ABSTRACT
Instructional objectives are written from the teacher’s point of view with the purpose of unifying student outcomes across a series of related lessons or an entire unit. Instructional objectives highlight what learning goals the lesson-specific learning targets are scaffolded to bring the students to. Learning targets are meant to be clear and concise, and capture the learning that is supposed to be taking place in a given lesson, increasing academic transparency for all stakeholders. Picture learning targets not only as the final destination for a lesson or lesson set, but also as the proverbial tour guide. Many teachers may forget that the learning target needs to be continually referenced throughout the lesson, and that each lesson should be clearly scaffolded to bring the students to the learning objectives in the target. Learning targets help teachers to begin each lesson with the end in mind, while avoiding aimless coverage and aimless activities.
