We Can Do Better Than Learning Targets

By Erin E.H. Austin

We all have that “hill we will die on”—that thing we just won’t give up on because we feel so passionately about it. Educators, I find, have more than most, and I’m no exception. 

One of the hills I will die on is believing learning targets are useless.

(Yes, I said it.)

I hate that learning targets have been pushed onto teachers like so many other meaningless mandates of the past, and I long for the day they simply disappear. 

Why do administrators push for them in the first place? The main arguments for learning targets include:

1. They provide focus to the lesson. If teachers have a learning target in mind, they will, ostensibly, create activities that support that target; if students see the learning target, they will know where the lesson is going.

2. They elicit student accountability. Since the targets start with “I can…”, at the end of the lesson, students will be able to hold themselves accountable for the learning. If they can’t agree with the “I can…” statement, then they know they aren’t on track.

Of course, since this is my “hill”, I have rebuttals:

1. Good teachers create goals and build toward them without writing it down every day. Bad teachers can write down the learning targets all they want, but that doesn’t mean the activities building to it are solid, are taught well, or that the students are learning.

2. Students don’t need learning targets to know if they’re on track; they need a good teacher. 

But here is the biggest, and most important reason I believe learning targets are useless:

Students. Don’t. Care.

I have never—not once—heard a student say they like or appreciate learning targets. They simply don’t care, and they aren’t meaningful to them. Students are the #1 most important part of our jobs, so if we’re using a practice that students don’t care about or find useful, shouldn’t we make a change?  

Incidentally, another hill I will die on is that it’s not okay to complain without trying to be part of the solution. To that end, instead of writing daily learning targets, I propose:

Let’s have conversations with kids.

This doesn’t happen daily, but whenever I introduce a new type of activity, I pause and have a quick conversation with the class. I ask questions like:

Why are we doing this activity? 

What does this connect to?

Why am I having you ___ instead of ___?

But why don’t I just ___?

Wouldn’t it be easier to ___?

What might this be leading to?

It’s far more useful for students to actively construct why we’re doing an activity instead of passively reading or listening to a learning target. A meaningful conversation helps students with buy-in, and it promotes higher-order thinking. However, I need to beware—and be humble! If students can’t answer my questions, then it tells me that I need a better activity…and I need to be willing to admit that and change. That’s an essential part of the job.

You may be wondering, “But what do I do if learning targets are required at my school?” They’re required at mine too—they’re part of the rubric the admin team uses when they observe me—but I still don’t use them. (Rebels unite!) So what do I do when I’m observed? I do the exact same thing I do with my students: I have a conversation. In the post-observation meeting, I tell my observer I don’t post daily learning targets, I explain why, I say what I do instead, and I make the case for why I believe this is better for kids. I’m heading into my 25th year of teaching, and not once has an observer said I was wrong; in fact, they have all agreed with me and told me to carry on. 

As a French teacher, it might be ingrained in me to like the idea of revolutions. (I even have guillotine earrings I occasionally wear.) Maybe it’s time to start a revolution—albeit a tiny, guillotine-free one—with learning targets. There’s a better way for us and for our students; let’s use it.

Do you have a question you like to ask students about their learning? Tell us what tips you have in the comments below!

The 2023 CCFLT Teacher of the Year, Erin E.H. Austin is also a National Board Certified French teacher in Fort Collins and the author of The Ultimate Guide to Selling Your Original World Language Resources, Going Global in the World Language Classroom, and Achieving National Board Certification in World Languages. Follow her on Bluesky @erin-eh-austin.bsky.social or on YouTube here.