Standards, Objectives, & GOALLLLLLLLLLLLLLLS *in best soccer sportscaster voice*

A sound understanding of how to formulate standards, goals, and objectives is critical to the success of any professional educator when devising curriculum, unit plans, and individual lesson plans. The proper formulation and execution of all three components will, undoubtedly, ensure that learning is actually taking place among students. Most importantly, perhaps, they allow teachers to witness success in their teaching and also in student learning.

Today's lecture and additional readings, which was a pleasant complement to past courses and instructional content, refreshed me with a solid foundational understanding of how standards, goals, and objectives are intertwined. For example, standards convey the overall knowledge and skills students will have acquired at certain landmarks within their education. I think of goals as being specific to units, as they are broad, generalized statements that fit the mission of the standards. Finally, objectives are specific, measurable, and observable student actions or behaviors upon which some basis is made for the selection of instructional content and assessments. Objectives are, essentially, the things students will be able to do after completing a course.

Further reading allowed me to be exposed to concept I lacked familiarity with - the ABCDs of objective writing. Prior to reading about this topic, I had only heard of the three characteristics of quality objectives being (1) Performance, (2) Conditions, and (3) Criterion. Both expressions seem to convey a similar message, however. Good, precise objectives should address a specific Audience (A), speak about a specified Behavior or task to be performed (B), describe the Condition under which a performance is to be executed (C), and note the Degree (D), or simply the criterion of acceptable performance under your own standards.

Although teachers sometimes struggle with creating quality goals and objectives to meet state and national standards, the ability to devise meaningful goals and objectives is an all-important tool in the teacher's utility belt. These three components provide the basis on which their curriculum, unit plans, lesson plans, and, most importantly, assessments are based. It is key that teachers take the time to center their instruction around meeting daily objectives and unit goals. When this occurs, teachers will get a glimpse at successful instruction techniques and, hopefully, successful student assessments and outcomes.