[MUSIC] Welcome back to Teach English Now. We just reviewed three teachers giving us examples of warm-ups. I hope it gave you some insight into the importance of beginning a lesson plan. Now, we're going to discuss another important concept, something called an objective discussion. Now, when we talk about an objective discussion, perhaps we should first ask ourselves a couple of questions. First, what are objectives? And second, why discuss them? All right, let's talk. First, objectives, for purposes of this module, are specific end goals tied to a lesson plan. A target that you, as a teacher, have in mind. And lesson plan objectives matter, because we want to get somewhere as teachers. We're not just saying stuff, we're trying to achieve stuff. We're trying to help students learn English. Now English is a very big goal. So to be clear, lesson plan objectives are much smaller than that massive target, but they are related. In fact, you might say that they are clear competencies that we want students to acquire. Competencies that will ultimately help us understand how close the students are in achieving this bigger goal of learning English. Now, who makes objectives? Certainly as you are beginning, you might be tempted to simply follow already published curriculum guides, or even just follow a book and the book's objectives. You might legitimately recognized that since book authors are professionals and they published a book, they must know something about objectives. But here's the thing. You may have noticed that we spent a lot of time in the second course discussing how different teachers over different time periods had different objectives, because they had different purposes. And we did that for a very specific reason, and the reason is this. Teachers, even professional ones, may have different objectives than you do. Please do not suppose that everyone in our field is on the same page. Knowing your objectives is important, because it allows you to recognize how you will instruct, and what you will instruct. The what, content, and the how, technique, remember? So, while it may be appropriate for beginning teachers to follow a book's objectives, I think you will quickly realize that writing your own objectives is a fundamental part of lesson planning. Now, let's talk about that second primary question. Imagine that you know your objectives, why have a discussion with students about them? Well to put it simply, students like to know what the heck they're doing. And so students are more likely to achieve success when there are clear target goals. Now, do you always have to give students clear target goals? Well, learning English of course is the overall goal, and telling students every day these minor goals may or may not be so important. But throughout a course, helping students realize how these many goals fit into the larger scope of their main goal, can be very useful and motivating. On a related side note, did any of you know that we have a major goal here at Teach English Now? The goal is to put in your hands, each and every one of you, a major product. Of course you know we are trying to give you a TESOL certificate, but that's not the product I am talking about. You see, by the end of our two specializations, we want you to have a professional teaching portfolio. A portfolio that shows your philosophy of teaching, which we discussed in courses one and two. Your lesson plans, course three. Observations, in future courses, and write ups detailing your practicum experience. Yes, you see, we are asking you at each point in the process, to think of different pieces that will be useful to you later on. We will ask you to write up a teaching philosophy, ask you to do observations, and ask you to do a one day and one week lesson plan. We will put all of these elements into one big great hole, and that hole, that project, that product, is a professional teaching portfolio. Something that hopefully, you'll be proud of. Our hope is that a professional portfolio like this will help you get a job. Will help you to improve and demonstrate your skills, and can be used as a resource wherever you may teach English all over the world. Sound good? Okay. I've just have an objective discussion with you. We definitely have big plans for Teach English Now. By the way, this kind of instructional design, this idea of having something big at the end of an entire course, comes from a learning theory that I love. Two theorists, Blumenfeld and Krajcik, introduce this concept by stating that objectives should start with a driving question, and end with a concrete artifact. In other words, good curriculum often starts with some great question you are trying to solve, and has some goal at the end of it. Some product or thing that will show off the answer to the great question. Krajcik calls this a meaningful project. Now, a meaningful project might take the shape of a final class presentation, a portfolio, a dramatization, a final test that demonstrates knowledge of a lot of individual activities. Whatever it might be, think of it as your measurable and tangible target. What are you driving at? What are you shooting [SOUND] towards? I'll tell you the question, the driving question that keeps me awake at night as we designed this course. It's this. How can I prepare teachers all over the world to teach English now, and what product will be proof of their excellence as teachers? All right, so now we have answered our two questions in brief. An objective is a goal with specific tasks that can be measured, and an objective discussion allows students to understand the goal or target they are aiming for. But now for a word of caution. Objectives are often incorrectly written and incorrectly understood. And it has been my experience that even intelligent and seasoned teachers create improper objectives. Since that is the case, we are going to spend an extra bit of time discussing not only what objectives are, but what they are not. In our next video, we will show you some of the pitfalls of objective writing. See you there. [MUSIC]
