Raising Standards: Showing our Students How to Align Curriculum Standards With Their Instructional Units

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Raising Standards Showing our Students How to
Align Curriculum Standards With Their
Instructional Units

• Pamela Luft
• Kent State University

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Using Standards for Instruction?!

• The Need
• Schools are under increasing pressure to raise
  student outcomes and use state standards for
  teaching.
• The Problem
• Content standards often are vague and difficult
  to use for teaching (Popham, 2001).
• Concrete and definitive lessons about a specific
  task are unlikely to address the nature or scope
  of these standards.

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Using Standards for Instruction?!

• Conflicting Expectations
• Special and Deaf Education use behavioral
  objectives to ensure measurable outcomes.
• This provides a foundation for accountability,
  yet
• State standards are much broader than even a
  series of related lessons and by nature, are
  vague and not easily quantified.
• A linear task analysis of standards can result in
  a nearly-overwhelming array of steps and
  sub-steps to achieve for any one standard.
• Examples
• 10th grade Vocabulary Acquisition
• Infer the literal and figurative meaning of words
  and phrases and discuss the function of
  figurative language, including metaphors,
  similes, idioms and puns.

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Using Standards?!

• The Result
• Schools and teachers need guidance in
  integrating
• Vague and broad content standards with
• Measurable, observable, and accountability-focused
  behavioral objectives that are based on task
  analyses
• To result in a series of unified lessons that
  lead to achievement of these standards.
• Higher Educations Responsibility
• University programs are expected to prepare their
  graduates appropriately and appropriately.
• Prevent graduation of teachers unable to
  effectively incorporate standards into their
  teaching

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Unsuccessful Integration

• Concrete and definitive lessons with measurable
  outcomes
• but that poorly address the standards.
• Lessons that address clear and specific aspects
  of standards
• but result in fragmentation that doesnt address
  broader knowledge and skill learnings
• Lessons that address breadth of standards
• but lead to little depth of learning, or
• become unwieldy and ineffective

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Promoting Good Teaching That Incorporates State
Standards

• Aim for depth, rather than superficial breadth
  (TIMMS report)
• Develop lessons based on unit themes
• Broad themes can address the comprehensive nature
  of standards
• Unit themes support redundancy of learning
• increasing depth of understanding
• allowing expansion and extension of related
  skills and knowledgethe standards
• Unit themes link individual tasks and activities
  to reduce fragmentation and build these broader
  knowledge and skill learnings.

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Using What We Know About Good Instructional
Practice

• Exemplary instruction should
• Be based on high standards
• Incorporate depth of understanding within
  reasonable breadth and therefore
• Accommodate and reflect standards-based and
  outcomes-driven learning.
• Poor instruction can occur despite
• Standards-based and outcomes-driven learning.

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New Resources on Using Standards

• Linking IEPs to State Learning Standards by
  Miller Hoffman (2002).
• Importance of standards and IDEA
• Identifying standards that meet student needs
• Connecting Standards and Assessments Through
  Literacy by Conley (2005).
• Purposes and requirements of standards and
  assessments
• Integrating test-taking skills with instruction
• Aligning transition and standards-based
  education issues and strategies by
  Kochhar-Bryant Bassett (2002)
• Importance of using standards with transition
• General tips for usage

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Exemplary Instruction

• Is more than clear links and observable outcomes
• Should provide
• Inquiry and problem-solving focus
• Depth of understanding
• Clear relationships and interrelationships among
  broad and life-long concepts
• Redundancy of key concepts across diverse content

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Conceptually Focused Teaching Units that
Incorporate Standards

• Understanding by Design (Wiggins and McTighe,
  1998)
• Provides a process for incorporating standards
  with Stage 1 of unit design
• Based upon research on learning and teaching
  (http//www.ubdexchange.org/resources.html).

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Unit Design Process

• Stage One
• Incorporate external standards
• Unpack them into meaningful and teachable
  chunks.
• Review the standard for those elements that are
• (a) worth being familiar with,
• (b) what is important to know and understand, and
  
• (c) what is authentic and relevant and of
  life-long value to the student.

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Unit Design cont.

• Stage One
• Standards often incorporate elements across all
  three aspects
• Those at the heart, c are often most helpful in
  focusing unit and lesson planning.
• Review these core standards to identify
  overarching and enduring understandings
• Develop unit questions based on these standards
  and understandings
• to focus and link the unit assessments and
  teaching activities

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Unit Design

• Stage Two
• Plan a variety of assessments that demonstrate
  achievement of standards
• Use the Six Facets of Understanding
• Examine evidence that demonstrates these
  overarching and enduring understandings
• Stage Three
• Plan lessons and activities that prepare students
  for the assessments that demonstrate their
  understanding

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Development Summary

• Use Stage Ones
• overarching and enduring understandings,
• which incorporate and unpack external standards,
• To plan Stage Twos
• assessments to collect evidence of these
  understandings,
• across the Six Facets,
• Which are supported by Stage Threes
• learning experiences and instructional activities
• that ensure that students have the necessary
  skills and knowledge
• to fully and effectively demonstrate these
  understandings
• across each of the Six Facets.

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External Validation

• A growing number of university programs and
  colleges of education utilize this design process
  and its frameworks
• It provides a valuable tool for addressing some
  of these instructional challenges.
• Current programs using UbD
• Teachers College at Columbia University,
• Penn State Univ.,
• Old Dominion Univ.,
• Vanderbilt Univ., and the Univ. of Maryland,

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Strategies Stage One

• Identify student needs through state standards
  and IEP/transition outcomes
• Develop a web or outline of the different content
  areas
• List the core standards for each content area
• Incorporate student needs where appropriate
• Expand and explode standards into components
• Brainstorm all possible standard components and
  then revise or prioritize into their key
  components
• Contact content area specialists for their input
  for delineating standards into their key
  components, and for facet and activity ideas
• Use internet teaching resources and lists to
  initially expand standard-related activities

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Strategies Stage One cont.

• Examine unit web and synthesize content areas
  into several comprehensive, inquiry-based
  questions
• Evaluate and choose a unit question that most
  effectively
• Utilizes the standards to achieve key learning
  outcomes and core content
• Utilizes authentic and relevant, age-appropriate
  activities
• Develop 1-3 overarching goals and outcomes
• Develop goals that link content areas and student
  needs
• Review goals, outcomes, and questions to ensure
  match and linkage
• Use unit theme to expand content and unit
  cohesiveness
• List possible activities that fully develop core
  components of the standards
• Address key student needs and interests

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Strategies Stage Two

• Develop assessment activities for the six facets
  across each of the unit goals/outcomes
• Use the facets for comprehensive and thorough
  evaluation
• ensure that each unit goal is adequately
  represented
• utilize culminating activities that can
  incorporate multiple goals and facets when
  possible
• List unit goals that can be addressed in each
  facet
• Combine into culminating projects or activities
• Review the web outline of content areas to ensure
  coverage of each standard
• Utilize facets to develop a rubric with scoring
• Note specific standards addressed by each facet
• Develop measurable outcomes and unit criteria for
  each facet

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Strategies Stage Three

• Utilize facets to develop a listing of needed
  lessons and instructional activities
• Review unit web of content standards to check for
  coverage
• Ensure that activities are of sufficient quantity
  and quality
• Students must be able to develop the skills that
  will lead to success across all six facets
• Review activities for relevance and link to
  overall unit goals and overarching unit
  questions.
• Use the activities listing to begin lesson plan
  development.

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Supporting Standards-Based Instruction

• Unit design process reviews links to standards
  and student needs at each stage
• Stages 1 2 provide design comprehensiveness
• Stage 3 provides instructional specificity

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Unit Teaching BarriersReal or Imagined?

• Teachers in self-contained classrooms are
  assigned limited content responsibilities
• Develop collaborative units between related
  classes
• Use block scheduling and teaming
• Resource room and itinerant teaching are
  fragmented
• Incorporate classroom-based unit teaching for
  skill and remediation to retain conceptual links
• Combine content areas into units that emphasize
  relevance and authenticity

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Ensuring Good Teaching

• Good teaching should predominate over scheduling
  or assignment concerns
• Good teachers find a way
• Unit-based teaching is supported by research and
  leads to successful and meaningful integration of
  standards
• More information on utilization of unit design
  rubricsee Teaching Units http//www.educ.kent.ed
  u/fundedprojects/TSPT/grant.htm

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References

• Conley, M. W. (2005). Connecting standards and
  assessment through literacy. Boston Pearson.
• Kochhar-Bryant, C. Bassett, D. S. (2002)
  Aligning transition and standards-based
  education issues and strategies. Arlington, Va.
  Council for Exceptional Children.
• Miller, L., Hoffman, L. (2002). Linking IEPs to
  state learning standards A step-by-step guide.
  Austin, TX Pro-Ed.
• Popham, W. J. (2001). The truth about testing An
  educators call to action. Alexandria, VA
  Association for Supervision and Curriculum
  Development.
• Wiggins, G., McTighe, J. (1998). Understanding
  by design. Alexandria, VA Association for
  Supervision and Curriculum Development.