Learning Target Template
Learning Target Guidelines
Learning is a process in which learners increase their knowledge, understanding, and skills as a result of effort, instruction, feedback from teachers and peers, and self-assessment and adjustment. Learning Targets are the basic goals & objectives for concrete learning. They are discussed, tracked, and frequently assessed by students and teachers at the outset and throughout the learning process. Learning Targets require teachers to deeply consider and prioritize which standards are most important, and to frame them clearly. They involve students in owning the goals for their learning themselves. They also reframe the idea of “grading” to be focused on providing evidence towards proficiency. While students provide evidence of their learning on a variety of performance assessments, teachers make evaluations of those assessments based on clear criteria.
Higher Order Thinking targets are the larger, sophisticated conceptual understandings of the course. Mastery of these targets is measured and evaluated by individual performance assessments. Supporting targets are the concrete knowledge and skills students are expected to master in order to have proficiency in the course. Mastery of these targets should be measured by multiple smaller, discrete assessments.
Instructions:
Use the Scope and Sequence document in addition to CA standards and Common Core (where applicable) to determine the knowledge and skills students need to know for each unit.
Each learning target should be phrased as an “I can” statement.
There should be one or at the most, two Higher Order Thinking targets per unit. These targets are what drive the performance assessments for the unit.
You should have no more than 30 supporting learning targets per semester, or 2 per week.
Template:
Higher Order Thinking Targets / Supporting TargetsSee next page for examples
Examples:
Chemistry
Higher Order Thinking Targets / Supporting TargetsI know and understand common properties, forms, and changes in matter and energy / I can use evidence to describe the structure of matter
I can use chemical nomenclature accurately to identify and describe substances
I can explain, using models, observations of chemical and physical properties according to the nature of bonding within the substance
I can use kinetic molecular theory to explain rates of reactions and the relationships among temperature, pressure, and volume of a substance
I can apply the concept of equilibrium to different types of chemical reactions
I can apply the principal of conservation of mass to chemical reactions
English
Higher Order Thinking Targets / Supporting TargetsI can develop and clearly communicate an evidence-based argument. / I can make relevant claims to support an argument and cite textual evidence
I can synthesize evidence from multiple sources related to the argument
I can question a source’s effectiveness or validity, and note its strengths or limitations
I can logically sequence ideas
I can use effective word choice in my writing
I can use the conventions of Standard English correctly in my writing
Algebra 1
Higher Order Thinking Targets / Supporting TargetsI can make sense of problems and persevere in solving them / I can combine like terms
I can use the distributive property
I can solve a one-step equation
I can solve a two-step equation
I can solve multi-step equations
I know the vocabulary of: variable, term, expression, inverse, like terms, order of operations, inverse operations, distributive property, simplifying, solving, coefficient
I can solve absolute value equations
I can solve and graph inequalities in one variable
I can set up and solve real-world word problems
Art
Higher Order Thinking Targets / Supporting TargetsI can respond to, analyze and make judgments about works of visual art. / I can explain how different beliefs, traditions and contexts influence interpretation of the meaning or message of artwork
I can describe how meaning and interpretation of artwork changes over time based on changing contexts
I can identify the primary elements of a work of art
I can develop an opinion on the aesthetic value of an artwork
I can describe the process for refining or reworking one of my own artworks
I can use the language of critique to write and speak about works of art