How to Write Effective Objectives WHAT? HOW? WHY?

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.

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

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

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

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

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.

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..

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

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:

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.

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

Closure: Part 2 Lohr (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.”