Workspace best practices: Establishing a purpose Follow
In this article:
What are learning objectives, targets, or goals?
How can you present goals to students in an engaging, clear way?
Considerations for establishing a Workspace purpose
Using Hāpara Workspace in your classroom is a great way to create an engaging, collaborative and flexible learning environment for your students. Before you create a Workspace that covers a lesson, project or unit, you’ll want to set the purpose for the Workspace. Think about the content standards, objectives and goals you hope students will achieve by engaging with the Workspace.
What are content standards?
Content standards provide the big picture of what students should know and be able to do at a specific stage in their education. Before you start creating your Workspace, the first step is to identify the key content standards that will be the focus of your lesson, project or unit. These will guide your Workspace planning and help you make sure that all your Workspaces connect to the big learning goals for the school year.
What are learning objectives, targets or goals?
Once you've found the standard(s) that will guide your planning, it's time to break them down into manageable goals for each lesson. Some people call these objectives or learning intentions. No matter what you call them, these are the student-centered, measurable and specific statements that describe what students should know and be able to do by the end of the Workspace.
Many educators use the SWBAT stem (students will be able to) to help write these. After you write your learning goals, it's important to share them in the Workspace. That way students will know where the Workspace is going and will be able to take charge of their own learning. You can add your learning objectives to Goals Cards in the Goals Column in Workspace.
Only when you have a clear learning objective aligned to your standards will you be able to design assessments that make learning engaging, interactive, instructional and fun.
How can you present goals to students in an engaging, clear way?
- If you have more than one goal, add them to separate Goal Cards in your Workspace.
- Use kid-friendly language and focus on the student.
- Clearly state what you want your students to learn.
- Make sure the goal is specific and measurable.
- Describe the action, not the activity or what is being produced.
- Use color coding and tags in the Goal Card to make connections with Resource Cards and Evidence Cards in Workspace.
- Discuss the goals with students before they begin the Workspace.
Considerations for establishing a Workspace purpose
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Consider this … |
What is it? |
How? |
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What are the key content standards you will focus on in the lesson? |
Content standards provide the big picture of what students should know and be able to do by the end of the year. |
Identify the key content standards that the Workspace will cover. Read over the key content standards and identify the big ideas. |
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What are the learning targets, objectives or goals for this lesson? |
Learning targets, objectives or goals are the student-centered, measurable and specific statements that describe what students should know and be able to do by the end of the lesson. |
Break down the standards into manageable goals for the lesson, project or unit. Identify what you want your students to know, understand and do as a result of the Workspace. |
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How can you use Goal Cards in a Workspace to present goals to students in an engaging, clear way? |
Goal Cards show students the specific objectives, guiding questions or big ideas that students will accomplish by completing the Workspace. |
Customize the Goals Column heading. Add the Goal Card. Include a Goal Card for each standard, objective or other goal. |