Examples of “Teacher’s Purpose”
1. Example 1 from an observation:
Grade 7 Social Studies Class: Inaugural speeches (Topic)
Objectives: Students will identify key topics and themes of President Barack Obama’s inaugural address and compare (thinking/cognitive operation) them to those in an inaugural address by President Franklin Delano Roosevelt in 1933 (Situation).
A further use of this learning might be to use newspaper reports in the following year to determine if the two presidents did achieve the goals set forth in their inaugural addesses.
Standards
H&SS7-8-8:14 Civics, Government and Society: Students act as citizens (Situation) by identifying problems, proposing solutions, and considering the effects of a course of action in the local community, state, nation or world; explaining and critically evaluating (operation)views that are not one’s own.
For future activities.
Could look at Ronald Reagan’s 1981 inaugural address, which has a problem/solution format but offers a very different solution than Roosevelt’s. (operation: generalizing)
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Example 2. Professional Journal Article:
Shira Eve Epstein, Activists and Writers: Student Expression in a Social Action Literacy Project, Language Arts, Vol. 87, No. 5, May 2010.
“Scott (all names are pseudonyms) reminded the students, “We are writing to make a change.” His eighth graders were involved in a social action literacy project in the final months of the school year. The project assignment fore grounded his expectation that the students articulate social concerns (Topic) through written, visual, texts (Situation) and, as a result, “make a change” in their community. Accordingly the eighth graders drafted persuasive (Operation) essays, letters, posters, speeches, Power Point presentations, and other texts to be shared at a social action assembly (Situation). Their work contained messages of critique and social change in reference to issues, including domestic abuse, standardized testing ,and the war in Iraq…..”
Margaret and Darion—the students highlighted in this paper—generatively responded. Both Latina females, they expressed a clear concern for their urban neighborhood—how it compared (Operation)to and was perceived by others….” (p. 363). (Situation)
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Example 3: From PBWorks
Simple Machines
http://schayerscience.pbworks.com/Student-Unit-Expectations
Student Unit Expectations
During the course of this unit you will learn about the many aspects of simple machines (Topic) (such as forces, work, and mechanical advantage). The “Student Unit Expectations” that follow, describe all the things that you must understand and be able to do (Operations) by the end of this unit. Some students find these expectations to be helpful when studying for quizzes and tests (Situations). In addition, you will be asked to provide evidence that you have met each of these expectations before the end of the unit.
1.) I will plan and conduct (Operations) simple experiments that show and explain (Operation) how forces work to change the motion of an object.
2.) I will calculate (Operation) the work done on an object as the force and distance changes.
3.) I will explain (Operation), in writing, how the six simple machines make work easier, but do not change the amount of work done on an object.
4.) I will explain (Operation), in writing, how everyday objects function as simple machines.
5.) I will determine (Operation) ways to modify a simple machine (inclined plane, pulley, or lever) to improve its mechanical advantage.
6.) My final project for this unit will defend (Operation) the statement, “Work output of a machine is always less than work input, because of energy lost due to friction.”
7.) I will design and create (Operation) a working compound machine made from several simple machines. [If we added: I will enter my machine in the School Science Fair, this would be the Situation].