Unwrap the box.

In The First Days of School by Wong and Wong, a way of teaching known as the “no mystery approach” is discussed within the last few chapters. What this “no mystery approach” basically entails is the importance of sharing the lesson objectives in an accessible way with your students from the very beginning of the lesson. This way, students know why they are doing what they are doing and what they are expected to know/do. All practice should be aligned with the objectives and specifically labeled as to how it does so. Then, the assessment should also be created in a way that aligns specifically with the objectives that the students have seen and practiced. This way, there is no mystery as to what will “be on the test” since students know exactly what to expect.

In part of an effort to help accomplish this, I give my students objectives that correspond to each day of the week. This is on the same sheet that has their Chem+ bellringers and beginning-of-the period review work. This is an easy way for the students to have a copy of what they are expected to know/do each day.

Here's an example of how I adjust my objectives to share with my students.

My lesson plan objectives:

• Given pairs of the terms “limiting reactant/excess reactant” and “actual yield/theoretical yield,” SWBAT correctly differentiate between the words in each pair.

• Given a chemical equation and amounts of reactants, SWBAT correctly identify the limiting reactant and the excess reactant.

My students’ copy:

• differentiate between the terms limiting reactant and excess reactant

• differentiate between the terms actual yield and theoretical yield

• identify the limiting reactant and excess reactant

Sharing your objectives so you and your students can focus on them together is an effective way to raise achievement in the classroom and help everyone reach their goals!

Click here to access a sample weekly objective sheet!