Schooltastic

The Learning Loop:
1) State objective
2) Teach to achieve objective
3) Assess (did they meet the objective?)
4) Use assessment data to plan new objectives
5) Repeat

I take both of my kids shopping every week.  Like most siblings, they are either best friends or worst enemies.  It’s just as tough to focus on toothpaste coupons during a weepy blame-fest as it is during a friendly bout of screaming and giggling.  I hear myself saying things like, “Come on, guys!  Daddy’s trying to concentrate,” or just, “Hey!” delivered in my sternest tone (carefully modulated to avoid alerting other shoppers to my parenting difficulties). 

I’ve skipped ahead to step three. 

This is an assessment: Your behavior is not meeting objectives for riding in (or walking near) a grocery cart.  For objectives, I probably mentioned something like, “Let’s have a great shopping trip!” or, maybe, “I can’t wait to go shopping with my awesome kids!”  Those are terrible objectives.  What makes a shopping trip “great” or kids “awesome?”  I’m sure my kids and I would have drastically different criteria.  For step two, I guess I expect them to achieve the objective simply by hearing it.

So, my work-brain starts to break it down.  What, specifically, are my objectives? Chat, play, argue, or sing, but not too loud. How loud is too loud? I’ll let you know when I hear it. Ask me a maximum of two times to buy you something, unless I’ve clearly forgotten, in which case, why didn’t you tell me while we were there? Stay on or near the cart, unless you two are really aggravating each other, in which case, keep your distance. How much distance?  I’ll let you know when it’s too much.

Unable to fit shopping-trip behavior into my professional schema, I deliver a new objective and modify the process.

The Learning Loop at Wegmans:
1) State objective: "Help Daddy to be able to shop!"
2) ????
3) Assess: "Come on, guys!"
4) Students use assessment data to plan new behavior (same objective)
5) Repeat weekly