Unpack Your Standards to Empower Learning
Karen A. McCay
5 January 2017
Introduction:
As teachers we plan to use our standards to guide every learning activity, but occasionally we lose sight of this lofty goal, especially when we’re tired, frustrated, or sick. These outside pressures along with the demanding nature of our chosen field make “best practices” difficult to deliver every single time we teach. One way to ensure that we use the standards to plan for every activity, every day, is to put part of the work on our students.
Increase Rigor, Increase Mastery:
When my students are previewing a new instructional unit, I provide them with a list of the Common Core State Standards we’ll target in the unit, and I ask THEM to unpack the standards in cooperative groups. According to Goodwin and Hubbell (2013), unpacking the standards can help students identify not only the skills they need to master during a unit, but also the knowledge gaps they might need to be truly successful (p. 12). Furthermore, asking students to do the hard work of unpacking the standards for themselves increases rigor.
Cooperative Groups Negotiate a List of Goals:
On the day of a unit preview, each cooperative group generates a list of declarative and procedural knowledge they’ll need to master based upon their list of standards because they need to “drill down to more specific statements of knowledge and skills that can serve as the focus for instructional design and delivery” (Dean, Hubbell, Pitler, & Stone 2012, p. 5). Next, groups share their responses with the whole class, and we ensure that all of the items listed are clear and accurate. I provide feedback on the list and, if needed, add an item or two. Finally, we create a unit proficiency scale to measure our mastery after each lesson in the unit. Taking this preview day to unpack the standards as a class may take time up front, but it ensures that students use their metacognitive processes from day one to inform their learning during the entire unit. While I plan lessons, I can use the student proficiency scale as my own checklist, as well, ensuring that each activity on the plan targets at least one of those skills.
For Administrators:
Principals could motivate their staff members at the beginning of each new year by providing teachers with a list of new initiatives along with a section of their state quality standards and asking each department or PLC group to unpack the initiatives and quality standards into a list of knowledge and skills they need to master that year. Each team of teachers could even create a checklist instead of a proficiency scale and use that checklist as their planning guidepost for the first month. Principals could use the checklists to plan their professional development days for the building, their walkthroughs for each team, and even their evaluations for each teacher to ensure that their feedback was more meaningful and productive. If administrators increased the rigor and expectation of analyzing the standards upon teachers, they would also increase staff engagement at their meetings.
Other Pre-Assessment Pages:
3 Practical Pre-Assessment Strategies
Multiple Intelligences Inventory
Goal-Setting
Or Back to Pre-Assessment Tools
More Resources:
A Quick How-To Video
A Longer Video from a Curriculum Director
A Think-Aloud Demo
References
Dean, C. B., Hubbell, E. R., Pitler, H., & Stone, B. J. (2012). Classroom Instruction that Works: Research-Based Strategies for Increasing Student Achievement. Alexandria, VA: ASCD.
Goodwin, B., & Hubbell, E. R. (2013). The 12 Touchstones of Good Teaching: A Checklist for Staying Focused Every Day. Alexandria, VA: ASCD.
Sterling, S. (2014, August 12). How to Unpack a Standard [Web log post]. Retrieved January 05, 2017, from http://blog.learningsciences.com/2014/08/12/how-to-unpack-a-standard/
Unpacking the Common Core [PDF]. (2012, August 14). Tangipahoa Parish, LA: Tangipahoa Parish School System.
Wessling, S. B. (2014). Think Alouds: Unpacking the Standards. Retrieved January 05, 2017, from https://www.teachingchannel.org/videos/understanding-the-common-core-standards
Karen A. McCay
5 January 2017
Introduction:
As teachers we plan to use our standards to guide every learning activity, but occasionally we lose sight of this lofty goal, especially when we’re tired, frustrated, or sick. These outside pressures along with the demanding nature of our chosen field make “best practices” difficult to deliver every single time we teach. One way to ensure that we use the standards to plan for every activity, every day, is to put part of the work on our students.
Increase Rigor, Increase Mastery:
When my students are previewing a new instructional unit, I provide them with a list of the Common Core State Standards we’ll target in the unit, and I ask THEM to unpack the standards in cooperative groups. According to Goodwin and Hubbell (2013), unpacking the standards can help students identify not only the skills they need to master during a unit, but also the knowledge gaps they might need to be truly successful (p. 12). Furthermore, asking students to do the hard work of unpacking the standards for themselves increases rigor.
Cooperative Groups Negotiate a List of Goals:
On the day of a unit preview, each cooperative group generates a list of declarative and procedural knowledge they’ll need to master based upon their list of standards because they need to “drill down to more specific statements of knowledge and skills that can serve as the focus for instructional design and delivery” (Dean, Hubbell, Pitler, & Stone 2012, p. 5). Next, groups share their responses with the whole class, and we ensure that all of the items listed are clear and accurate. I provide feedback on the list and, if needed, add an item or two. Finally, we create a unit proficiency scale to measure our mastery after each lesson in the unit. Taking this preview day to unpack the standards as a class may take time up front, but it ensures that students use their metacognitive processes from day one to inform their learning during the entire unit. While I plan lessons, I can use the student proficiency scale as my own checklist, as well, ensuring that each activity on the plan targets at least one of those skills.
For Administrators:
Principals could motivate their staff members at the beginning of each new year by providing teachers with a list of new initiatives along with a section of their state quality standards and asking each department or PLC group to unpack the initiatives and quality standards into a list of knowledge and skills they need to master that year. Each team of teachers could even create a checklist instead of a proficiency scale and use that checklist as their planning guidepost for the first month. Principals could use the checklists to plan their professional development days for the building, their walkthroughs for each team, and even their evaluations for each teacher to ensure that their feedback was more meaningful and productive. If administrators increased the rigor and expectation of analyzing the standards upon teachers, they would also increase staff engagement at their meetings.
Other Pre-Assessment Pages:
3 Practical Pre-Assessment Strategies
Multiple Intelligences Inventory
Goal-Setting
Or Back to Pre-Assessment Tools
More Resources:
A Quick How-To Video
A Longer Video from a Curriculum Director
A Think-Aloud Demo
References
Dean, C. B., Hubbell, E. R., Pitler, H., & Stone, B. J. (2012). Classroom Instruction that Works: Research-Based Strategies for Increasing Student Achievement. Alexandria, VA: ASCD.
Goodwin, B., & Hubbell, E. R. (2013). The 12 Touchstones of Good Teaching: A Checklist for Staying Focused Every Day. Alexandria, VA: ASCD.
Sterling, S. (2014, August 12). How to Unpack a Standard [Web log post]. Retrieved January 05, 2017, from http://blog.learningsciences.com/2014/08/12/how-to-unpack-a-standard/
Unpacking the Common Core [PDF]. (2012, August 14). Tangipahoa Parish, LA: Tangipahoa Parish School System.
Wessling, S. B. (2014). Think Alouds: Unpacking the Standards. Retrieved January 05, 2017, from https://www.teachingchannel.org/videos/understanding-the-common-core-standards