Lessons

Lesson Info

Determining the Class Objective

Before we actually get into our lesson plan we're going to think about the lesson objective and now of course this is like teacher he talk right? The lesson objective I I'm a big proponent of making a setting a lesson objective and having it written out somewhere in your room now some people might not feel that that's important but I do and I'm going to show you why so what I want you to think for your lesson objective what is the goal? Okay, so for your for your project based class your goal obviously you know the first goal that comes to your head is probably I want them to make the project right would that be your goal most likely but are there any other goals for your class and have fun you want them to have fun enjoy what they're doing enjoy what they're doing any other goals can think on any level susan I want them to tell their friends you want them to tell their friends about it that's great anything else I'd like to make some money oh yeah you would like to make them yeah of c...

ourse that is our one of our big goals so but thinking more on the on the level of your students experience this is what we're going to focus on for this and again what do you want your students to walk away with? You want them to walk away with if it's a project based class you want them to walk away with something a spoon oh my gosh I just made this my class the cow cool is that is a technique based class I just learned how to dio you know, free motion quilting check me out ok they want you want them to walk away with something? What is the end product right? Is the end product the project or is the end product this practice that you've done on this new skill that you've learned which is also worth celebrating and then also what skills do you want them to have gained? Okay, so if you're in agnes self portraiture class, they've probably gained more than just the skill of having made a self portrait they probably gained a skill in, you know, certain line drawings or you know, you know knows structure you know you can fill in those blanks but their skills with them actual project that they're going to have walked away with that we want we want to think about it on that level and then again, how do you want your students to feel if they're so excited and happy about this class they're going to go and tell their friends about it okay? They're gonna have fun, they're going to go home and be like, oh yes, what a great evening ok that's what we want our students to feel okay so this is what I'm referring to and I talk about the lesson objective and it's important to think about that right? And I always think about it in this way I always finish this sentence by the end of this class students will be able tio and of course this is very teacher teacher talky right? This is something that you learn and teacher training. However it is totally applicable to our purposes ok? So when you think about it that way and there's something cool in our bonus materials in the in the workbook which is a list of verbs so it's important to be concrete when we're writing our lesson objectives ok so we want to avoid using passive burbs like to know or to understand because idea is that we want to be able to prove that your students have reached this goal right you want to be able to prove that they have gotten to where you want them to be? Um I used to run into this a lot when I was a spanish teacher because be like oh my goal is that they that they know how to conjugated verb that's like well that's great if we could be inside of their brains to see if they do know it but how am I going to show my goal is to show that they have learned how to conjugated the's verbs okay, so we want to use active verbs and I've given a more detailed list in the workbook but verbs like explore build paint, create draw structure and again these words they're going to be specific to your craft, right? Um I I use the word use or execute or obviously so quilt are words I use quite a lot ok, so we're going to think about about them in the lesson objective using active verbs, okay? And again I'm trying not to be too like heady about this, but I think it's important to note that we do want to focus on these specific skills these active verbs um and then I also like to think about it is three objectives and one what will they physically walk away with? Obviously using a concrete verb helps with that something out aspirational a concept that they will take with them and I'll show you an example of what I mean by this and then I obviously one of my objectives that always stays in every objective that I've ever written is it there's something around enjoyment and so my men a throw question out to everybody, which is what air your lesson objectives? Does anybody feel like I know I'm putting a lot of putting you guys on the spot, but does anybody have a nice idea of a lesson objective that comes to their minds so I'm gonna share I'm going to share an example just to kind of give you guys an idea of what I'm talking about because I know that that's going to be helpful so this is ahh lesson objective for one of my machine quilting classes and the objective is by the end of the class students will practice three different machine quilting stitch is they will experience the divers textures created with both the walking foot and open tone darning foot culture lingo for free motion they will build confidence in their quilting abilities and they will have button okay so I tried to touch on those three things that I referred to which were the kat what are they gonna concrete we d'oh what are they what is their aspirational right I want them to build confidence right that's what I'm hoping will happen throughout the class and then obviously I want them to have fun okay so I'm gonna call on somebody I'm thinking way had some really good ideas for potential classes to teach I'm wondering susan you had mentioned embroidery so if you were to teach a project about embroidery what kind of a project would you teach teach a sasha co inspired class which is a japanese stitching technique that looks really complicated but it's actually very simple and it's meditative okay so let's see if we can tech nique let's see if we can craft a lesson objective for your for your stashenko embroidery technique so by the end of class students will they will be able to create so careful be ok be able tio is one of those so you know so soon is will they will ok, they will create there you go. We'll create they will create a sasha co inspired embroidery piece ah using I want to use like a lot of color I want to use color in there somehow because it uses thread so hold on I'm just gonna ask him to do is it a specific piece? Is it well, I've taught one class and we just basically did a sample good thing embroidery. What about us calling it a sampler? Okay, I don't know that just sounds I've also done an embroidery sampler class and I kind of have an idea of what that is in my mind. Okay, so now what about something along the in this like in this sentence I wrote experience the divers textures so something with color and thread maybe experience? Well, I do actually do what I like about this particular technique of embroidery is that it? You basically follow a path in order to create the pattern and it's the water that you could follow the path that creates the pattern and how that emerges is almost like a surprise how so it's sze really fun so how about we use the word experiment just for to tiptoe very now but they will they will experiment with the different pathways and the discovery and the discovery of different color combinations or something like that discover the pathway they will discover love it the colorful pathway there you go the colorful is it is it pathway singular plural because it is a just one I know what you're doing you have to cut your thread so I guess it's pathways created by or that unfold that unfolds yeah I like that emerge emerge are like that too that emerge in this process yes and then oh aereo and this meditative metta tae tive process okay, great. What about our last one? Something like I mean we could say have fun we could repeat it but is there another way to put it it's an and it's also something that's been around for thousands of years so it's they will gain appreciation there you go I love it they'll gain appreciation for this for that for this ancient ancient you craft yes. Ok. Wow, awesome. What do you guys think? I want to take that class. Hey, um now how how am I going to prove to myself purely really? How am I gonna prove at the end of my class that my students have achieved the lesson objective? What do you guys think they'll have their self will have their sampler and do you think that how do you how do you know that they'll have gained an appreciation? People should read them you'll be able to read them I totally agree you'll be able to tell so this was a really cool thanks, susan, this is a really cool way of thinking about your class and then when we talk about later crafting our pitches on our proposals for classes this is this is going to be the number one place where we're going to start okay? Because you're gonna want to show these venues in these places what do you what's in it for your students? What do your students going get out of your class and this for example is super appealing they're going like meditative it's an ancient craft so we've already started out with great marketing for our okay are there any questions about less objectives from online? Yeah there's some comments pickering happened sharing their lesson objective awesome let's hear some and red scorpio says my lesson objective would be to create an amazing gift that the students to be proud to give and that the the giver will be happy to receive or the recipient be happy to receive awesome yeah we're gonna show you guys an example of a gift sort of a gift related class idea that I have to go there really powerful especially this time of year and crazy girl says for embroidery I would like the students to walk away with the ability to do basic stitches which they can apply according to their interest tea towels crazy quote seemed treatments embellish clothing, et cetera so it's the technique and then they can use it for that is so cool I want to take embroidery classes now after that comment and susan thanks anything else? Yeah, I thought this was a cool idea. Sandra glover clark she's applying for the grant so that she can offer free crash a classes to a woman's shelter woman's and children's shelters and she'd like to give him a creative way tio participate in active meditation and how it helped them a confidence that is such a good idea such a good and that's another speaking of venues that's another great thing to keep in mind, teo I once did a project with almost prenatal clinic here san francisco where we met baby blankets. It was such a cool combination of this is the example I refer to before about teaching a sixth grader headed in it so it was small baby like it on the end but we did it so that's a really good way of getting yourself out to your community as well is looking for places like that yeah and doing good work and inspiring people definitely at the same time yeah, I love it and she also had a light pole well she were in the clouds love it she said I could teach cochet classes and then sell them my patterns patterns yes yes thanks for having streams talk about revenue streams and selling your stuff in class to that so I love that light bulb the great one yeah also thank anybody else here we just did susan I promise we'll get tow more of your guys his ideas too but you guys have any questions before we move on I think discussion is like making my ideas pop right more light bulbs yes that's the beauty of it being around other teachers so this is the also the beauty of this online community and the teacher's lounge is well awesome quality like a mad lib fill in the blank slate exactly I find that even just having the sentence starter gets me move in yeah you know it's like okay no less an objective boring and then it's like it starts to flow okay, I think happy you had you're gonna just from going to creative events and then having women come to mind I find off and I kind of mentioned earlier that it's really just about the fellowship and being together so when I supply all the tools and materials and then they get to make new friends and stuff sometimes that's a cz much a part of my lesson objective is doing the introductions making sure they air pampered exactly so even the weather. They I'm glad when they take the technique and all the other parts of it, but sometimes it's about just giving them a really great spa day. You know, cold, like I can, could not agree more and there's something really special. That happens in a classroom that you don't get, um, like an in person class, there's, something really special. That happens that you just can't. You can't recreate in any other atmosphere, which is, again why I'm a huge proponent of teaching.