If you're like most teachers, you focus on the material you need to present, what you will do and say, what you will ask students to do, and the assessments you will create and administer. And if your're likemost teachers, you also know what it's like to be disappointed when this careful planning doesn't always lead to the deep understanding and mastery you'd intended. There's a better way to approach instrucional design says author and teacher-educator Anne R. Reeves, and it's within every teacher's grasp. It begins with a simple mental shift from "planning for activities" to "planning for learning outcomes" - and a critical concentration on learning abjectives. .

Instructional design : who and what is it for? -- Objectives as the foundation for learning-focused instruction -- A closer look at the language of objectives -- Two special cases in creating objectives : read and write -- Checking the validity of objectives -- Creating instructional objectives -- Developing assessments -- Checklists and rubrics -- Designing learning activities -- Creating plans for learning.