.Knowing what you want to teach by writing instructional objectives in advance of instruction is essential to helping students learn. Begin by identifying the state-mandated content standards related to the subject you will teach. Then identify one or two specific standards on which you will base a specific lesson.
You can find Texas’ curricular standards, the Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills, or TEKS, here.
If you are pursuing certification as an EC-6 generalist, be sure that your lesson plan is consistent with Texas’ Prekindergarten Guidelines if appropriate.
If you are pursuing certification in the field of special education, there are no specific TEKS related to special education. Instead, lessons for special education students are still aligned to the grade and content level TEKS in which the student is studying. Therefore, you may select any content area or grade level for which to align your lesson; however, be sure to identify the selected grade level and content area as well as identify that the lesson is specifically designed for learners with special needs.
Each educational objective should address at least one identified state standard. When writing objectives, a sufficient number of objectives should be constructed to address each identified state standard for your lesson. In this assignment, you will need to provide 3-5 objectives corresponding to 1 or more state standards that you identify.
For this assignment, follow these steps:
1. Provide the grade level and subject in which the lesson will be used.
2. Identify the state standards to which you will align. Include both the reference number of the standard and the full text of the standard. For example,
Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills for Mathematics
Subchapter B. Middle School, Grade 6
(b)(1)(C) (The student is expected to) select tools, including real objects, manipulatives, paper and pencil, and technology as appropriate, and techniques, including mental math, estimation, and number sense as appropriate, to solve problems;
(b)(2)(C) (The student is expected to) locate, compare, and order integers and rational numbers using a number line;
3. Review the list of verbs related to Bloom’s taxonomy from this course.
4. Identify the verbs you want to use in writing objectives from each column on the list, based on the Bloom’s level at which you are seeking to measure learning. Each objective should have one verb as its focus. Label the objective’s verb by putting it in bold text.
5. Ensure that at least two of your objectives are related to higher-order thinking (thinking at the two highest levels, Evaluating or Creating, of Bloom’s taxonomy).
Here is an example of a concise, achievable, and measurable objective:
The student decides whether a sentence is simple, compound, complex, or compound-complex. (Evaluate)
6. Label the level of Bloom’s taxonomy that corresponds to each objective and place the label in bold text.
