Behavioral Objectives Describes an anticipated behavior Determines a terminal behavior Three Components

Describes an anticipated behavior New or Modified From Current Behavior

Describes a terminal behavior What do you want the student to do? After you’ve carried out the intervention The behavior must be appropriate at an independent level of functioning

Three Components Conditions Behavior Criteria

Conditions What are the circumstances in which the new behavior is to be observed E.g., “Given teacher-requested homework assignments . . .”

Behavior Specify exactly (operationally) what the student is to do E.g., “ . . . The student will write the assignment in is notebook, complete the assignment before the due date/time, and submit it to the teacher at the due date/time . . .”

Criteria At what level of proficiency is the behavior to be performed? E.g., “. . . Independently nine of ten assignments in a two-week period.”

Sample Objective “Given teacher-requested homework assignments , the student will write the assignment in is notebook, complete the assignment before the due date/time, and submit it to the teacher at the due date/time independently nine of ten assignments in a two-week period.”

Guidelines for behavioral objectives Always write criteria to master the criteria specified. Write the objective to produce an appropriate replacement behavior. Include all three components of the objective.

Non-examples The student will remain on-task 95% of the time. Given directions, the student will complete the assignment 95% of the time. Given 5 spelling words on a timed test, the student will spell each word correctly with a grade of “C”.

Correct Examples Given in-class reading assignments, Geoffrey will read self-chosen text for 14 of 15 minutes consecutively [9 of 10 reading periods within 2 weeks] Given timed daily spelling tests (30 seconds/word) of 5 words per test, Joy will spell each word correctly with 95% proficiency [over a 2 week period] [] are optional