Here are some examples of learnings vs behaviors (called activities
here). The learning is the 'big idea'...the concept,
generalization, strategy that you want the kids to learn and apply
to all situations The behavior (activity) is just one thing they
will do to show they've learned what you want them to. You could
have the same learning for several days,and just change the
behavior because you want them to spend several days on the topic
and do several activities to learn the big idea.:

ACTIVITY VS. STANDARD

Activity - The learner will make a graph showing the number of
each color in a bag of M&Ms

Learning - The learner will collect and organize data in response
to a question posed -----------

Activity - The learner will discuss how Grace, the character in
“Amazing Grace,” and Oliver, from “Oliver Button is a Sissy,” are
alike

Learning - The learner will understand that making text to text
connections will aid their comprehension of a story and help them
predict what will happen based on what they know about another
story -----------

Activity - The learner will make a poster of the four rain forest
layers and the animals that live in them

Learning - The learner will demonstrate understanding of the way
animals interact with plants to meet their needs for shelter -----

Do you see how the learning is the over-arching thing you want them
to learn and the behavior/activity is a specific example of that
learning. Specifics don't transfer; only generalizations transfer.
But, you have to have sufficient activities/behaviors for the kids
to understand the learning well enough to be able to apply it to
other contexts.

You asked if the learning is just for the teacher. No, it is just
the opposite and let me explain why. All feedback given to
students should be related to the learning, not the behavior. For
example, in the M&M activity, your feedback would not be "you're
exactly right; there are 5 orange M&Ms in the bag" Who cares how
many M&Ms there are of any color? Your feedback would be, you
organized your data perfectly by showing on your graph that there
were 5 orange M&Ms"

What they are LEARNING is collecting and organizing data. They are
not learning about orange or red or blue M & Ms. You always use
the vocabulary of the LEARNING. When you hand out the M&Ms, you
would say, "here is the data you are going to organize today.
Remember that yesterday our data was different color crayons, but
today it is M&Ms.

When you ask a question to them and they respond, they use the
vocabulary of the learning. They talk about collecting and
organizing data, not collecting and organizing M&Ms. When you ask
them what they are learning...or if the principal or visitor asks
them what they are learning as often they do....their answer will be
"I'm learning to collect and organize data." Their answer should
NOT be, "There are more orange M&Ms than there are green ones."
And, that will be their answer unless you are sure that they see
the M&M as just one kind of data. It could be pizza, or pencils, or
chairs, or numbers....it doesn't matter. When we are learning about
collecting and organizing data, we use a variety of things as data
but the way we do the problem is exactly the same.

The kids should be told what they will LEARN. The objective for
them should be :Learn how to collect and organize data by making a
bar graph with M&Ms. Tomorrow, your learning will be the same
probably by the the behavior might be 'making a line graph with
some other data.' That way they will see that each day the learning
is the same and they are practicing with different examples.

I think your learning is (If I remember correctly) showing the
relationship between a word problem and the equation or something
like that. They are learning how the two are related or go
together. They will practice that by writing a mathematical
equation for the problem they are given. I don't have your actual
objective here so I'm floundering right now. The learning will be
stated in kid terms, but it will be the big idea, e.g. "We;re
learning how to write an equation that is related to a problem you
have." It isn't just writing the equation....they have to do that,
but they are LEARNING about the relationship that equation has to a
problem.

It sounds confusing in writing, but kids are very global in their
thinking. They need to know the big idea. That shows them why
they are doing whatever they are doing. I remember when I was
learning to regroup in subtraction and the teacher said, 'Just
cross out that 9 and make it an 8, then put the one you took away
and add it on to the ones column." When I asked her why we were
doing that, she said, "don't ask,just do it." It was like Greek to
me because I didn't know the big idea. If she'd said, "when we
subtract we need to be sure that the top number in each place is
bigger than the bottom number (crit att of regrouping in sub), I
would have got it. THAT makes sense. Then I would have understood
that I had to move some numbers around to make that happen. So,
kids GET the learning. That's what makes sense to them. Learning
how to read a word problem and turn it into an equation so they can
solve it makes sense. Just learning to write an equation doesn't
make sense because they don't have a larger thing to hook it to.
It's like an isolated activity that might be fun or interesting but
since it isn't connected to anything, they have no idea about using
it in other contexts. If they know that they are learning how to
change a word problem into an equation, every time they see a word
problem in their lifetime, they will know that first they have to
write the equation that goes with it.

Does this make any sense at all? Read it through....do NOT hesitate
to ask questions to clarify.

I love the way you grapple with concepts like these. You've always
done this since you first started to teach (remember the triangles
that had a whole bunch of people throughout the state in deep
discussion) and it is what makes you a great teacher and a real
professional. It's exciting for me to see this...so many teachers
on this board are like that and it makes me smile everytime I read
the posts. I wish it were like this everywhere.

On 10/26/09, dc wrote:
> I see what you're saying I think, Jan. Let me see if I'm
> getting it. You're saying that I'm missing the learning. Isn't
> the learning "the mathematical equation? In other words,
> defining and writing the mathematical equation? Maybe we've
> been writing student friendly objectives for too long on our
> white boards every day that I've gotten too far away from an
> overarching concept that is for ME, rather than for the
> students.
>
> Is the objective I wrote OK for the STUDENTS? Because that's
> what we're supposed to write on the board each day. A behavior
> (write) and the concept to be learned (mathematical equation).
>
> Please help me clarify this. I'm so glad to have you as a
> resource and mentor for this!

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