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

1. Raising Standards:Showing our Students How to Align Curriculum Standards With Their Instructional Units Pamela Luft Kent State University Transition Services Preparation & Training

2. 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. Transition Services Preparation & Training

3. 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. Transition Services Preparation & Training

4. 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 Education’s Responsibility: • University programs are expected to prepare their graduates appropriately and appropriately. • Prevent graduation of teachers unable to effectively incorporate standards into their teaching Transition Services Preparation & Training

5. 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 doesn’t address broader knowledge and skill learnings • Lessons that address breadth of standards— • but lead to little depth of learning, or • become unwieldy and ineffective Transition Services Preparation & Training

6. 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 knowledge—the standards • Unit themes link individual tasks and activities to reduce fragmentation and build these broader knowledge and skill learnings. Transition Services Preparation & Training

7. 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. Transition Services Preparation & Training

8. 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 Transition Services Preparation & Training

9. 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 Transition Services Preparation & Training

10. 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). Transition Services Preparation & Training

11. 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. Transition Services Preparation & Training

12. 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 Transition Services Preparation & Training

13. 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 Transition Services Preparation & Training

14. Development Summary • Use Stage One’s: • overarching and enduring understandings, • which incorporate and unpack external standards, • To plan Stage Two’s: • assessments to collect evidence of these understandings, • across the Six Facets, • Which are supported by Stage Three’s: • 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. Transition Services Preparation & Training

15. 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, Transition Services Preparation & Training

16. 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 Transition Services Preparation & Training

17. 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 Transition Services Preparation & Training

18. 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 Transition Services Preparation & Training

19. Transition Services Preparation & Training

20. 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. Transition Services Preparation & Training

21. 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 Transition Services Preparation & Training

22. Unit Teaching Barriers:Real 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 Transition Services Preparation & Training

23. 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 rubric—see Teaching Units: http://www.educ.kent.edu/fundedprojects/TSPT/grant.htm Transition Services Preparation & Training

24. 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 educator’s 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. Transition Services Preparation & Training