Hi
@Cheryl Thompson, I think
@Tamara De Los Santos had a great answer!
I am going to steal an answer that
@Sarah Hadden provided some time ago in response to a different question, that I think could help here too:
"Clarity of Learning Objectives can be tricky. Depending on when the observation cycle begins or ends, we may not see a clear advanced organizer or an ending summary. And sometimes, the activity is so engaging, children do not need to be reoriented to the purpose. This is where the manual comes in really handy (actually, it's always handy). Turn to page 60 in the PK manual and look at the high range description for this indicator. There are three sentences that are helpful: 1) Students in this classroom appear aware of the point of the lesson or how they should be focusing their attention during activities; 2) During both whole-group and center activities, the teacher keeps his or her questioning and directions clear and targeted on the learning objective; and 3) Students in this classroom should be able to tell the observer in a coherent way what it was they were learning.
If the teacher has set up a gardening center as a part of their study about spring, you might see children looking at different types of seeds, planting seeds, using magnifying glasses to examine seedlings, comparing the size of plants at different stages of growth, and otherwise doing activities related to gardening. The teacher may ask them questions about which plants they think will come up first (and why!), what might happen to plants that are put in the window to grow vs. plants that are put in spot with no direct sunlight, and why some of the bean seeds didn't sprout. And while we wouldn't directly ask the kids what they are learning, we can see from their actions whether or not they understand the purpose of the activity. If they are planting seeds in the dirt and using materials as intended, they probably get it. If, on the other hand, they dump all of the dirt into a mound on the table and are running toy cars up and down the dirt mound, they probably don't understand. Hope that helps!"
I also think this blog post does a great job showing examples of mid and high range Clarity of Learning Objectives:
https://info.teachstone.com/blog/getting-clear-on-clarity-of-learning-objectives------------------------------
Liz Savage
Community Manager
Teachstone
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Original Message:
Sent: 09-15-2019 17:01
From: Cheryl Thompson
Subject: Scoring clarity of learning objectives during center time
I am having difficulty scoring observations where the teacher is following the lead of the student during free center times and I am trying to listen to the conversation. Any hints on how to find clarity of learning objectives during this time? Should I always see this during center times?
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Cheryl Thompson
Doswell VA
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