It’s you who knoweth the true value of preparation. You get that entering the classroom without a clear understanding of what you need to accomplish before the bell rings may cause things to go south—fast.
But how can you be sure that the goal of your lesson is indeed well-written and precise enough? We’ll show you how to do this and give you both good and bad examples to ensure your lesson objectives never miss the mark.
A lesson plan objective should give you a clear and concise idea of what you want to achieve with a lesson. You’ll write the rest of the lesson plan to help you accomplish your objective.
Think of it as a lighthouse that helps you stay on course while navigating the treacherous waters of keeping the students’ attention alive and kicking.
In practice, an objective is a sentence that needs to be S.M.A.R.T.:
The difference between a well-written and poorly defined objective is whether or not it hits all these boxes. If you can’t measure an objective, how can you know if you’ve achieved it?
An objective must provide answers to why, how, and when.
The first step in writing an objective is choosing a measurable and specific verb. Depending on what you’re teaching and the age group you’re working with, you’ll need to choose an active verb that’s adjusted to your students’ abilities. You need to have lower expectations when writing a lesson plan for first and second graders than you would with high school students.
According to Bloom’s taxonomy, there are six levels of learning:
These levels are arranged in a specific hierarchy, meaning that you need to start from the first one and go forward. You can’t use a kindergarten lesson plan and expect the students to provide a critical evaluation of the provided information.
Every level of learning has an appropriate set of active verbs that you can use to write a measurable objective. You need to avoid verbs such as know, understand, appreciate, learn, be familiar, analyze, and others that don’t express a result you can quantify and assess.
Check out the table below to see some examples of verbs that you can use for each level of learning:
| Level of Learning | Verbs To Use |
| Remembering | Define Recall Recognize List Name Repeat State Duplicate Reproduce Select Underline |
| Understanding | Describe Identify Locate Classify Exemplify Compare Infer Report Discuss Explain Differentiate |
| Applying | Implement Execute Demonstrate Interpret Operate Schedule Sketch Solve Use Construct Perform Find |
| Analyzing | Attribute Organize Differentiate Question Test Experiment Examine Compare Contrast Relate Separate Distinguish Conclude Break down |
| Evaluating | Check Critique Argue Defend Judge Support Value Appraise Weigh Derive Conclude Integrate |
| Creating | Plan Produce Generate Design Construct Formulate Develop Assemble Investigate Author |
Note that some verbs can appear in different stages of learning. For instance, you can ask students to compare information in comprehension, analysis, and evaluation stages, but the level of comparison needs to be more advanced as your students progress through Bloom’s pyramid of learning.
Apart from choosing an appropriate verb, the rest of your lesson plan objective also needs to be written in line with the S.M.A.R.T. acronym. A well-thought-out objective covers every aspect of the lesson and answers every question regarding your lesson plan.
You can refer to the ABCD checklist to ensure you hit all the necessary points within your objective. The ABCDs of writing a lesson plan objective are as follows:
For more context, here’s an example of a well-written objective split into its ABCDs:
| Example Objective | Audience | Behavior | Condition | Degree |
| Students can tell the time on an analog clock with 90% accuracy | Students | Tell the time | On an analog clock | 90% accuracy |
A lesson plan objective depends on a variety of factors, including grade, subject, and students’ learning abilities. Another important factor is the lesson plan’s scope, i.e., whether you’re using a weekly lesson plan template or you want to plan an individual lesson instead.
If you’re struggling to come up with a specific, measurable, and time-bound objective, go through these examples to see what a well-written objective should look like:
Great objectives use active verbs that you can quantify easily and say with certainty whether the wanted action has been completed or not. Bad objectives are too vague and don’t tell what students need to do, when they should do it, and how. They usually don’t focus on a single behavior but list out several at the same time.
To make sure you don’t make the same mistakes, check out the examples of what your lesson plan objectives shouldn’t look like:
Nobody becomes a teacher to get bogged down in filling out administrative forms and lesson plan templates. If you write your own lesson plans, you might spend hours staring at an empty sheet of paper, trying to think of every single detail you need for your lesson.
The good news is that you can find ready-made lesson plans online. The not-so-good news is that there are plenty of poorly written resources out there (especially free ones). So, how do you find a good one?
You can find thousands of lesson plans online for every grade, from preschool to high school, covering various subjects, such as math, physics, and life studies. The catch is that the majority of these websites charge per download and offer a preview that doesn’t give enough information about a lesson plan.
You need to spend hundreds of dollars each year to go through lesson plans that are ultimately unusable. A large portion of these plans don’t meet curriculum standards, don’t have clear, well-defined objectives, and don’t take into account various learning styles.
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