Standards are often confused with Learning Objectives. Standards are the content and skills students need to know by the end of a school year. Learning Objectives are the content and skills students need to know by the end of a lesson.

Perhaps most importantly, a Learning Objective defines the purpose of the lesson, giving it direction from the very start. While it may appear to be a small part of the lesson, a well-written Learning Objective lays the foundation for a great lesson.

The Standards themselves typically can not be used as learning objectives because they often contain multiple objectives, concept definitions, examples, and context. Standards need to be broken down into teachable learning objectives.

Within a Learning Objective, we have a Skill, Concept, and (often) Context. The Skill of a Learning Objective is the measurable verb, or what the students will be doing. The Concept is the topic or big idea of the lesson, usually a noun. The Context is the restricting condition of the lesson and may not be present – or may be removed for brevity in lower grades. Focusing on these three components can be useful in decreasing the word count (and cognitive load) of the Learning Objective for students.

Standards provide at least one Learning Objective and may provide multiple Learning Objectives. Each Learning Objective is the purpose of the lesson. Learning Objectives will include Skill, Concept, and the Context.

To take the guesswork out of what to teach, DataWORKS crafted Learning Objectives that tell teachers what students should be able to do by the end of the lesson.