How to Write Lesson Plan Objectives That Actually Guide Your Teaching

A clear objective tells you three things: what to teach, how to assess, and when to move on. Without it, you're making those decisions on the fly — which is how lessons drift, run long, or miss the point entirely.

The objective also protects your students. When every activity connects to the same goal, students aren't doing busywork. They're practicing something specific and measurable.

Students will [observable verb] [specific content] [optional: condition or context].

Example: Students will identify three causes of the American Revolution and explain how each contributed to colonial independence.

The key is the observable verb. 'Understand' and 'learn about' are not observable. 'Identify,' 'compare,' 'construct,' 'analyze,' and 'evaluate' are. Use Bloom's taxonomy as a reference, but don't overthink it — pick the verb that matches what students will actually do.

Too broad: 'Students will understand the water cycle.' This could mean anything from labeling a diagram to writing a research paper.

Activity-focused: 'Students will complete a worksheet.' The worksheet is the activity, not the learning. What will they learn by doing it?

Too many objectives: If you have four objectives for a 45-minute lesson, you have zero objectives. Pick the one thing that matters most.

Not assessable: If you can't check whether students met the objective by the end of the lesson, rewrite it.

Remember: Students will list the five senses and give one example of each. (Knowledge retrieval, suitable for younger students or introduction.)

Apply: Students will solve two-step equations using inverse operations. (Procedural application, common in math and science.)

Analyze: Students will compare two primary sources and identify the author's perspective in each. (Higher-order thinking, suitable for upper grades.)

Create: Students will design and present a solution to a local environmental problem using evidence from the unit. (Synthesis-level, often for culminating projects.)

When you generate a lesson plan in LessonCraft, the objective is written using an observable verb aligned to your topic and grade level. You can edit it directly, and the rest of the plan — activities, assessment criteria, and differentiation — adjusts to stay aligned.