Writing Behavioral Objectives

Recently I was in a discussion with another teacher about writing behavioral objectives. I thought I would share how I write objectives for my students.

Every objective should contain the following: a condition, a target behavior, a criterion and a time frame.

A condition is what the students are given such as:

·      When given a list of 20 sight words…

·      When given a story prompt…

·      Given 20 math problems with addition and subtraction…

·      Given a reading sample written on a 4^th grade level…

A target behavior is what I want the student to do. This behavior must be observable and measureable such as:

·      The student will say…

·      The student will write…

·      The student will compute…

·      The student will answer comprehension questions…

A criterion is how I want to measure this behavior such as:

·      18 out of 20 words accurately…

·      5 sentences using capital letters and punctuation with 85% accuracy

·      8 out of 10 problems accurately

·      with 90% accuracy

A time frame is when I want this objective to be achieved such as:

·      By the end of the semester.

·      By the annual review date.

·      In 18 weeks.

·      By the end of the first quarter.

A complete behavioral objective would look like the following:

·      When given a list of 20 sight words, the student will say 18 out of 20 words accurately by the end of the semester.

·      When given a story prompt, the student will write 5 sentences using capital letters and punctuation with 85% accuracy by the end of the first quarter.

·      Given 20 math problems with addition and subtraction, the student will compute 8 out of 10 problems accurately in 18 weeks.

·      Given a reading sample written on a 4^th grade level, the student will answer comprehension questions with 90% accuracy by the annual review date.

·      Given 3 specific tasks, the student will complete all of them 3 out of 4 times accurately.

Do you write behavioral objectives? Please share!