How to: Writing Objectives

The Five rules of writing objectives

Rule #1: All objectives are one sentence long and start with “The student will…” or “The learner will…”

Rule #2: All objectives contain one Bloom’s Taxonomy verb.
Bloom’s Taxonomy verbs are necessary for an objective. It allows for the objective to be assessed. This resource offers a good overview of how Bloom’s Taxonomy verbs work.

Rule #3: The objective needs to be tied to a state standard.

Rule #4: The objective needs to indicate a DOK level.

Rule #5: An objective should typically have one topic. It is always better to make two separate objectives rather than one objective that will measure two things.

Anatomy of an Objective

 

Locating the Mississippi State Standards

The State of Mississippi has content standards for every subject and grade level. They are called “College and Career Readiness Standards” and are aligned with Common Core. For the main subject areas (math, science, social studies, and English) there is an app that can be downloaded to a smart phone (click here for Android; click here for Apple).

Writing Objectives, Step by Step

Step 1: Write “The student will…”

Step 2: Find a state standard you wish to cover with the objective.

Add the short-hand abbreviation to the end of the objective. For example, let’s say you are teaching Geometry, and want to use standard “G-GMD.3: Use volume formulas for cylinders, pyramids, cones, and spheres to solve problems.” This standard covers several shapes, so our objective will need to be a little more specific. Since the objective will be tied to the standard, we would add “G-GMD.3” to the very end of the objective.

At this point, your objective should look something like “The student will…(G-GMD.3)”

Step 3: Choose a Bloom’s Taxonomy verb.

Continuing with the geometry example, this topic lends itself to students applying a formula to solve a problem. Therefore, it makes sense to pull a verb from the “apply” category. In this case, there are several potential verbs: solve, implement, use, compute, and apply. For the sake of this example, the Bloom’s Taxonomy verb solve will be used.

At this point, your objective should look something like “The student will solve… (G-GMD.3)”

Step 4: Decide on the topic covered.

Be as specific and direct as you can. In this case, the word “problems” and “pyramids” will be pulled straight from the state standard.

At this point, your objective should look something like “The student will solve word problems using the volume formula for pyramids. (G-GMD.3)”

Step 5: Add the appropriate DOK level.

Add the appropriate DOK level based on the charts from that section. In this case, students are applying a formula (what could be considered a “skill”) to find an answer. Therefore, this objective would fall into a DOK 2 because students are “applying skills and concepts.”

Now, your finished objective should look as follows: “The student will solve word problems using the volume formula for pyramids. (DOK 2) (G-GMD.3)”

Other thoughts

The objective writing process requires you to consider at least two other questions: “What do the students already know?” and “What objectives support and/or complement this objective?”

What do the students already know?

The objective written above assumes that students are already familiar with the volume formula for pyramids. However, if they have never been exposed to this formula, we will need to teach the students that before we attempt this objective. Gaining an understanding of what students know is part of the assessment process, which will be covered in that section of this text.

“What objectives support and/or complement this objective?”

This objective covers pyramids, but there are other shapes mentioned in the standard. Please resist the temptation to cover an entire standard in one objective. Remember, an objective should typically have only one verb and one topic. If one were teaching a series of lessons or a unit, It makes sense that we would have other objectives like the following:

The student will solve word problems using the volume formula for cylinders. (DOK 2) (G-GMD.3)
The student will solve word problems using the volume formula for cones. (DOK 2) (G-GMD.3)
The student will solve word problems using the volume formula for spheres. (DOK 2) (G-GMD.3)

In addition, notice the objectives have students looking at word problems. There is the possibility that English Language Arts (ELA) objectives might come into play for these lessons. This will be covered in more detail in the cross-curricular section of this text.