Good lesson plans always begin with a clear, attainable lesson objective. The lesson objective tells us what you are planning to cover in the lesson, and is something to guide the teacher, not necessarily the students. For this reason, objectives traditionally use ‘teacher chat’, meaning terminology that only the teachers really understand. 

 

Where do lesson objectives come from?

 

Lesson objectives usually come from the curriculum framework of whatever curriculum you are working on, and most curriculum come with this in a separate document that contains all the objectives for the year. In the event that staff do not have a curriculum framework, it can usually be found in the teachers guides for the course books. Teacher books will either have a section that contains all the objectives (the framework) or they will be spread across the book at the start of each unit or lesson. 

 

When you know the topic of your lesson, find the objectives that are relevant and bear them in mind when you are planning. There will always be a place in your standard lesson plan template to write these objectives.

 

In the event that your lesson is a one-off that is not related directly to the curriculum, for example a lesson on something regarding the annual school show, it may be necessary to formulate your own objectives. 

 

Differentiated Objectives

 

Many years ago, I learned a new way of constructing my objectives that really assisted me in differentiating my expectations for students, and I have used it ever since. I’ve never actually worked at a school that required differentiated objectives, but I’ve always done them as a way to guide my own teaching and also to meet the needs of my students. 

 

When we include an objective in our lesson plans, we are stating the standard that students should reach in the lesson, however we always know that there will be students who can do more than this, and students who will struggle to meet this standard. So, what happens with these students who are either above or below level? Differentiated objectives give them something to aim for, and give you, the teacher, something to measure their progress by. 

 

Check out the example below to see how to turn your standard objective into a differentiated one.

 

 

Standard objective: Know how to include adjectives in sentences to build description of setting and characters.

 

Differentiated objectives: Students must identify adjectives in sentences. 

                                            Students should be able to add an adjective to a sentence to create description. 

                                            Students could use multiple adjectives in sentences to create descriptive paragraphs. 

 

You will notice that as we move through the differentiated objectives, the attainment target becomes more difficult. 

 

The ‘must’ objective is the minimum that students must be able to reach in the lesson as it shows they have the foundation to learn the nee topic. This is where lower level students may be sitting at the end of your lesson, however most students will be able to do this from prior knowledge at the beginning of the lesson. The ‘must’ objective is usually testing prior knowledge, in other words the thing students should be able to do from the get-go because it’s been covered in a prior lesson either this year or last year. 

 

The ‘should’ objective is the one that most closely resembles the objective found in your curriculum framework. This is the objective that is the actual aim of your lesson, and the one that we are trying to get all students to achieve within the lesson time. It should be challenging but manageable for the majority of students. 

 

The ‘could’ objective is the one for the students who meet the ‘should’ objective easily and need to be challenged further. It is, essentially, extension work. A few students in your class should be able to achieve the ‘could’ objective, which goes beyond the initial aim of the lesson. 

 

You will notice that although we have split the objective into three, they are still on topic and still meet the standard given in the framework. As teachers though, we know that not all students will be able to achieve the standard objective, while some will find it easy, and so splitting it into three differentiated objectives creates targets that all students can reasonably aim for. 

 

Here is another example, this time for a mathematics lesson. 

 

Standard objective: Add double digit numbers to single digit numbers. 

 

Differentiated objectives:

 

Students must know what place value is and identify ones and tens.

Students should be able to add a double digit number and a single digit number.

Students could create and solve their own math problems involving adding double digit numbers and single digit numbers. 

 

Differentiated objectives can be created for all subjects and all objectives, and will get easier to create as you become more familiar with your curriculum. 

 

 

Students and Objectives

 

Studies have shown that students perform better in class when they know the purpose of the lesson, and the attainment target they are aiming for. With this in mind, it is important that students know what the objectives are for the lesson. I have seen this done in a number of ways over the years, but here are my favourites. 

 

1. Having students copy down the differentiated objectives at the top of their page. Some teachers find that this takes up a lot of lesson time, especially when students are younger and so write slowly. An alternative is to print them out ahead of time and have students stick them in their books at the top of their page. This is always what I prefer to do, as the aim is to reveal the objectives to the students, not test their copying accuracy, and when lesson time is tight, it frees up a few valuable minutes. 
2. For younger students, WALT is generally a good way to go, as it just gives them what they need to know, without going into it too much. WALT means ‘we are learning to’ and looks like this: WALT describe places and people in our writing. Notice that after ‘WALT’ we always start with a verb. Again, students should have these in their books, whether written or printed. Be careful to make sure that you use language suitable for the age you teach.

 

Reflecting on Progress

 

At the end of the lesson, there should be time for students to reflect on what they have learned and review their progress. Draw your students attention back to the objectives in their copybooks and ask them if they feel they have achieved the objectives. This works especially well with differentiated objectives, because you can ask them to highlight the ones they were able to complete. You will get your data regarding what they have actually achieved by looking at their completed work, however asking students to reflect encourages them to evaluate their own work and set targets for themselves, both of which are important skills to learn. 

 

 

Most schools don’t ask for differentiated objectives, as all management need them for is to check you are following the curriculum properly. However, as teachers, we need our objectives to do much more. Differentiated objectives enable you to see where your students are at and plan more effectively for upcoming lessons. Doing a little more work with your objectives means less work in the long run, and allows you to tailor your teaching to meet the needs of the different levels in your classroom.