AEE 412 Weekly Writing #3 - Objectives and Interest Approaches.

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"If you fail to plan, you plan to fail." 

-- Unknown

How truer can a statement be?  Believe it or not this statement is relevant for both the Military and for Teaching Agricultural Education.  Let's explore this idea a little bit.

Army - 

       Planning, it's what we do.  We plan missions, we plan actions, we plan training, we plan for the best case scenario, we plan for the worst  case scenario, we plan how to approach issues, we plan how to approach our subordinates and higher officers.  Everything is planned.  Without that plan, it is easy to fail.

Agricultural Education - 

      Planning: we create lesson plans for every course taught.  We have program plans, budget plans, fundraiser plans, curriculum plans, plans for field trips, plans for extra activities, plans for SAE projects, plans for the FFA, plans for approaching administration and school board, for promoting the organization to the public.  Everything is planned.  And again, without that plan, it is easy to fail.

The question is, where do we start in our planning processes?  In both the Army and Agricultural Education, we begin our planning with the objectives.  Methods of Teaching Agriculture says objectives help teachers decide what is relevant,  direct the sequence of instruction, how to evaluate, what knowledge and skills need to be learned, place parameters and define the limit and scope of instruction.  Boom ba-da Bang!! There is a large portion of the plan.  All by simply defining the objectives.   

In class there was lots of discussion about writing our objectives so that they reach the higher levels of Bloom's Taxonomy, so they reach the Cognitive, Psychomotor, and Affective Domains of learning and so that they are written in the SMART format.  Here is a link from Penn State's Learning Design Hub that has examples of objectives that follow these formats.  It also includes a very basic "How To" for writing objectives which is very helpful.

http://ets.tlt.psu.edu/learningdesign/objectives/writingobjectives

I know that as I continue to design my lesson plans in preparation for student teaching I will be sure to take the time and ensure that my objectives are well written.  For it is apparent that this will enable me to create effective lessons.  In addition, as I continue to write plans for the Army, I will make sure that solid objectives accompany each plan and make sure they are written clearly.