Creating Objectives

I think one of the most difficult things about teaching, at least at first, is making attainable objectives. Teachers have a tendency to write objectives that are vague and can be achieved in many ways. For some learners this can be an issue, in part, because they want to have mastered the objective and, in part, because for some students the goal is just not going to happen. I know we have our percentages of students that we want to have attained their goal by the end of the class, or the thought that they will have achieved the goal in part and that might be what we are looking for. However, I would argue that this line of thinking can cause more problems for some of our students than solutions.

In light of that, DESE's ESL department has put out many documents that can help us narrow things down. On their website, there is a document called Next Generation ESL Project: Curriculum Resource Guide. Even though in the title it claims to be for ESL students, there are great tools in this (quite long and thorough) document for any sort of classroom teacher. (See link below)

In this document there are multiple suggestions for writing specific, S.M.A.R.T, goals, or rather objectives (Specific/Strategic, Measurable, Action-oriented, Rigorous/Realistic/Results-focused, Timed).

There are five ways modeled in the document in section 5.3 (in mine that is page 136 but I'm not sure that will transfer to yours since you will be downloading to a different computer and computers are fickle creatures). I will highlight one below (because it is the one that I like and use the most and therefore have the most experience with).

All of the objectives (now, please mind that these are ESL specific but can be easily modified to fit any classroom) (tired of parenthesis yet?) begin with "Students will be able to" some schools may change this to an "I can" statement when presenting these to the class in students friendly language.

Model number three used "Students will be able to..." and then a key academic practice such as, compare and contrast characters in the story, state an opinion about Rosa Parks' protest, or explain how to find the sum. Finally, we specify the language that will be used to perform the academic practice such as, using conjunctions in complex sentences, using the simple present tense, or using ordinal numbers (first, second, third).

Your objectives will then look something like this:
Students will be able to + key academic practice + specific academic language form or feature

"Students will be able to compare and contrast characters in the story using conjunctions in complex sentences."

"Students will be able to state an opinion about Rosa Parks' protest using the simple past tense."

"Students will be able to explain how to find the sum using ordinal numbers (first, second, third)."

I actually enjoy making objectives with these guides because they help me get more specific with what I want the students to be able to do. It also helps the students to know what they will be working on. Some of the models even have what supports you will be using with the students, such as, groups, partners, graphic organizers, etc. These can really help your students to be more successful.

Here is the link, if you are interested, to the downloadable PDF version:  

www.doe.mass.edu/ell/curriculum/ResourceGuide.pdf