Module 5: “Alignment to Standards

Instructional Practices

Assessment

Standards Document

Process not Product

Whatever You Call It--Read the Document

Tying Standards to Instruction

Single Standard

Multiple Standards Statements

Ways to clarify “less-than-lucid” content standards:

• Convene a small group of educators to deliberate and attempt consensus about what is meant by the standards under consideration.

• Consider the deliberations of other content specialists.

--Dr. W. James Popham

Take Time to Learn Standards

Essential Question: What does the content standard expect of students?

Popham Advises:

Teachers must dig into the viscera of a given content standards with the intention of better understanding what that standard seeks from students.” --Dr. W. James Popham

Alignment with Standards

Determine What the Standard Seeks from Students: What does the standard say. . .

• . . . students should know and understand?

• . . . students should be able to do?

Habits of the MindWhat “habits of mind” do students demonstrate when they have mastered the standard?

What “habits of mind” do students demonstrate when they have mastered the standard?

1. Persisting

2. Managing Impulsivity

3. Listening with Understanding and Empathy

4. Thinking Flexibly

5. Thinking About Thinking (Metacognition)

6. Striving for Accuracy

7. Questioning and Posing Problems

8. Applying Past Knowledge to New Situations

9. Thinking and Communicating with Clarity and Precision

10. Gathering Data Through All Senses

11. Creating, Imagining, Innovating

12. Responding with Wonderment and Awe

13. Taking Responsible Risks

14. Finding Humor

15. Thinking Interdependently

16. Remaining Open to Continuous Learning

16 Habits of the Mind Source

• from Costa, A.L. & B. Kallick. Learning and Leading with Habits of Mind: 16 Essential Characteristics for Success. ASCD, 2008.

• http://www.ascd.org/publications/books/108008/chapters/Describing-the-Habits-of-Mind.aspx

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Understanding by Design(UbD) –a curriculum design model that focuses on what we teach

Backward Design

--start with what the end result will be, what students should know, understand and be able to do

Design Down

-identify one or more ‘learning progressions’ that students can pursue—in any order that works--as they develop mastery of the content standard.

Other Questions From UbD

• What are the big ideas represented in the standard?

• What questions are to be explored in the standard?

Seamless Alignment: Standards to Assessments

Seamless Alignment: Standards to Assessments

Provide a clear vision of the learning target with samples of proficient and non-proficient work so students can see a progression to competence laid out before them.

Seamless Alignment: Standards to Assessments

Provide students with continuous access to descriptive (versus evaluative or judgmental) feedback—information that helps them see how specifically to improve the quality of their work.

Seamless Alignment: Standards to Assessments

Engage students in repeated self-assessments so they can watch themselves successfully negotiating the steps to competence.

Seamless Alignment: Standards to Assessments

Coach students to generate their own descriptive feedback and to set goals for what comes next in their learning.

--Stiggins, R. (2005). Assessment for learning defined. Written by Rick Stiggins, Assessment Training Institute,

Advantages to Using a Variety of Assessment Methods to Exemplify

Curricular Content

• Provides students with the opportunity to demonstrate mastery of curriculum in the way that works best for them.

• If the teacher uses all the methods with all the students, the teacher can see how mode of assessment affects student performance and the extent and nature of student misunderstandings of the concept.

Instructional Sensitivity of Tests Makes Content Standards Accessible

The key attributes of instructionally sensitive tests are that they

• Measure students’ mastery of only a modest number of curricular aims or of exceptionally important ones—so teachers aren’t overwhelmed by too many instructional targets.

• Provide teacher-palatable descriptions of the skills or bodies of knowledge being assessed—so teachers can direct their instruction toward those assessment targets

rather than toward particular test items.

• Contain a sufficient number of items measuring each curricular aim—so the tests effectively report on each student’s achievement in terms of

each assessed aim.”

--Popham, W. J. (February 2006). “Assessment for learning: an endangered species?” Educational leadership Vol 63, no. 5, pp. 82-83.

Modest Number of Curricular Aims

Contain a sufficient number of items measuring each curricular aim

—so the tests effectively report on each student’s achievement in terms of each assessed aim.”

Teacher Friendly Language for Descriptions of Skills

—so teachers can direct their instruction toward those assessment targets rather than toward particular test items.

Assessment Types

• Selected Response• Constructed Response• Performance• Formative Assessment

Processing

• Large Scale Assessments

• Summative • Interim• Portfolio

Alignment to Standards Activities

Activity 1

What process do you use currently to for alignment to standards? Make an outline of the process and either working along or with colleagues, if needed make suggestions for improvement.

Activity 2

TBD