Identify the kinds of objectives to write: cognitive, psychomotor or affective. Cognitive objectives focus on increasing student knowledge or intellectual skills, for example, "explaining the types of cake frostings." Psychomotor objectives focus on improving motor skills, for example, "frosting a cake." Affective objectives focus on modifying student attitudes, for example, "valuing diversity in cake frostings."
Begin each performance objective with the following or a variation: "At the end of the class the student will be able to....". Then use an action verb to identify the specific observable performance you require students to demonstrate for successful achievement of the objective. Avoid verbs like "know" and "understand" because they are not measurable. For example, use "compare and contrast..."
Indicate the learning outcome or product you expect the student to use to successfully accomplish the objective. For example, state "in a journal entry..."
Describe a measurable criterion of successful student performance or achievement---how well the student must perform to be acceptable. For example, write "identify the three main types of cake frosting..."
Describe any conditions under which the student must perform the behavior. Include any tools, equipment or special circumstances. Conditions can be implied in the performance objective and are therefore optional. For example, state "after listening to a panel of experts..." The completed performance objective would then be something like this: "At the end of the class the student will be able to compare and contrast in a journal entry the three main types of cake frosting after listening to a panel of experts."