Plugging in the Power Standards…

…the next step in our alignment processCapistrano Unified School District

Management ConferenceAugust 14, 2008

CUSD’s vision of alignment:

All students, regardless of the school they attend or the teacher they have, will meet or exceed the grade level expectations delineated by the identified power standards specific to their grade level or course content.

This translates to…

Clear and consistent teaching of the prioritized/power standards

Frequent assessment of students’ attainment of those standards and

A specific response/intervention for those students who aren’t “getting it” (before it’s too late)

We identify Power

Standards so that…

…we have collective understanding and agreement on the things in which all students should have knowledge and competence

Here’s one way to get everyone on board with power standards…

Working with the Power Standards

Goal for the 2008-09 School Year: Begin USING the Power Standards

How?By building collaborative units that

Use a backward planning process embed the power standardsAre driven by common assessments (formative

and summative assessments)

Today’s Goals:

Build awareness of the backward planning process as a tool for developing aligned curriculum that embeds the power standards

The Closet Organizer

Backward Planning templateContains key elements that guide teams

toward curriculum alignmentReflects best practices in instructional

planning

Traditional planning

Identify desired resultsPlan learning experiences and

instructionDetermine acceptable evidence

Backward planning

Identify desired resultsPlan learning experiences and

instructionDetermine acceptable evidence

Here’s the Process

• Identify Power Standards• Restate in Student Friendly Terms• Identify Big Ideas and• Essential Questions• Unwrapping Process

• Identify formative and SummativeAssessments

• Sequential Plan for Delivering Instruction and Monitoring Learning

Getting Started

Open your Team Toolkit and remove the PowerStandards.

Using your template, write the power standards you will be working with during today’s session.

Converting Standards to Student-friendly versions

Why?Clear and understandable

targets“I” Statements

Example

Students will summarize text…I can summarize text. This means

I can make a short statement of the main points or the important ideas of what I read.

Practice creating understandable targets

With your team, convert your power standard(s) into student-friendly versions.

Big Ideas

Big ideas are those realizations, discoveries, or conclusions that students reach that help them grasp and articulate the "big picture" learning.

Big ideas are the lasting understandings and generalizations that students will take away with them and transfer from one subject to other areas of study.

Big Idea Example

5.3 Students describe the cooperation and conflict that existed among the American Indians and between Indian nations and the new settlers.

When two or more cultural groups come together in the same geographical area, both cooperation and conflict may result.

Big idea practice

Look at your targeted standards and work with your team to identify one or two big ideas that emerge.

Essential Questions

Essential questions are guiding questions that spark and guide learning.

Essential Questions

Are open-ended, but are directly tied to the big idea(s) and the accompanying standard (topical or broad).

Invite students into the learning process.Advertise upfront the learning goals of

the standard (and ultimately, the instructional units that will be designed to teach them).

Sample Essential Question

What factors contributed to conflict among the American Indians, between Indian nations, and the new settlers?

Essential Question Practice

Work with your team to develop one or two essential questions that invite/compel students toward the targeted understandings.

Stretch Break

Help Desk

Unwrap the Standards

What do we really want students to know and be able to do?

We identify Power

Standards so that…

…we have collective understanding and agreement on the things in which all students should have knowledge and competence

We unwrap

the Power Standards so that…

…the skills and concepts contained within the standards are clearly exposed and collectively interpreted.

The unwrapping process also reveals:•big ideas •essential questions •levels of thinking

All of these elements come together to guide the development of formative assessments and instruction

Unwrapping helps unlock the answers to these questions:What do our students need to know

and understand to be ready to meet this standard expectations?What patterns of reasoning must be

mastered? What performance skills must be

mastered?What product development capabilities,

if any, must our students have mastered?

Unwrap to identify:

What students should know (nouns)…

Be able to do (verbs)Critical Vocabulary

Quick Check

What skills does a student need to demonstrate within the following standard?1.4 Know abstract, derived roots and affixes

from Greek and Latin and use this knowledge to analyze the meaning of complex words (e.g., controversial).

Unwrapping Practice

Using your targeted standards, work with your team to identify the following:What students should know (nouns)What students should be able to

do(verbs)What vocabulary students should

understand

Identify Aligned Formative & Summative assessments

“It is assessment which helps us distinguish between teaching and learning.”

Comparison of Formative & Summative Assessments

Formative assessments

Summative assessments

Purpose To improve instruction and provide student feedback

To measure student competency

When administered

Ongoing throughout the unit

End of unit or course

How students use results

To self-monitor understanding

To gauge their progress toward course or grade-level goals and benchmarks

How teachers use results

To check for understanding

For grades, promotion

Adapted from Checking for Understanding, Douglas Fisher and Nancy Frey

Quick Check

Which of the following are common formative assessments:

A. Multiple choice testsB. 10 question quizzesC. Response to Writing PromptD. All of the aboveE. It depends

What makes an assessment formative?

It depends on how it’s used!!!‘Formative assessment is a planned

process in which assessment-elicited evidence of students’ status is used by teachers to adjust their ongoing instructional practices or by students to adjust their current learning tactics.” James Popham, Transformative Assessment p. 6

Formative assessment helps to answer these questions:

Do I know what misconceptions or naïve assumptions my students possess?

How do I know what they understand?What evidence will I accept for this

understanding?How will I use their understandings (or

misconceptions) to plan future instruction?(Adapted from Checking for Understanding by Douglas Fisher and Nancy

Frey)

Aligned assessments are:

Purposefully selected and designed to measure the specific outcome (knowledge or skill)Assessment ≠ TestDon’t reinvent the wheel!

Take advantage of pre-made measures and other tools (e.g. rubrics, anchor papers)

Aligned Assessments

ConsiderationsPurpose - What does this really measure?

A. Knowledge masteryB. Reasoning proficiencyC. Performance skillsD. Ability to create products

PowerIs this informative?

PossibilityIs this “doable” or efficient?

Purpose:Target-Method Match - Stiggins

Selected response True-False Matching Multiple Choice

Extended written response Essay/response to prompt

Performance item/problem Personal communication

Interviews Think-pair-share Whip around Retells

Mark a (+) in each assessment method that you believe represents a good match…

Selected

Response

Extended Written Response

Performance Assessment

Personal Communication

Knowledge

Reasoning

Performance

Product

Other techniques to check for understanding (formative measures)

Graphic organizers Idea Wave

Write down everything you know about… Whip around class – each gives one sentence

White boards Electronic response devices Thumbs up, Thumbs down Exit cards/Journal entries Interviews

Students explain concepts to you or other students (e.g. Think/Pair/Share)

Assessment Practice

Examine one piece of knowledge and one skill that you’ve identified within your unwrapping process.

Work with your team to identify formative and summative measures for each.

Sequence of Instruction

Timeline that includes checks for understanding (formative)

Building vocabulary/background knowledgeGLAD strategiesInstructional strategies that work

Robert MarzanoBuilding in time for reteaching

Who’s on your bus?

Power Standard Cadre/ Committee members

DIAL participantsUnderstanding by

Design (UBD) participants

Talk time

Think about the process you’ve worked within today…How might you frame this year’s focus on

the use of power standards with your staff?On what expectations will you be tight?

How will you communicate these?How might you support teams through the

backward planning process?

Next steps

ElementaryAugust 22 meeting

Discuss plan with leadership teamNext ACT meeting (October 13) be

prepared to:Discuss loose tight plan for implementation

of the Power Standards/Unit design

Checking for understanding

Exit card1. What aspect of the backward

planning process is more clear to you as a result of today’s learning session?

2. In what aspect of the backward planning process would you like to see further support/training?

Team Reading/Resources