Learning Targets in the Music Room

I've had lesson objectives posted on my wall for years now but this school year was the first time I was required by district administration to post detailed "learning targets" in a specific format, including success criteria, for every lesson. After doing a lot of my own research on the topic and a lot of trial and error, I have found some solutions for ways to share learning intentions and success criteria that I believe are actually helpful for student learning (not just a way for my evaluator to check a box). Here are the most important things I've discovered for making learning targets meaningful in the music (and, honestly, every other) classroom.

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First a word about language. When my district administration announced the requirement this fall for all teachers to post "learning targets" I started doing a lot of research on where this initiative was coming from, and it's clear to me that all of the educational researchers who have promoted this practice use the term learning intention, not learning target or lesson objective. So although I have included the other more commonly used terms in the introduction and title so everyone knows what I'm talking about, I use "learning intention" when I speak and will be using that term in the rest of this article. They refer to the same idea but I think the word "intention" does a better job of communicating what we're trying to do.

1. Use pictures with younger students

What is the point of posting written learning intentions for students who can't read yet? Instead of writing them out like I do for the older grades, for Kindergarten (and self-contained special education classes) I created cards with images that show the concepts I cover in those classes and the ways students would demonstrate their learning, and post those instead.

My research indicates that written learning intentions and success criteria are not something that educational researchers recommend for early childhood. I have not seen anything that shows they have any positive impact on student learning for younger students. But if you are required, like me, to have them for every grade including preschool/ Kindergarten, adding pictures makes it possible for students to understand and connect with the posted learning intentions without having to spend so much of our short class times on the reading itself, and can serve as a great visual for referencing the concepts during the lesson. Read more about what I've done and how (and get a copy of the visuals I use) in this post.

2. Use the learning intention to pique student interest

Telling a class, "today we are going to learn about dotted half notes" doesn't really get students excited. But "today we are going to find a mystery new note" can spark their curiosity and get their brains focused on figuring out what the new note could be and trying to find it, which is exactly what a good learning intention is supposed to do! I've realized I don't have to be pedantic to write an effective learning intention that fits what my administration wants to see but more importantly, improves student learning.

3. Expand as you go

Adding to the learning intention and building success criteria together with students throughout the lesson is by far the most effective (this is something pushed consistently by all the educational researchers I have been learning from). In the previous example, I would start the lesson with the learning intention of discovering a mystery new note. Once students find a note in the song that is 3 beats- something they haven't studied before- I reveal what it looks like and what it's called and add it to the posted learning intention. If the success criteria is to correctly write a 4-beat rhythm including half notes, it's better to review with students what makes a successful composition and write those points on the board as you discuss them rather than having them written out in advance. You can read more about how I do this with my students in this post.

Those are my top 3 tips for making learning intentions useful for students in the music room, but obviously there is a lot to be said about how to actually do each of these concretely. I'll be expanding more on these to show you what I do in future posts, so if you have any questions please leave a comment!

If you would like to do your own reading on the educational research behind learning intentions and success criteria, what has been shown to be effective in improving student learning, and see more specific examples of how to do this in different types of lessons in different subject areas, I highly recommend this book as a starting point: Unlocking Learning Intentions and Success Criteria by Shirley Clarke