Plugging in the Power Standards…

1. Plugging in the Power Standards… …the next step in our alignment process Capistrano Unified School District Management Conference August 14, 2008

2. 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.

3. 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)

5. We identify Power Standards so that… …we have collective understanding and agreement on the things in which all students should have knowledge and competence

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

7. 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 standards • Are driven by common assessments (formative and summative assessments)

8. Backward Planning Today’s Goals: • Build awareness of the backward planning process as a tool for developing aligned curriculum that embeds the power standards

9. The Closet Organizer • Backward Planning template • Contains key elements that guide teams toward curriculum alignment • Reflects best practices in instructional planning

10. Traditional planning • Identify desired results • Plan learning experiences and instruction • Determine acceptable evidence

11. Backward planning • Identify desired results • Plan learning experiences and instruction • Determine acceptable evidence

12. Here’s the Process Identify Learning Targets/Desired Results • Identify Power Standards • Restate in Student Friendly Terms • Identify Big Ideas and • Essential Questions • Unwrapping Process Determine Acceptable Evidence • Identify formative and SummativeAssessments Plan learning experiences and instruction • Sequential Plan for Delivering Instruction and Monitoring Learning

13. 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.

14. Converting Standards to Student-friendly versions • Why? • Clear and understandable targets • “I” Statements

15. 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.

16. Practice creating understandable targets • With your team, convert your power standard(s) into student-friendly versions.

17. 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.

18. 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.

19. Big idea practice • Look at your targeted standards and work with your team to identify one or two big ideas that emerge.

20. Essential Questions • Essential questions are guiding questions that spark and guide learning.

21. 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).

22. Sample Essential Question • What factors contributed to conflict among the American Indians, between Indian nations, and the new settlers?

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

24. Stretch Break

25. Help Desk

26. Unwrap the Standards What do we really want students to know and be able to do?

27. We identify Power Standards so that… …we have collective understanding and agreement on the things in which all students should have knowledge and competence • …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 We unwrap the Power Standards so that…

28. 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?

29. Unwrap to identify: • What students should know (nouns)… • Be able to do (verbs) • Critical Vocabulary

30. 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).

31. 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

32. Identify Aligned Formative & Summative assessments “It is assessment which helps us distinguish between teaching and learning.”

33. Comparison of Formative & Summative Assessments Adapted from Checking for Understanding, Douglas Fisher and Nancy Frey

34. Quick Check • Which of the following are common formative assessments: • A. Multiple choice tests • B. 10 question quizzes • C. Response to Writing Prompt • D. All of the above • E. It depends

35. 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 practicesor by students to adjust their current learning tactics.” • James Popham, Transformative Assessment p. 6

36. 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)

37. Aligned assessments are: • Purposefully selected and designed to measure the specific outcome (knowledge or skill) • Assessment ≠ Test • Don’t reinvent the wheel! • Take advantage of pre-made measures and other tools (e.g. rubrics, anchor papers)

38. Aligned Assessments • Considerations • Purpose - What does this really measure? • A. Knowledge mastery • B. Reasoning proficiency • C. Performance skills • D. Ability to create products • Power • Is this informative? • Possibility • Is this “doable” or efficient?

39. 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

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

41. 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)

42. 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.

43. Sequence of Instruction • Timeline that includes checks for understanding (formative) • Building vocabulary/background knowledge • GLAD strategies • Instructional strategies that work • Robert Marzano • Building in time for reteaching

44. Who’s on your bus? • Power Standard Cadre/ Committee members • DIAL participants • Understanding by Design (UBD) participants

45. 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?

46. Next steps • Elementary • August 22 meeting • Discuss plan with leadership team • Next ACT meeting (October 13) be prepared to: • Discuss loose tight plan for implementation of the Power Standards/Unit design

47. Checking for understanding • Exit card • What aspect of the backward planning process is more clear to you as a result of today’s learning session? • In what aspect of the backward planning process would you like to see further support/training?

48. Team Reading/Resources