Making Content Standards Work For You

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Making Content Standards Work For You

• Pete Ziegler
• 218-232-1439
• pziegler_at_q.com
• April 2009

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Who is here?

• Name
• School
• School responsibilities

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• Why would you want to align your curriculum?
• What should you align it with?

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Goals

• Introduce you to a process for aligning your
  curriculum and instruction to content area
  standards.
• Introduce you to a process for aligning your
  curriculum and instruction to normed assessments.
  

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What is Curriculum Alignment?

• Curriculum alignment means assuring that the
  material taught in the school matches the
  standards and assessments set by the state or
  district for specific grade levels. It is a way
  of "mapping" the curriculum onto the standards to
  be sure that the school is teaching the content
  that is expected. In states that use tests to
  assess student mastery, schools may also align
  their curriculum with the content of the test to
  assure that students have studied the required
  content before taking the tests.

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Misalignment - SEDL
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Ideal Alignment - SEDL
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A Process for Alignment

• Review your grade level standards and benchmarks.
• Review the grade level before you and the grade
  level after you.
• Identify where in your curriculum the
  standard/benchmark is assessed and how it is
  assessed.
• Identify where in your curriculum the
  standard/benchmark is taught and how it is taught.

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A Mathematics Example

• Minnesota Academic Standards for Mathematics

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Minnesota Academic Standards in Mathematics

• Four content strands
• Number and Operation
• Algebra
• Geometry and Measurement
• Data Analysis and Probability

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StrandsStandardsCodeBenchmarksExamples
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Grade 4

• Look at your grade level standards and
  benchmarks in each of the four strands
• Number and Operation
• Algebra
• Geometry and Measurement
• Data Analysis and Probability

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Grade 4

• Look at each of strands and benchmarks for the
  grade level before you and the grade level after
  you.
• Number and Operation
• Algebra
• Geometry and Measurement
• Data Analysis and Probability

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Grade 4

• What do you have in common with the grade before
  you?
• What is different from the grade level before
  you?
• What do you have in common with the grade level
  after you?
• What is different from the grade level after you?

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National Council of Teachers of Mathematics

• National Council of Teachers of Mathematics

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NCTM Geometry Standard for Grades 35
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NCTM Focal Points Pre K-8

• Grade 4

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What About the Other Content Areas?

• Minnesota Department of Education Standards

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National Council of Teaches of English

• Table of Contents

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States Standards for Reading and Language Arts

• Reading/Language Arts Sunshine State Standards
• K-12 Content Standards

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National Science Teachers Association

• National Science Education Standards

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Project 2061

• AAAS - Project 2061

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National Council for the Social Studies

• NCSS Curriculum Standards for Social Studies
  Update-Draft Available for Comment National
  Council for the Social Studies

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And the Winner Is!

• Education World List for Social

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Compendium of Content Standards

• McREL Mid-continent Research for Education and
  Learning, Content Knowledge Standards and
  Benchmark Database

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• Geography
• Health
• Mathematics
• Physical Education
• Science
• Technology
• Language Arts
• History 
• Grades K-4 History 
• Historical Understanding 
• United States History World History
• Life Skills
• Life Work Self-Regulation 
• Thinking and Reasoning 
• Working With Others

• Arts 
• Art Connections 
• Dance 
• Music 
• Theatre 
• Visual Arts
• Behavioral Studies
• Career Education 
• AgriculturalEducation 
• Arts and Communication 
• Business Education 
• Engineering Education 
• Family/Consumer Sciences 
• Health Education
• CivicsEconomics
• Foreign Language

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Assessment

• What does the state assessment (normed
  assessment) ask your students to do with the
  information that you have taught them?

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MCA III Draft Test Specifications for
Math Standard 4.3.2 Understand angle and area
as measurable attributes of real-world and
mathematical objects. Use various tools to
measure angles and areas. (46 items)
Benchmarks 4.3.2.1 Measure angles in geometric
figures and real-world objects with a protractor
or angle ruler. Item Specifications Not
assessed on the MCA-III 4.3.2.2 Compare angles
according to size. Classify angles as acute,
right and obtuse. Item Specifications
Allowable notation 90º, right angle symbol
(square in corner), angle arc Vocabulary
allowed in items angle, perpendicular 4.3.2.3
Understand that the area of a two-dimensional
figure can be found by counting the total number
of same-size square units that cover a shape
without gaps or overlaps. Justify why length and
width are multiplied to find the area of a
rectangle by breaking the rectangle into 11 unit
squares and viewing these as grouped into rows
and columns. Item Specifications Vocabulary
allowed in items length, width, area
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Alignment Document

• Where do I put all of this information?

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Depth of Knowledge (DOK)

• From the Kentucky Department of Education
• Adapted from the model used by Norman Webb,
  University of Wisconsin, to align standards with
  assessments
• Used by the Council of Chief State School
  Officers (CCSSO) for assessment alignment in more
  than ten states

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Why Depth of Knowledge?

• No Child Left Behind (NCLB) requires assessments
  to measure the depth and breadth of the state
  academic content standards for a given grade
  level (U.S. Department of Education, 2003, p.
  12)

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Why Depth of Knowledge?

• Mechanism to ensure that the intent of the
  standard and the level of student demonstration
  required by that standard matches the assessment
  items (required under NCLB)
• Provides cognitive processing ceiling (highest
  level students can be assessed) for item
  development

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http//wat.wceruw.org
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Depth of Knowledge

• Focuses on content standard in order to
  successfully complete an assessment/standard task
• Descriptive, not a taxonomy
• Not the same as difficulty

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Webbs Depth of Knowledge levels Recall and
Reproduction Level 1 Skills Concepts/Basic
Reasoning Level 2 Strategic Thinking/Complex
Reasoning Level 3 Extended
Thinking/Reasoning Level 4
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Recall and Reproduction Level 1
DOK 1 requires recall of information, such as a
fact, definition, term, or performance of a
simple process or procedure. Answering a Level 1
item can involve following a simple, well-known
procedure or formula. Simple skills and abilities
or recall characterize DOK 1.
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Recall and Reproduction DOK 1 Examples

• List animals that survive by eating other animals
• Locate or recall facts explicitly found in text
• Describe physical features of places
• Determine the perimeter or area of rectangles
  given a drawing or labels
• Identify elements of music using musical
  terminology
• Identify basic rules for participating in simple
  games and activities

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Skills/Concepts Level 2
DOK 2 includes the engagement of some mental
processing beyond recalling or reproducing a
response. Items require students to make some
decisions as to how to approach the question or
problem. These actions imply more than one
mental or cognitive process/step.
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Skills/Concepts DOK 2 Examples

• Compare desert and tropical environments
• Identify and summarize the major events, problem,
  solution, conflicts in literary text
• Explain the cause-effect of historical events
• Predict a logical outcome based on information in
  a reading selection
• Explain how good work habits are important at
  home, school, and on the job
• Classify plane and three dimensional figures
• Describe various styles of music

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Strategic Thinking Level 3
DOK 3 requires deep understanding as exhibited
through planning, using evidence, and more
demanding cognitive reasoning. The cognitive
demands at Level 3 are complex and abstract. An
assessment item that has more than one possible
answer and requires students to justify the
response they give would most likely be a Level
3.
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Strategic Thinking DOK 3 Examples

• Compare consumer actions and analyze how these
  actions impact the environment
• Analyze or evaluate the effectiveness of literary
  elements (e.g. characterization, setting, point
  of view, conflict and resolution, plot
  structures)
• Solve a multiple-step problem and provide support
  with a mathematical explanation that justifies
  the answer

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DOK Level 3 Examples

• Develop a scientific model for a complex idea
• Propose and evaluate solutions for an economic
  problem
• Explain, generalize or connect ideas, using
  supporting evidence from a text or source
• Create a dance that represents the
  characteristics of a culture

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Extended Thinking Level 4
DOK 4 requires high cognitive demand and is very
complex. Students are expected to make
connectionsrelate ideas within the content or
among content areasand have to select or devise
one approach among many alternatives on how the
situation can be solved. Due to the complexity
of cognitive demand, DOK 4 often requires an
extended period of time.
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However, extended time alone is not the
distinguishing factor.
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Extended Thinking DOK 4 Examples

• Gather, analyze, organize, and interpret
  information from multiple (print and non print
  sources) to draft a reasoned report
• Analyzing authors craft (e.g., style, bias,
  literary techniques, point of view)
• Create an exercise plan applying the FITT
  (Frequency, Intensity, Time, Type) Principle

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Extended Thinking DOK 4 Examples

• Analyze and explain multiple perspectives or
  issues within or across time periods, events, or
  cultures
• Specify a problem, identify solution paths, solve
  the problem, and report the results
• Write and produce an original play

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• The Depth of Knowledge is NOT determined by the
  verb, but the context in which the verb is used
  and the depth of thinking required.

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• DOK 3- Describe a model that you might use to
  represent the relationships that exist within the
  rock cycle. (requires deep understanding of rock
  cycle and a determination of how best to
  represent it)
• DOK 2- Describe the difference between
  metamorphic and igneous rocks. (requires
  cognitive processing to determine the differences
  in the two rock types)
• DOK 1- Describe three characteristics of
  metamorphic rocks. (simple recall)

Same verbthree DOK levels
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DOK levels can be cumulativedepending on content
and DOK level

• An item/standard written to DOK 3 often contains
  DOK 1 and DOK 2 level demands

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Remember
Depth of Knowledge (DOK) is a scale of
cognitive demand. DOK requires looking at the
assessment item/standard-not student work-in
order to determine the level. DOK is about the
item/standard-not the student. The context of
the assessment item/standard must be considered
to determine the DOK-not just a look at what verb
was chosen.
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Now What?

• School wide content area meetings.
• Have all who teach the content complete the
  alignment document. If you have more than one
  section have them also create a consensus
  document.
• Begin with the oldest grade level/course. What
  are the expectations for that grade level/course
  for each of the major concepts?
• Work your way backwards to the youngest grade
  level/course. How do they approach this concept?
  What are their expectations?
• Complete this discussion for each of the major
  concepts.
• Fix what can be fixed.
• Form a task force to fix what will take more time.

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I can not teach all of this!

• Plan backwards and plan as if you only have 140
  days of teaching time.