Habit 1

Share the content and language objectives for every lesson.

In effective instruction, concrete content and language objectives that identify what students should know and be able to do must guide teaching and learning. They should be spoken and written for students. Sheltered Instruction Observation Protocol (SIOP) stresses this as a beginning point for teachers to focus the teaching and focus the learning for students (Echevarria, Vogt, & Short, 2004). STELLAR training gives teachers tools for sharing objectives so that the goals of the lesson no longer are a mystery when English is not the students’ first language.  This helps students feel more a part of the class and helps them realize their place in the class. When an English language learner can feel success in a classroom, then they can gain power and other students in the class can learn to value their contributions to the class.

Formulating a content and language objective for each lesson also would serve to focus the teacher in his/her lessons. Teachers no longer “do” a lesson because they have always done that lesson, they focus their lessons on what students need to know to show success and meeting benchmarks of standards.

A content objective states what a student needs to know about the content taught (Echevarria, Vogt, & Short, 2004). It is essentially a roadmap for learning for both the teacher and the student.  An example might be that the student will learn to add 4 digit numbers with regrouping. This should be posted for each lesson and discussed before the lesson begins. The goal is for objectives to be student centered and to act as a “preview” of the lesson to come.

A language objective tells students and teachers how they will be expected to use the academic language in the lesson (Echevarria, Vogt, & Short, 2004).

An example of a language objective might be that the student will use these terms orally in explaining to another student the process of addition of four digit numbers with regrouping: add, increase by, carry, and sum. This objective can be included in the content objective and needs to be discussed in the class. It serves as a language goal for students.