Learning Targets

A learning target focuses instruction and assessment, and it also focuses students and teacher on the knowledge and skills intended for learning.

A learning target gives the teacher and students something to work toward. Students and the teacher know what they have to achieve to meet the learning target.

In younger grades, a learning target could be as simple as a student completing a picture of a plane when doing a unit on air transportation. In older grades, learning targets can be more complex.

Learning goals or targets are necessary because if the students and the teacher know what they are supposed to accomplish, it is easier to assess the achievement of the students.

There are different kinds of learning targets, mastery learning targets and developmental learning targets.

Mastery learning targets are more assignment specific while developmental learning targets teach students lessons that they can reuse in different situations.

Bloom's Taxonomy is a guide to creating learning targets, they can have different focuses such as knowledge and abilities, feelings and interests, or motor skills.