I hate Learning Objectives...and love Learning Journeys

At last I can come clean and say it - "I hate Learning Objectives.  I never use and I have never used them".  That was such a relief.  For years I have hated being told that unless Learning Objectives are up on the board my lessons cannot be "outstanding".  This is totally crap - and 6 of my last 7 lesson observations were graded as outstanding even though there were no Learning Objectives on display.  I hate Learning Objectives because I don't believe they do a damned thing to promote learning in the classroom - in fact I think they can actively block learning for the following reasons:
1.  It is incredibly arrogant of us to believe that simply by saying what they are going to learn - they will learn it.
2.  The Learning Objective takes away all the mystery from the lesson.  Who in their right mind gives away their biggest and best secret at the start?  Did Agatha Christie reveal the killer in the first paragraph?  Did Hitchcock show you Norman Bates' mother in the first 5 minutes of Psycho?  Did Bob Hope start a joke with the punchline?  A good stripper never starts the show naked (or so I am told).
3.  The Learning Objective can be an obstacle to learning - some kids will look at it and say "But I don't want to learn that today" or even worse "But I have already learned that" - where do you go as a teacher from there?
4.  I hate that some people tell me to use a Learning Objective solely because "OFSTED like it".  I don't even believe this is true.  I think OFSTED want to see Learning Objectives in planning - and they are the 1st thing I put in all my lesson plans - they don't need to see it on the board.  The most ridiculous thing I ever saw was a Foundation class teacher who put Learning Objectives up for her class because she was told to. Her class was made up of 4 year olds - none of them could read!

So - I have never used them.  Recently however I came across something called Learning Journeys - and I love them.  I found out about this by following a Tweet from David Didau @Learning Spy and checking out his blog http://learningspy.edublogs.org/2011/09/21/learning-journeys/.  The idea is to give students a visual map of the lesson.  Using images, arrows and keywords you can give them an outline of what is coming - but it is in the form of a puzzle.  As a visual learner - I love it and couldn't wait to try it out.  Over the last 2 weeks I have used them in every lesson from Yr7 to Yr 12.  I use Powerpoint to put up a slide with Today's Learning Journey on it and usually 4-8 images.  I also put some keywords on which relate to the specific skills which students will use during the lesson: investigate, communicate, analyse, create, visualise etc.

I deliberately do not mention the Learning Journey to students at all at the start of the lesson - it is simply up on the screen when they come in - but so many students notice it and have started to talk to each other about it.  I often take the screen away during the lesson to look at something else but bring it back often and refer to some of the images but without explicitly explaining it.  I want the kids to work it out for themselves.  I love it when at some point in the lesson someone shouts out "Oh yeah.  I get that now" and then proceeds to explain it to someone else.

I do feel as if I have only just scratched the surface with this and look forward to exploring it further and experimenting with it.  I had 2 mini-lesson observations last week and both the teachers who came in were  very interested in the Learning Journeys - so give them a try.  Do also check out David Didau's brilliant blog and also a guy called Darren Mead http://pedagogicalpurposes.blogspot.com/ - who I believe inspired David.  Thanks to both of you.

This is a Learning Journey of a Year 12 lesson on the 1905 Russian Revolution

This is a Learning Journey of a Year 11 lesson looking at media representations of black civil rights in the USA