Language Objectives:
A Step by Step Guide

Do you want to know how to write language objectives? Download the Language Objective Guide to use the graphic organizer with this process. This guide will walk you through how to write language objectives step-by-step. You may be thinking what is a language objective? You might not be sure about content objectives. Teacher talk can get a little overwhelming. I know when I first started I had no idea what all these words mean. Here is a list of commonly used words with their definitions.

A content objective tells the student what they will be learning during the lesson. For example, I can analyze the connections and distinctions between individuals, ideas, or events in a text. A language objective tells how the students will learn and/or demonstrate their learning through the four domains of language. The four domains of language are reading, listening, speaking, and writing. Here is an example of a language objective: I can write the connections between events in a text.

If you were anything like me, I was confused on how to write language objectives. Here is a step by step process of how to write a language objective. Remember to ask yourself “How will the students show me through reading, listening, speaking, and writing that they understand the content objective?” Below is a video that I made that explains in detail how to write a language objective.

1. Identify the content objective. What do you want the students to learn from the lesson?
2. Think about where your students are in their language learning process. Even in mainstream classrooms where are you students in regards to the four domains of language.
3. Identify the domain that you are asking students to do in the lesson. For example, there is a lesson where the students will be presenting to the class. The domain you are asking them to demonstrate their understanding would be speaking.

Now that you have gathered the information above here is how you write the language objective:

Sample Language Objective (Writing): I can summarize “Little Red Riding Hood” using sentence frames with a partner.

1. Download the Language Objective Guide to use the graphic organizer with this process.
2. Looking at the chart identify the language domain you will be using in class (Listening, Reading, Speaking, and/or Writing)
3. Find the action verb that you will be using. The action verbs vary based on Bloom’s  Taxonomy. Use the chart in this document to help you in deciding on the action verb.
4. What is the topic of the lesson?
5. Include any scaffolds/supports you will have for the students. A scaffold is teacher added supports for the students so they can master the objective of the lesson.

Take a sneak peak into the Language Objective Guide below!