how to write good objectives (Wong & Wong)

From pp. 209 - 222 in Wong & Wong, The First Days of School: How to Be an Effective Teacher (one of my current fave teaching books)...

Assignments must be clear and precise....A poor assignment tells the student what to do at the BEGINNING of the assignment. A good assignment states what a student is to have accomplished or achieved when the assignment is FINISHED. You tell students what you want accomplished. Then you give procedures to help them do so.

In other words, a good assignment is based on a good objective.

Objective criteria do two things: assign and assess.

1. Assign: Objectives...tell a student what is to be...mastered in an assignment.
2. Assess: Objectives tell the teacher if additional study is needed to reach the objectives."

Seems obvious, and yet, it's amazing how easy it is to miss the obvious. The Wongs' sterling advice continues:

Objectives are to be given to the students when the lesson begins so that the students know what they are responsible for. It is easy to write objectives.

1. Step 1: Pick a verb [from the table below]...and use the verb you select as the first word in a sentence.
2. Step 2: Complete the sentence...Make sure that the sentence is precise and easily understood by you, the students, and their parents.

- 6 - Evaluation	appraise, choose, compare, conclude, decide, defend, evaluate, give your opinion, judge, justify, prioritize, rank, rate, select, support, value
- 5 - Synthesis	change, combine, compose, construct, create, design, find an unsual (or original) way, formulate, generate, invent, originate, plan, predict, pretend, produce, rearrange, reconstruct, reorganize, revise, suggest, suppose, visualize, write
- 4 - Analysis	analyze, categorize, classify, compare, contrast, debate, deduce, determine the factors, diagnose, diagram, differentiate, dissect, distinguish, examine, infer, specify
- 3 - Application	apply, compute, conclude, construct, demonstrate, determine, draw, find out, give an example, illustrate, make, operate, show, solve, state a rule or principle, use
- 2 - Comprehension	convert, describe, explain, interpret, paraphrase, put in order, restate, retell in your own words, rewrite, summarize, trace, translate
- 1 - Knowledge	Define, fill in the blank, identify, label, list, locate, match, memorize, name, recall, spell, state, tell, underline

And in big bold letters after this, they have,

Do not use these verbs when you write objectives:

• appreciate
  
• be happy
  
• beautify
  
• celebrate
  
• enjoy
  
• like
  
• love
  
• understand

[They explain that these] "are not good action verbs because it is difficult, if not impossible, to determine from them what the student is to do."

I love Wong & Wong. Everything you were supposed to learn in Teacher Ed school, but most definitely did not.

---

As a result of reviewing these instructions, I was forced to rewrite the objectives for the lesson plan I'm working on right now. See if you can spot the Wong & Wong touch!

Before:

"Students will develop a richer frame of reference for imagining the beginning of farming, and for understanding its impact on human life and society."

After:

"Students will interpret data sources--including maps, timelines, and descriptions of archeological evidence--and draw conclusions about the reasons why people began farming."

It's the same lesson plan--I was already gonna have them "interpreting data sources" even while the objective was lousy--but now that I've clarified the objective, it makes a lot of things easier, including (1) giving directions, (2) identifying the phase in the process that gives one or more students difficulty, (3) figuring out how long it will take, based on EXACTLY what skills are needed to succeed in the lesson, and my knowledge of which students have & lack these skills, and (4) determining whether they've done what I wanted them to do.

(Note the nefarious sleight-of-hand in the "before" objective--I knew you weren't supposed to say "understand," but obviously, "develop a frame of reference" is just a fancy way of saying "understand." *grin*)

The main thing I realized here is that it really is worthwhile to force yourself to use these verbs, because each of them describes an action that is **MEASURABLE**.

"Understand" is not measurable.

"Interpret" is measurable--can the student tell me what the map or timeline says?

"Draw conclusion" is measurable--can the student tell me his/her conclusion?

Suddenly I realize why I have had so much trouble in the past (well, one reason)... my objectives have basically been fifty-bajillion ways of saying, "think like me, see things the way I do." Then, when they don't, I'm often at a loss as to how to help them learn to.

Whereas, with the precise & clear objective method, I am identifying in small precise steps what I want them to do, so it's hard to stray too far from "the point" or get confused about whether it's more important for them to do x or y at this time, as a building-block for the next lesson.

It occurs to me I could probably create a year-long plan based on historical thinking & writing skills, and apply that to whatever course I teach--in other words, figure out what skills need to be learned in what order, and create a step-by-step approach that builds each skill onto the next. Just fill in the content--that's the easier part.

Hmmmmmm...