Instructional Objectives

  Properly written instructional objects have four components. They:

                                             Audience
        a.  are student centered, describing what students will be able to do 
            once they have acquired the knowledge, skills or values related to 
            the overall goal of the lesson(s).

                                Anticipated Measurable Performance
         b. describe an anticipated measurable performance that will demonstrate 
              the student has acquired the knowledge, skills or values related to the
             overall goal of the lesson(s). It allows the teacher to be able to see, 
             hear, or examine a student developed project.

                                                   Condition
         c. describe the condition, or setting, in which the performance is to be 
             demonstrated and observed.

                                             Performance Level
         d. establish a degree or level of expected performance (criterion) to measure 
             the successful completion of the objective. These may be measured by 
             rubrics, the percentage of correct items on a text/quiz, check sheets, etc.

     *Example of a properly written instructional Objective:

     When given nine Styrofoam balls, each labeled to represent a planet, and a basketball
     on the table to represent the Sun (condition), the child (audience) will correctly place the
     Styrofoam balls in order as the planets are from the Sun (the measurable performance),
     with 80 percent accuracy (the criterion).

     *Victor, Edward and Kellough, Richard D. (1993). Science for the elementary school (7th Ed.).
          (p. 171-172). New York, NY: Macmillan Publishing Co.