1. EDU 287 1
Joan Ehrlich
SCRIPT – Writing Behavioral Objectives
Slide 1: Title: Writing Behavioral Objectives
This presentation explains the importance of writing behavioral objectives and provides
some steps to help you get started in the process.
Slide 2: Photo of Child Working on an Art Project
Children learn by doing, and by observing them, we are able to ascertain what they have
learned.
Behavioral objectives describe what one should expect to see as evidence that the child
has learned.
Therefore, behavioral objectives are a critical part of any lesson plan.
Slide 3: List of components of a lesson plan
The following are the components you should expect to see in a lesson plan. Some of
the categories or headings may vary somewhat, but generally speaking; these should appear in
one form or another in a well-organized lesson plan.
 Goal
 Behavioral Objectives
 Activity
 Procedure
 Materials
 Environment
 Measurement/Assessment
 Reflection/Assessment

2. EDU 287 2
Joan Ehrlich
Slide 4: List of components of a lesson plan
For the purpose of this discussion, we are going to focus on the Behavioral Objective
component of the lesson plan.
 Goal
 Behavioral Objectives
 Activity
 Procedure
 Materials
 Environment
 Measurement/Assessment
 Reflection/Assessment
Slide 5: The goal describes, in general, what you hope to achieve in your lesson
Here you can see that, very generally speaking, the teacher wants to help the children
develop and use appropriate social skills. Getting a little more specific, the teacher wants the
children to take turns while playing games. However, the teacher will have to get even more
specific as this goal becomes articulated as a behavioral objective.
Slide 6: Objectives describe, specifically, what the student will do to Demonstrate Mastery of
the Goal
Based on your goal of developing social skills, here is an example of a behavioral
objective you might have, that could be accomplished in a game of Follow the Leader.

3. EDU 287 3
Joan Ehrlich
Slide 7: Objectives are Observable
One of the key requirements of a behavioral objective is that whatever is to be
measured must be observable. So for example, to Count, Recite, Move, Tell, and
Describe. These can be observed. These, on the other hand, can NOT be observed:
Think, Understand, or Know. These things go on inside a child’s head. You must see the
child do something – like count, for example – in order to say that he or she
understands or knows numbers.
Slide 8: Objectives are measurable
In addition to stating an observable behavior, you must also indicate a way to measure
success. What determines mastery of the skill or concept?
You might want the child to perform an activity 80% of the time, or another way of
saying that would be 4 OUT OF 5 trials or 8 out of 10 opportunities.
You might want a child to retell a story he has heard, with 70% accuracy or 7/10 details
included.
Slide 9: Behavioral Objectives have 3 main components
Performance describes what you want the student to do to show that he/she has
mastered the skill or the information? This part of the objective includes an active verb
like describe, define, tell, and recite. These are behaviors that can be observed.
Condition describes the situation or conditions under which you expect this behavior to
occur. For example, given a prompt from the teacher …
Measurement (Criteria) tells how many times (or how well) the behavior must occur to
be considered mastery.
You may have noticed that the previous slide, showing measurement, did not include
100% accuracy. That is because 70% - 80% accuracy is usually considered mastery. You always
want to leave room for error, even for a skill or subject that has been mastered.

4. EDU 287 4
Joan Ehrlich
Slide 10: Using the example from before
Using our example of behavioral objective from before, here are your components:
Performance
(the student) will go to the back of the line.
Condition
In a game of Follow the Leader
With prompt from teacher
Measurement (Criteria) –
in 4/5 opportunities
Slide 11: The Ultimate test of a behavioral, measurable objective is that anyone reading it can
picture what the student will do to demonstrate that the skill has been mastered.
When writing a behavioral objective, you want to keep this rule of thumb in mind.
Anyone who reads your objective should be able to understand exactly what skill or concept is
to be mastered, what the student is expected to do to demonstrate mastery, and what criteria
will be used to measure mastery.