Key Question:

What will the child need to be able to do to achieve each goal? How do we get to the goals? What are the intermediate steps(short-term objectives) to achieving the goal? OR What are the major milestones(benchmarks) to achieving the goal?

Purpose: To outline measurable, intermediate steps between a student's present level of performance and the annual goal.

Definition:

Short term objectives - intermediate steps to a goal Benchmarks - major milestones to a goal

Key Characteristics:

• Measurable
• Minimum of 2 per goal
• A logical breakdown of the major components of an annual goal
• General indicators of progress, not a detailed instructional plan
• Specifies the behavior to be performed
• Short term objectives often specify conditions under which the child will perform the behavior
• Benchmarks often indicate a time frame
• May be a precursor step or a building block skill
• May be sequential (crawl, then walk) or parallel (decode accurately and understand what is read)

 

Writing Strategy: Describe Describe the behavior the child will be doing when the short-term objective or benchmark is achieved.

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