One of the lesson planning issues that I struggle with is setting a day's objectives. As a Language Arts teacher, I often feel like I have 6 objectives within a day's lesson. Since Language Arts encompasses reading, writing, grammar, spelling, vocabulary, listening, etc, I often plan my days with a 20 minute chunk of each of those categories. Consequently, this causes my objectives to be numerous.
More recently, I have been studying "inquiry-based learning," which promotes instruction based on essential questions. In my efforts to follow this teaching pedagogy, I have worked hard to base my "objectives" for that day around answering that essential question. So instead of an objective geared toward the students' specific skills like "Students will read and respond to a literary non-fiction text," my objective for the day is focused more on our collective learning and looks like "Are all people capable of achieving the American Dream?"
With this focus, I can tell if students have completed a skill (reading, writing, grammar, etc) based on whether or not they can answer the essential question of the day. I will know that a student successfully comprehended the day's reading if they can answer the essential question related to it. I will know that a student understands the word "injustice" if they can answer the essential question related to it.
My instructional techniques and lesson planning methods have certainly evolved over my 2 1/2 years of teaching. I don't know if my current focus on essential questions is the best method, but I will continue to refine until I'm satisfied (which will likely be never!)
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