and Short (2013) state "effective teachers need to know how language is used in the content area in order to convey information and to use and apply that information" this would imply that the teacher must truly understand the content area and be able to make it simple enough for the students to understand and apply what they've learned. Written objectives also affect student performance in that it allows students to focus their attention to what it is that they are responsible for learning. Also it makes them responsible for their learning, when they are used as an assessment tool at the end of the lesson.