Purpose-Driven Learning Target Authoring Guide Agent Skill

Author learning targets for a competency across developmental bands with precise, observable progression language.

Context cost
15.8k tokensestimated from the bundle, loaded when it triggers
Bundle
1 file · 63.3 kBtext throughout, nothing executable
Licence
not declarednone named by its author
Last change
—v2.0
Servers it uses
Noneruns standalone

What it does

Author learning targets for a competency across developmental bands with precise, observable progression language. Use when writing 'I can' statements for competency-based programmes.

What this skill changes about the agent has not been set out here as a list. Its SKILL.md, shown below, says it in the author’s own words.

authoringbackwards-designband-statementscompetencylearning-targetsmanningobservable-verbsprogression

The skill itself

A skill is instructions the model reads, so you can see what you are getting: below is the start of its SKILL.md. The front matter loads with every session, the body loads when the skill triggers, and the whole file comes with the install.

SKILL.md63.3 kB · preview
--- # AGENT SKILLS STANDARD FIELDS (v2) name: learning-target-authoring-guide disable-model-invocation: true user-invocable: true effort: medium # EXISTING FIELDS skill_id: "original-frameworks/learning-target-authoring-guide" skill_name: "Purpose-Driven Learning Target Authoring Guide" domain: "original-frameworks" version: "2.0" evidence_strength: "emerging" evidence_sources: - "Manning — Learning Target Authoring Guide v4.0 (2026, original methodology)" - "Black & Wiliam (1998) — Assessment and classroom learning (clear learning intentions as prerequisite for formative assessment)" - "Wiggins & McTighe (2005) — Understanding by Design (backwards design, extended with Manning's upstream 'why' layer)" - "Bloom et al. (1956) — Taxonomy of educational objectives (observable verb hierarchy)" - "Vygotsky (1978) — Mind in society (ZPD — band statements specify upper edge of capability with support)" input_schema: required: - field: "competency_name" type: "string" - field: "competency_definition" type: "string" - field: "band_range" type: "string" - field: "programme_purpose" type: "string" optional: - field: "existing_draft" type: "string" - field: "subject_area" type: "string" - field: "assessment_context" type: "string" output_schema: type: "object" fields: - field: "competency_review" type: "object" - field: "knowledge_type_classification" type: "object" - field: "lt_decomposition" type: "object" - field: "lt_definitions" type: "object" - field: "band_statements_or_observation_indicators" type: "object" - field: "quality_check" type: "object" - field: "known_limitations" type: "object" chains_well_with: - "developmental-band-system-designer" - "coherent-rubric-logic-builder" - "self-determined-project-design-protocol" - "curriculum-knowledge-architecture-designer" - "kud-knowledge-type-mapper" - "critical-thinking-task-designer" - "dispositional-knowledge-assessment-designer" teacher_time: "5 minutes" tags: ["learning-targets", "Manning", "competency", "authoring", "backwards-design", "observable-verbs", "band-statements", "progression", "knowledge-type", "observation-indicators", "Type-3", "multi-informant"] ---
82# Purpose-Driven Learning Target Authoring Guide
83
84## What This Skill Does
85
86This skill encodes an original practitioner framework developed by Gareth Manning, educator, curriculum designer, and learning systems designer. Unlike skills in other domains, it is not drawn from peer-reviewed research traditions. It is grounded in serious engagement with learning science, original curriculum design work, and active classroom testing. It is included because the methodology is coherent, transferable, and genuinely useful — and because intellectual honesty requires distinguishing practitioner frameworks from research-validated approaches.
87
88This skill guides an educator or curriculum designer through writing a complete, coherent set of learning targets (LTs) for a competency — from the upstream question of whether the competency is right, through knowledge type classification, decomposition into 2-3 LTs, to writing band-level statements (Type 1 and Type 2) or observation indicator sets (Type 3) that are developmental, precise, and assessable. Learning targets are the bridge between a broad competency ("Critical Thinking") and what a teacher can actually observe and assess in a student's work. Without well-written LTs, competency-based education degenerates into either vague impressions or checklist-style task completion. The v4.0 methodology introduces a mandatory classification step — Knowledge Type — that determines the assessment instrument BEFORE any band statements are written. This addresses the single most common failure mode in competency-based wellbeing and project curricula: dispositional goals assessed through rubrics, creating the illusion of measurement without the substance. The output is a complete LT set ready for use in planning and reporting, with quality checks built into the process. The methodology draws on Black & Wiliam (1998) — clear learning intentions are a prerequisite for effective formative assessment — and extends Wiggins & McTighe's (2005) backwards design with Manning's upstream "why" layer: before asking "What should students learn?" the process asks "Why does this competency matter for our mission?"
89
90Critical distinction: LTs describe destinations, not content. A band statement describes what a student can do by the end of a developmental period — it does not prescribe what is taught to get there. Content specificity lives in KUD charts and unit plans. The LT constrains what is assessed; it does not constrain what is taught. An LT that appears to leave content unspecified is working correctly — the KUD chart is the right place to make content explicit.
91
92## Evidence Foundation
93
94Manning developed the Learning Target Authoring Guide through iterative curriculum design, documented in v4.0 (2026). The methodology addresses a specific problem: most competency-based curricula have poorly written learning targets. Common failure modes include: targets that use unobservable verbs ("Understands the water cycle" — how do you observe understanding?), targets that are topic lists disguised as competencies ("Knows the causes of WWI" — this is content, not capability), targets that lack developmental progression (the same statement at every band level with "simple" and "complex" bolted on), compound targets that assess multiple things simultaneously ("Analyses and evaluates sources to construct an argument" — which part is the student struggling with?), and — the most insidious — dispositional targets assessed through rubrics (a rubric scored on a scenario task does not tell you whether a student has developed the disposition; it tells you whether they can perform it when asked). Black & Wiliam (1998) established that effective formative assessment requires clear, shared learning intentions. If the teacher doesn't know precisely what they're looking for, they cannot provide useful feedback, and students cannot self-assess. LTs are the unit of clarity: specific enough to assess, broad enough to apply across multiple projects and contexts. Wiggins & McTighe (2005) provide the backwards design framework, which Manning extends by adding an upstream "why" layer. Standard UBD starts with given curriculum goals. Purpose-driven backwards design starts with the school's mission and asks: Why does this competency exist in our curriculum? What would we lose if we removed it? This upstream questioning prevents the accumulation of competencies that nobody can justify but nobody dares remove. Bloom's taxonomy (1956, revised 2001) provides the verb hierarchy that constrains LT writing: observable, assessable verbs (identify, describe, compare, explain, justify, analyse, evaluate, create) replace unobservable verbs (understand, know, appreciate, be aware of). Vygotsky's (1978) ZPD informs band-level specification: each band statement describes what students can do WITH APPROPRIATE SUPPORT at that developmental stage — the upper edge of the ZPD.
95
96## Input Schema
97
98The educator must provide:
99- **Competency name:** The broad capability. *e.g. "Critical Thinking" / "Scientific Investigation" / "Collaborative Problem-Solving" / "Self-Regulation"*
100- **Competency definition:** One sentence. *e.g. "The ability to analyse information, evaluate evidence, and construct well-reasoned arguments" / "The ability to monitor and adjust one's emotional and behavioural responses across different situations"*
This is a preview of SKILL.md. Download or install the skill to get the whole thing.
In the file
SKILL.md8,869 words
Files1
Licencenot declared
Why you can read it

Nothing in a skill executes. The client loads the text and the model follows it, so a skill can be audited the way a runbook is — by reading it.

What it costs in context

Skills are not billed by the call. They are paid for in context: every token the instructions occupy is a token your code, your diff and your conversation cannot use. Here is what this one takes and when it takes it.

≈1,030
always loaded
The name and description, so the model knows the skill exists and when to reach for it.
14,795
on trigger
The instruction body, read only when the skill fires.
7.9%
of a 200k window
Ten skills this size would take about 79% of the window before you open a file.
050k100k150k200k context window

15.8k tokens, estimated from the bundle at four bytes to the token, held for the rest of the session once it triggers. Heavy. Teams tend to install this one per project rather than globally, and load it only when the job comes up.

Servers bill, skills cost

A server charges by the month. A skill charges once per session, in context, and then keeps charging it for as long as the session lives.

Before and after

The same question, put to the same model twice: once as it comes, and once with these instructions loaded.

No worked example has been published for this skill yet.

The procedure it runs

The procedure has not been set out here step by step. It is in the body of its SKILL.md: the start of it is shown above, and the whole file comes with the install.

Prose, not code

These steps are written for a model to follow, not executed by a runtime. It can still be told to skip one, and it will say so when it does.

Servers it uses

None. This skill calls no MCP servers at all.

Everything it needs is in the instructions, so it works in a project with nothing connected — the model reads the file and changes how it works with what it can already reach.

Its SKILL.md does not declare which tools it asks the agent for, so what it touches is whatever the instructions themselves ask for — read them before you install it.

What it asks for
Writes filesnot declared
Network accessnot declared

This SKILL.md carries no allowed-tools line, so neither is declared. A skill grants no permissions of its own — it can only ask for tools your client already has.

What it will not do

Every skill is narrow, and the useful ones say where they stop. These are the jobs this one is the wrong tool for.

What this skill is not for has not been published here. Nothing is implied by that: it is a section the author has not filled in.

What is in the bundle

1 file, 63.3 kB on disk. A bundle is text throughout: the instructions the model reads, plus the templates it fills in.

  • SKILL.md63.3 kB
What is not in it

No dependencies and nothing executable: a skill is text the agent reads, so the bundle is 1 file you can review in full before installing.

Install

Installing copies the bundle into your project. Nothing runs at install time — the files sit on disk until the model reads them.

# Purpose-Driven Learning Target Authoring Guide · 15.8k tokens when loaded · macOS, Linux mkdir -p .claude/skills && t=$(mktemp -d) && curl -fsSL -o "$t/bundle.tar.gz" https://mcprush.com/api/skills/purpose-driven-learning-target-authoring-guide/bundle.tar.gz && tar -xzf "$t/bundle.tar.gz" -C "$t" && [ -d "$t/purpose-driven-learning-target-authoring-guide" ] && { [ ! -e .claude/skills/purpose-driven-learning-target-authoring-guide ] || { mv .claude/skills/purpose-driven-learning-target-authoring-guide "$t/.previous" && echo "Previous copy moved to $t/.previous"; }; } && mv "$t/purpose-driven-learning-target-authoring-guide" .claude/skills/ && echo "Installed .claude/skills/purpose-driven-learning-target-authoring-guide"
On Windows, or any OS with Node 20+
npx mcprush@latest skill add garethmanning/purpose-driven-learning-target-authoring-guide

Windows PowerShell says 'running scripts is disabled on this system'? Run Set-ExecutionPolicy -Scope CurrentUser RemoteSigned once, or type npx.cmd instead of npx (codex.cmd, gemini.cmd, grok.cmd likewise). PowerShell 7 needs neither. Writes to .claude/skills/purpose-driven-learning-target-authoring-guide/ in the current project. For every project instead, run mkdir -p ~/.claude/skills && t=$(mktemp -d) && curl -fsSL -o "$t/bundle.tar.gz" https://mcprush.com/api/skills/purpose-driven-learning-target-authoring-guide/bundle.tar.gz && tar -xzf "$t/bundle.tar.gz" -C "$t" && [ -d "$t/purpose-driven-learning-target-authoring-guide" ] && { [ ! -e ~/.claude/skills/purpose-driven-learning-target-authoring-guide ] || { mv ~/.claude/skills/purpose-driven-learning-target-authoring-guide "$t/.previous" && echo "Previous copy moved to $t/.previous"; }; } && mv "$t/purpose-driven-learning-target-authoring-guide" ~/.claude/skills/ && echo "Installed ~/.claude/skills/purpose-driven-learning-target-authoring-guide" (macOS, Linux) — or add --global to the npx line. The curl line replaces .claude/skills/purpose-driven-learning-target-authoring-guide/ only after the download succeeds, so files left there by another skill of the same name, or by an older release, do not mix in. A copy already there is moved aside, not deleted, and the line prints where. It appears as learning-target-authoring-guide in Gemini CLI, Codex, Copilot and Grok (its own name); Claude Code lists it by the folder name, purpose-driven-learning-target-authoring-guide.

Which clients pick it up on their own

A skill is a folder of text. Most of these read a skills folder and pick it up without being told; the rest take the same folder another way — an upload in the app, a parameter on an API call — and then choose it by its description just the same.

Claude Code.claude/skills/
Claude DesktopCustomize › Skills
ChatGPTSkills › Create › Upload
Cursor.cursor/skills/
VS Code.github/skills/
Codex CLI.agents/skills/
Gemini CLI.gemini/skills/
Grok Build.grok/skills/
Microsoft CopilotSkills › Upload a skill
PerplexityComputer › Skills › Upload a skill
DeepSeek Harness.dsh/skills/
Zed.agents/skills/
Devin Desktop.devin/skills/
Windsurf (legacy).windsurf/skills/
OpenAI Agents SDKInstructions or sandbox Skills
HTTP / APIa request parameter
This release
Version2.0
Publishedno release date on file
PriceFree
Referencegarethmanning/purpose-driven-learning-target-authoring-guide

Versions

v2.0 is what is on the shelf; no release here carries a date. Instructions change more often than APIs do — a skill can be rewritten entirely without anything it depends on moving.

v2.0
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