Writing Objectives?

Hi Ruth, You put a writing goal into the IEP as an annual goal. I am going to paste a goal that I use in this email. This is the main goal and then you use the same goal as an objectives or benchmark sand you just change the proficiency % so that the goal can be used all year. The team may change the wording because all states and counties in that state write IEP objectives differently. This is my goal. The problem with objectives is that so many teachers virtually ignore the objectives because this demands that they remediate the deficiencies and most don’t know how as well as not having the correct programs that actually teach creative writing. Make sure you ask how this goal is going to be measured and what program or method they are using. Don’t let them get away with telling you that they will accommodate your daughter by letting her use a computer. I like to use Inspiration along with Step Up to Writing for remediation but there are other programs recommended by people on this board that work well. I hope that this helps.

Goal:

By May 2003 ,( your child’s name) will choose a planning strategy prior to writing; organize ideas into a correctly detailed paragraph using all of the parts of speech and content vocabulary as well as paraphrasing when appropriate; organize ideas into multiple paragraphs; edit writing for appropriate word usage, sentence structure, punctuation, grammar, and spelling when given a writing assignment with 100% efficiency.

The objectives are the same except I start out with 85% efficiency and work up to finish the goal at 100% efficiency at the end of the IEP year.

You need an objective standard to measure against- a rubric your system uses or something like that -which sets a standard for different levels. A fourth grader’s writing that meets this objective will look quite different from a tenth grader.

Robin

In Our IEP’s we have a separate section in which gives a list of how the objective is going to be measured such as: written reports, classroom participation, homework and of course using a rubric etc. All counties have different forms and you have to ‘tweak’ the objective to fit how your county writes IEP objectives.

I teach in a resource room that services students from K-5 and I have a hard time with writing goals. If I say they will write on a third grade level in one year, I have to know what is considered to be third grade writing. That is difficuly for me with so many levels. Now my goals are more specific and easier to measure for mastery. My goals could be By May of 2003, –- will write 3 or more sentences on a specific topic etc. This I can measure and document mastery. For my higher students, my goals include paragraphs and editing etc.

In my experience, it is parents who want IEP goals written to G.E.s. To me, a teacher, G.E. 3.5 is a meaningless statistic that can only be evaluated in light of a particular standardized test. I prefer to write goals and objectives that are based on what the performance should be or look like. I do use informal reading inventories, graded word lists, etc for reading goals, in addition to skills mastery as demonstrated by informal measures. For writing I specify what I want to see on paper. Math is the easiest, I think, and is again written to describe what the child will know how to do.

I would sure hate to be the one to try and measure this objective at any % of effciency. Does it mean the student has to use All parts of speech and all content vocabulary? What is a correctly detailed paragraph? What is appropriate word use? Even the use of rubrics don’t lend themselves to objective measures when it comes to writing. Our district is using 6 traits writing for the general education curriculum. We all agree it is wonderful but we haven’t found a way to tailor measurable goals using 6 trait concepts. Has anyone used a method of counting correct sequences (correct syntax, conventions etc.) during a timed writing probe to measure writing growth?

I teach high school. We also use Step Up To Writing, we also have SOLs. I guess that I should edit the goal to mean as many parts of speech as possible in a sentence that makes sense. We also use a standard guide for writing five paragraph essay. In order to pass the 11th grade SOLs (state tests) written part is that you write like an 11th grader using clauses, phrases, adjectives, adverbs etc. This is what I mean in the objective. For example, if the student would write like thi; This summer was a lot of fun. I went to the beach. I hung out with my friends. etc., the student wouldn’t pass. A correctly detailed paragraph: A topic sentence, two supporting sentences and a conclusion. Appropriate word use is when you use does or do, bring or take etc. The part where I state that he should use content vocabulary is meant to mean when it is relevent. If he is doing an essay on the Civil War, use the necessary vocabulary of that era. We do use rubrics and they include these points and I do admit, that they are in some parts subjective but we look at the whole writing, not just individual sentences. It seems to work for us.

Then I am thinking that the use of rubrics should be in the objective as the evaluation and not a percentage.

The way an objective is measured is in a separate list that you check. A percentage has to be in the objective as well as a date.

I agree that a good objective may include a percentage against which to evaluate student progress toward that objective. My concern becomes that a percentage in an objective becomes irrelevant when the means to measure that objective is subjective by nature.