If a student or person is compared to a car, the gasoline that runs the car is like the motivation that makes the student work. There are many guides, methodologies, and frameworks that help students and teachers encourage motivation. In this report, a lesson plan and a unit of study will be modified to apply the T.A.R.G.E.T framework, which is an acronym of seven words: task, authority, recognition, grouping, evaluation, and time. This framework was developed by Joyce Epstein and adapted for the classrooms by Carole Ames. The implementation of this framework directly encourages mastery learning in students.
How to apply the T.A.R.G.E.T. framework to an existing lesson plan?
Lesson Objective
Students will be able to understand formula basics, know the parts of a formula, describe common math operations, and enter/edit formulas using Microsoft Excel.
Subject Area
Digital Information Technology.
Target Grade
High School (K9-12).
Goals and Content
Students will learn how to calculate formulas using Microsoft Excel. Since Microsoft Excel could be intimidating for students at the beginning of a lesson, the most important thing is to demonstrate to them the usability of this software, making connections between real-world examples and the content. “When students can see that they are learning makes sense and its importance, their intrinsic motivation emerges” (Brophy, J., 2004). The existing lesson plan has different examples that students need to develop, which is a lesson strength; however, the topic is not of interest to all students, which is a lesson weakness.
Task
To transform this lesson plan and make it interesting for students, the teacher will explain how to use functions using Excel and will ask students to develop a small project where they need to create a spreadsheet to apply formulas to calculate something that they want to do. In that way, the teacher will foster high-level thinking and intrinsic motivation because students are going to choose something that they are interested in.
Authority
The authority in the existing lesson plan is represented only by the teacher. To modify this lesson plan, authority is going to be shared by the students and the teacher. The assignment reflects the student’s interest since they have the autonomic of choosing how they are going to accomplish the lesson goal. When students have autonomy, they feel a sense of responsibility for their own learning outcomes, and it is more likely that they will complete the activity (Weiss, M., Murdaugh, F. & Walker, E., 2019, para. 4). All of these are going to foment students’ self-efficacy because they will be able to demonstrate their new acquired skills, creating something important or interesting for them. The teacher is going to monitor that the activity chosen by the student meets the lesson goal.
Recognition
In the existing lesson plan, the recognition is represented by high grades. However, to make the activity more proactive, students are going to be recognized individually, not only for meeting the goals and objectives of the lesson plan, but also for any improvement and progress during the activity. In this lesson plan, students get feedback at the end of the activity, normally after the teacher checks all turned-in assignments, which is a lesson weakness. This lesson is going to be modified in order to the teacher to give student feedback and recognition immediately during the activity. In that way, students can make the necessary modifications and continue working to complete the task. When teachers give effective feedback, students feel that the teacher truly wishes for their success. Also, teacher recognition needs to be delivered in a language that promotes a student growth mindset to encourage their self-efficacy.
Grouping
The weakness of the existing lesson plan is that students work individually. So, this lesson will be modified, doing students can work collaboratively. Teachers are going to ask students to find peers with similar interests, and they can share points of view and choose the best functions to create the Excel spreadsheet. Some researchers suggest that learning collaboratively has psychological benefits and increases the achievement of the entire group (Weiss, M., Murdaugh, F. & Walker, E., 2019, para. 6). The intention is for students to discuss and find the most efficient formula together. All of these are going to make that students analyze their own perspective and the perspective of their peer, generating an intrinsic and extrinsic motivation as well.
Evaluation
The existing planning suggests a traditional assessment, a quiz, to demonstrate the mastery of the lesson. However, to engage students and encourage their high-level thinking, the assessment for this lesson will be to create the spreadsheet using Microsoft Excel, where they need to use functions to calculate something they think is a good example to calculate in there and something that they are interested in.
The teacher is going to evaluate whether students are meeting the standards and expectations with the examples that they choose. Since they are setting their own goals, students sometimes tend to set low goals to achieve good grades. To avoid this, the teacher needs to establish clear goals and expectations and give them timely feedback.
Time
Defining a specific time when the T.A.R.G.E.T framework is being applied could be challenging because students set their own way to accomplish a task. This could be a strength for the existing planning because when the teacher has control of the task that normally is the same for all students, the time could be managed easily. So, the teacher needs to set goals that can be achieved during class time. For this assignment, students need to use two or three different functions in their calculations to guarantee they can finish the activity the same day.
Teacher-Café 
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