How to Write Effective Objectives

1. How to Write Effective Objectives WHAT? HOW? WHY?

2. Why do you need clearly written objectives in daily lesson plans? • Researchers say that schools would have to increase instructional time by 71% to cover existing benchmarks and standards. • Objectives focus on the most important of these existing benchmarks that students need to learn by the end of the unit. • Teachers need to focus on what is learned, not what is taught (the proper format of objective writing.) • Instruction that focuses on a clearly written objective is the number one factor that impacts student achievement.

3. CCPS OBSERVATION AND EVALUATION FORM STANDARD 1: PLANNING • Plans objectives that reflect the curriculum content standards • Plans instruction to achieve objectives

4. UBD MODEL • First, determine what you want students to learn (objective) • Then, create an aligned assessment that will measure it • Finally, design activities to achieve the stated daily learning objective

5. Goal of Daily Lesson Objectives(UBD) • Build towards the “Big Idea” and • The “Enduring Understanding” found: - in the CCPS curriculum guide or - VSC indicator

6. GURUS OF OBJECTIVE WRITING • Madeline Hunter: What and Why Explain what the student will be able to do by the end of the lesson and why it is important • Harry Wong: What and How Objectives do two things: Assign and Assess • Education Oasis Group: What, How, and Why Create a stem that describes activity, add a verb, and determine the outcome

7. Examples • Hunter: “Students will demonstrate their ability to add whole numbers.” Objective: Explains what student will be able to do by the end of the lesson • Wong: “Plan a pizza party” Objective: Assign and Assess- Tells student what action will be taken and what is to be performed or mastered.

8. Education Oasis Group • Example: “After completing today’s activities,SWBAT: (Create a stem w/ conditions) -Recognize (Verb) foreshadowing in… -Decide if the Treaty of Versailles really did end hostilities (determine the outcome) -Differentiate between the different categories of rocks(which is the “why” or process/product) -Create a series of math steps to be used to..

9. Recommended Format: ABCD(Heinich, et.al.) FOUR PARTS: • Audience: Who are the learners (SWBAT) • Behavior: Bloom’s verbs • Condition: How? What will the student be given to accomplish the learning (methods used) • Degree: How will learning be measured/ Use a number

10. EXAMPLES AGAIN • Hunter:“Students will demonstrate their ability to add whole numbers.” ABCD: “After several activities, SWBAT demonstrate their ability to add whole numbers by adding columns of figures.” • Wong:“ Plan a pizza party.” ABCD:

11. OTHER EXAMPLES: • “Given a set of current conditions taken from a weather station, SWBAT write a weather forecast covering the next six hours.” • “Given a series of sentences written in past or present tense, SWBAT rewrite the sentence in future tense with no grammatical errors.” • “After viewing a video, SWBAT identify at least five push-pull factors relating to U.S. immigration in the late 1800’s.

12. Closure- Part one • A good objective: What-How-Why • ABCD method A= Audience C= Conditions B= Behavior D= Degree • Wong: “Describe what happens when two molds grow together.” Be precise, easy to read

13. Closure: Part 2Lohr (Penn State Website) “A properly written objective tells you: -what specific knowledge, skill or attitude is desired -what method of instruction and criteria for learner achievement is required.”