Developing Goals and Objectives:
Questions Specific to Each Subject Area
Peggy Thorpe O’Reilly and Bonnie A. Merkel, Common Ground, September 1999
1. What can this student do in relation to the general education curriculum and grade level expectations? For example, if age peers are writing four-page narratives containing all elements of story structure with elaborated descriptions, what can this student do? He/she can write a one page abbreviated narrative with selected elements of story, grammar, comparable to 2nd grade peers.
2. What are this student’s strengths in this subject area?
3. How have this student’s learning difficulties, resulting from his/her disability, affected performance and progress in the general education curriculum? (e.g. How have difficulties with attention, discrimination, memory, critical thinking, application, or sensory or motor difficulties affected performance in reading)? As a consequence, what are this student’s educational needs related to the general education curriculum that stem from his individual learning difficulties?
4. What effective instructional strategies have been used to help this student progress in the general education curriculum? (e.g. brainstorming and discussion of elements prior to writing; using a graphic organizer for pre-writing and as a monitoring tool during the writing process.)
5. What other educational needs does the student have that may not be directly addressed by the general education curriculum? (e.g. study skills, social skills, mobility skills, personal care.)
6. What are the priorities for instruction next year?