TASK Analysis: Designing for Understanding

1. TASK Analysis: Designing for Understanding GAP PLC: A Continuation of Instructional Topic Development October 7, 2013 Bbowen RIAEPDC

2. PLC (professional learning community) or COP (community of practice) (DuFour and DuFour, 2006): “Is composed of collaborative teams whose members work interdependently to achieve common goals linked to the purpose of learning for all. The team is the engine that drives the PLC effort and the fundamental building block of the organization. Collaboration represents a systematic process in which teachers work together to impact their classroom practice in ways that will lead to better results for their students, for their team and for their program.”

3. During our July 2013 meeting we discussed the lack of published texts: • Needed to address the instructional needs of our GED-ready students • Needed to prepare our students for content instruction as well as critical thinking skills • Needed to address the greater demands of extended response writing with text evidence • Necessarily aligned with the CCRS, Depth of Knowledge (DOK) questions & text complexity • Necessarily including computer based instruction for online computer skills and test practice

4. During our August 2013 meeting, we began to: • Define critical thinking • Review Webb’s DOK to make a checklist of understanding and reasoning skills students may need to confront problems and tasks • Look at the ELA Anchor Standards (Reading, Writing, Language, Speaking/Listening) as a skeletal framework for instruction • Brainstorm relevant, realistic, interesting topics and/or themes to consider for instruction

5. We were tasked with a partner to: • Outline a topic of interest, of choice, considering skills, strategies and knowledge students need to learn and understand through that topic • Write up the framework, added details, no more than a page • Bring to next meeting (copies) to share with PLC

6. Commitments and Challenges toward a Thinking Curriculum: • Was the task completed? Explain. • Describe the process, successes and fallures. • What can be done differently next time? • Proposal to “Hold and Share” on website • Next steps: Continue, or Abandon-for what? • Other considerations, suggestions, questions

7. Changes in Instruction: Students have to quickly build knowledge for all content areas. They must be able to categorize and conceptualize information in order to address questions and problems. Acquiring depth of knowledge is a developmental rigorous process which builds on prior knowledge, experience, contexts, and practice. The CCSS/CCRS require that learners delve deeply into subjects, and draw from those experiences ways to process information. This process requires practice in analyzing and evaluating, synthesizing and summarizing, creating and formulating. The GED 2014 makes the attempt to assess these critical thinking and reasoning skills. How then to teach?

8. Teachers Are Designers: • “We craft curriculum and learning experiences to meet specified purposes. We are also designers of assessment to diagnose student needs to guide our teaching and to enable us, our students, and other to determine whether we have achieved our goals. We are strongly client-centered, and as with all design professions, standards inform and shape our work.” (Wiggins & McTighe, 2005)

9. Three Stages of Backward Design STAGE 1: Identify desired results • What should students know, understand, and be able to do? • What content is worthy of understanding? • What enduring understandings are desired? At this stage, we clarify priorities for learning, considering goals, examine content standards, and review curriculum expectations.

10. STAGE 2: Determine acceptable evidence • How will we know if students have achieved the desired results? • What will we accept as evidence of student understanding and proficiency? • How will a student show that s/he has learned what was intended? The teacher/assessor must consider upfront what collected assessment evidence will be needed to document and validate that desired learning has been achieved.

11. STAGE 3: Plan learning experiences and instruction • What enabling knowledge (facts, concepts, principles) and skills (processes, procedures, strategies) will students need in order to perform effectively and achieve desired results? • What activities will equip students with the needed knowledge and skills? • What will need to be taught and coached, and how should it be taught, in light of performance goals? • What materials and resources are best suited to accomplish these goals? Choices about teaching methods, sequence of lessons, and resource materials can be successfully completed after we identify desired results and assessments.