Barking Up the Wrong Tree

As a teacher, do you ever wonder who designed the objectives for the textbook? More often than not, I feel as though the text objectives are barking up the wrong tree. In preparing my students for the math end of grade test, I align my lessons according to the standard course of study. To bad the textbook given does not offer appropriate objectives. The objectives supplied take students down a path of vague learning. At the beginning of every school year, I begin my first math lesson with the textbook objectives. I ask my students to read them and explain what the objective means to them. In many cases, students will say they are going to learn something. When you ask them what “something” is, they usually respond with something in the book. This activity on objectives allows me to evaluate what I need to do in order to provide a strong understandable objective for the students in the class. For me objectives are not only for the teacher, but also for the student. I believe when you teach and expose a child to goals and objectives, they will begin simulating their own goals and objectives. At this point in my teaching career, I have ignored the barking our textbook permeates and I have developed my on path of learning through constructing goals and objectives that are teacher and student friendly.