What’s the Objective?

I’ve started my second round of observations as a coach in Michigan’s Grow Your Own program. This observation is a formal one, involving the completion of an observation rubric for each intern.  As is usually the case, the first strand to be measured is the stating of the lesson’s objective and the continual return to that standard throughout the lesson to check for student understanding.   It’s one of the more clear-cut items to check for when observing a teacher.  Some teachers, in an effort to comply with teacher evaluation rubrics, devote board space for the “what” and “why” of each lesson.  The “what” is what the students will be doing in class, and the “why” is the content area state standard  the activity supports.  

Many GYO interns mention the standard or learning goal at the top of the lesson and some even revisit the learning goal at the end of the activity to debrief with the students how they have done as a group in meeting the learning goal for the day.  This process was taken to a whole new level recently when I visited a 1st grade classroom to observe an intern teaching a math lesson on number equations. To kick off the lesson, the teacher called out, almost like a cheerleader, “Objective, objective!”  To which the students chorally responded, “What are we going to learn today?”  The GYO intern then proceeded to list the learning standards( in kid-friendly language) that  the lesson would teach.  My initial reaction was one of delight because I could easily check off a “4” on the teacher observation rubric and document the call & response introduction as evidence.  

But that feeling began to fade later in the day when I really reflected on the practice. I started thinking about when I had first heard the word “objective.”  I know I never heard it during my school day back in the 1970’s.  I actually think I was first introduced to the word “objective”  when reading the rules for board games as a kid.  I quickly ascertained that “objective” meant how you win when competing.  Something about the kids shouting in response, “What are we going to learn today?” left me unsettled.  Maybe it’s because I know that there are many things that can be learned during a lesson and it’s different for each learner.  Maybe I felt uneasy about the call and response because I think learning should be more magical and organic. 

Or maybe I just don’t like it when children are made to sound like robots.