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We spend significant time thinking, exploring, planning, and preparing before we begin a new unit of study with our students. During this time, we identify key learning goals and objectives, determine key concepts to present, choose strategies for engaging students and building new skills, select resources and arrange for necessary equipment, decide how we will assess learning, and address other elements that will be key to our instruction and our students’ learning success. However, all this preparation typically happens away from the view and experience of our students.

As professionals, we have a good grasp of what we want to accomplish in any given learning cycle, but our students are largely unaware of what lies ahead until we introduce the unit. Meanwhile, the success of our instruction and the learning of our students depend heavily on their engagement in and commitment to the learning we have planned. If we want our students to be interested and ready to learn, we need to prepare them.

We can start by thinking about what students will want and need to know. They will likely have several questions about what they will be learning, and our responses will likely influence the level of learning engagement and commitment our students will demonstrate as we begin the new teaching and learning cycle. Here are five of the most likely questions our students want us to address.

What are we going to learn—and why is it important, valuable, or useful? Understanding the purpose and utility of what they will be learning can be a significant motivator for students to engage in what lies ahead. Sharing learning goals and objectives can offer clarity and reassurance for students, but, when possible, we also need to connect new learning with non-school-related, “real world” applications. The connection might be with interesting and attractive career possibilities, applications for hobbies and areas of current interest, something they have enjoyed learning in the past, or preparation for an important future challenge, such as state assessments or college entrance exams. The key is to make any connections real and relevant to our learners. Of course, there will be times when sharing a compelling connection or important application may be a stretch. When we face this challenge, we might consider ways to “gamify” the learning or consider other inviting or interesting ways to introduce and engage students that make the experience more enjoyable. Mary Poppins’ advice that “a spoonful of sugar helps the medicine go down” might apply in these circumstances.

What past learning and skills will be important to our success? Now is a good time to help students connect their past learning with future learning. When what we want students to learn next builds on what they have already learned, we may be able to get by with a quick reference and conducting a quick review. However, if significant time has passed, we will likely need to lead a more in-depth review or even do some reteaching to be certain that students are prepared to engage with what comes next.

What activities and strategies will you use to help us be successful? We might preview for students some of the activities we have planned, highlight learning strategies we will teach or reinforce, and review other learning resources available to help students find success. We might discuss the mix of individual and group work we have planned and how these strategies will contribute to what students will be learning. Now also is an opportune time to share our confidence that students will succeed and assure them that we will be ready throughout the teaching and learning cycle to provide support and offer additional tools and options. Our confidence in students and our commitment to have them succeed can provide important reassurance, especially if students anticipate that the learning will be especially challenging.

What have past students found helpful or challenging with what we are going to learn? Students can feel more confident when they learn that previous students, especially students like them, have found success with the new content and skills. We might share stories about the various approaches students found helpful, strategies they employed, and learning paths they found useful. We might also show the work of previous students as exemplars. However, we need to be sure to share multiple artifacts to avoid having students focus too narrowly on a single student’s approach or product. Our goal in responding to this question is to provide reassurance that success is within reach while also reinforcing key criteria and crucial elements to show evidence of learning.

How will my learning be assessed? Students of all ages often find it reassuring to know what type of assessment we plan to use to document their learning. If students know that their learning will be assessed through a demonstration, they are likely to approach their learning differently than if they expect a multi-question, short-answer assessment. Of course, our choice of assessment tool also needs to be guided by the nature of the learning in which students will be engaged. For example, a project-based learning activity may lend itself to a presentation or defense, while learning a set of established processes and procedures might be better assessed by analysis of a case study or demonstration of the best procedure for solving a problem or process for arriving at a solution. We might also discuss grading criteria or rubrics that we plan to apply. While we need to avoid having students focus too heavily on grades, it can be helpful for students to understand what will evaluated and how success will be judged.

We invest considerable time and energy in planning the learning we intend for our students. However, success—for our students and us—is heavily dependent on the investment and commitment of our students. Spending time at the beginning of the teaching and learning cycle to enlist the interest and grow confidence for learning in our students can pay rich dividends.

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