Learning Objectives Explored

I tend to think of objectives as the beginning and end of my lesson goals... They are presented to students so that they know what to expect, and more importantly are there to help keep me on track throughout the lesson. Objectives also allow me to reflect, and ask myself, "Did I reach my expectations for the lesson, were students able to successfully reach my objectives, or do I need to revise?" I

also like to look at the fact that for something to be successful or complete it requires all of the pieces... it is sort of like putting a 1000 piece puzzle together and then realizing that you are missing one or two pieces. One small piece can make a huge difference!

 When I read the article by M. Susie Whittington on "Writing Objectives in Secondary Agriculture Courses that Challenge Students to Think, the first thing that I thought of was... my teachers and professors never listed or read their objectives that I can ever remember until I got to my Ag Ed classes, and while from everything I read they are considered to be critical, and as I am preparing to teach I see them at the very least being important to me to help me stay on tract and stay focused. Somehow even though I was not taught this way I still learned, but most of my teachers have been teaching for many years... I never once saw any of my elementary or high school teachers ever use a lesson plan! I guess it's just one of those special elements that just come with time and years of practice and experience...

What I really enjoyed most about the article was the example about the compartments of a cow's stomach that was used to illustrate the different learning levels that can be achieved based on how you write your objectives and prepare for your lessons. The example definitely helped me better understand all of the information we are getting about writing learning objective because it was presented in a way that I could  relate to and understand. 

To further my understanding, I searched for some other sources on learning objectives, and found another great resource.
http://www.cmu.edu/teaching/designteach/design/learningobjectives.html