The role of a teacher is to UNCOVER

"The greater the structure of a lesson and the more precise the directions on what is to be accomplished, the higher the achievement." I love this quote from Wong's book. It's simple, if the instructions aren't clear when giving an assignment, no one will do it or the results will be disastrous. Most students end up not completing their work because what they were supposed to learn wasn't clear. The majority of teachers have the tendency to assign chapters or lessons. When the student gets home and their parents ask about homework, they respond with "chapter 3" or something and neither the student or parent know what that is. The difference when asking "what will I cover" and "what will my students learn" is that in the first question you are only worried about doing what you're supposed to follow on the school curriculum. When you ask the second question, you're actually thinking about a way to reach your students and see how they will understand the subject you will be teaching. You always want to ask yourself the second question. At the end, the students benefit of knowing the objectives. "If students know what they are to learn, you increase the chances that they WILL learn."  If the student doesn't know what they will learn, they'll be less interested and won't cooperate as much. If objectives are set there's a lot more of a chance that the students will reach mastery. Mastery is when the student shows the ability to use what has been comprehended. It's when the student applies what they understood. When writing an objective you must include easily understood accomplishments that will take place. You pick a verb telling the student what will be accomplished and simply complete the sentence with the subject. My objective would be "We will analyze the story "...." And write a short summary over it." I believe standardized test taking is ridiculous. You cannot measure a kid's knowledge, comparing it to an average. Every kid has different talents and personalities. With this type of testing, many are entitled to fail.

http://teachers.net/lessonplans/posts/3818.html

http://www.jobmonkey.com/teaching/making_lesson_plans/