Should All Teachers Write the Objective on the Board?

Is there value in having everybody write the objective for the lesson on the board?

I saw this discussion today, one of many times I've seen this discussion because, you know, it's good to have clarity.

It's good to make sure that every teacher has clarity when they walk into a lesson, what they're going to cover and what they're going to really focus on.

And it's good for students to have clarity.

But that's a little bit different from the question of whether it is worth expecting and holding every teacher accountable for writing the objective on the board every single subject for every single period.

And it does take time, right?

I know as a teacher, it took time between classes that often I didn't have to write out the objective.

I'd have to change it for different classes.

And maybe if you're using slides or something, it's not that big a deal.

But especially if it needs to be posted throughout the entire lesson, this could be a pretty significant investment of time.

And we have to ask ourselves, is that worth it?

And who is it for?

I think on one level, So it is unmistakably for administrators to know that the objective has been planned and for administrators to look good to other administrators.

Like there's an extent to which this is improvement theater in the sense of just doing something to say that we're doing it and to show that we're doing the things that we're supposed to do, right?

There are lots of books about clarity and learning intentions and success criteria.

So this is like a pretty well-respected and well-known thing.

that is known to make administrators look good and known to make teachers look good if they do it.

Is it worth it though?

So let me know what you think about this.

I feel like the whole idea of writing an objective is taken from maybe math or I don't know, maybe some other subject, but like it doesn't feel like it fits every subject equally well, right?

Like if you're working on a term paper in an English class or, you know, some sort of major essay, there's not going to be like a specific concept that you're going to learn and practice and be assessed on for that lesson like there would in math, right?

In math, you teach a slightly new concept every day.

You kind of incrementally add a little bit more each lesson.

So it makes sense that there would be a slightly different learning target every single lesson in math.

But in other subjects, you know, you're working on something over a period of weeks.

And the idea that the learning target is going to change every single day probably just not there there's not a distinct skill not a distinct piece of content not a distinct standard that you're working on so i think one of the things that we have to do if we're expecting people to post learning targets is be okay with them being the same for a while right like if you're doing a thematic unit that has an essential question or you know some sort of deep kind of guiding question that might last for several weeks right and if you're doing a lab in a science classroom that might last for several days so I think we've got to be a little bit flexible and just recognize the subject.

And like for band and music and things like that, I don't know that we really need to worry about this at all.

And we tend to make requirements apply to everyone, even if they're not really for everyone, even if they're not a very good fit.

So let me know what you think about this.

Should all teachers have to write the objective on the board for every lesson?

Let me know.