Student Learning Objectives (SLO) Resources for Mathematics

What are SLOs and why are they important?

Core Value of Hawaii’s Effective Educator System (EES) Teachers are at the heart of a child’s education and profoundly impact student achievement. Thus, a high priority is placed on the enhancement of our teachers’ professional practices and the structures that support them.

Primary Measures of the EES Teacher Practice Student Growth and Learning Classroom Observations Core Professionalism Tripod Student Survey Working Portfolio (non-classroom only) Hawaii Growth Model Student Learning Objectives Hawaii’s EES consists of measures to evaluate professional practices and responsibilities, and student growth and learning components of the system. These measures are: Framework for Teaching Observations, responses from the Tripod Student Survey, student growth percentiles generated by the Hawaii Growth Model, and measures of student learning as evaluated by Student Learning Objectives. Educator Effectiveness Data Improved Student Outcomes

Student Learning Objectives (SLO) Are teacher designed content-driven goals set at the beginning of a course that measure student learning through an interval of time (i.e. one school year or one semester). Student Learning Objectives are teacher designed, content-driven goals set at the beginning of a course that specifically measure student learning through an interval of time (e.g. one school year or one semester). It supports the achievement and growth of all students that aligns to daily instruction and progress monitoring with specific prioritized goals.

Student Learning Objectives: support the achievement and growth of all students that aligns to daily instruction and progress monitoring with specific prioritized goals

SLO Process 1. Identify the learning goal 2. Develop or select assessment(s) 3. Establish targets based on data 4. Plan instruction 5. Receive initial approval 6. Implement the SLO 7. Revise targets if necessary 8. Analyze assessment results 9. Rating of SLO 10. Determine next steps In order to develop and rate SLOs, we recommend a process that allows for SLO development, which includes the learning goal, assessment selection, and establishing the targets; planning for instruction; receiving initial approval; implementation of the learning goal; target revision, if necessary; analysis of assessment results; providing a teacher rating; and finally determining next steps for the teacher and students. In addition, this process includes reflecting on: enduring understandings and content standards Use of formative instruction and strategies use of assessments monitoring student progress data to set targets and to determine next steps for student success.   As schools engage in setting Student Learning Objectives as part of the Educator Effectiveness System, they will need to: 1) clearly communicate the elements of a high quality SLO, 2) provide opportunities to practice writing an SLO, and 3) opportunities to evaluate an SLO. The remainder of this professional development session will provide guidance for understanding the SLO template, including the meaning of each question, the process for developing a cohesive and acceptable quality SLO, and successfully using the SLO rubric for evaluating and improving the different aspects of the SLO. Hawaii Department of Education Copyright: The National Center for the Improvement of Educational Assessment (2013)

Assessments, Scoring & Criteria Expected Targets SLO Components Learning Goal Assessments, Scoring & Criteria Expected Targets Instructional Strategies These are four main components that make up an SLO. To have a strong SLO, all four components should be aligned.

What is a learning goal and where can I find resources for it?

Components of an SLO: the learning goal The development of an SLO begins with identifying a big idea, a learning goal and the Common Core standard(s) being targeted.

What’s the Big Idea? A declarative statement that describes a concept or concepts that transcend grade levels in a content area and represents the most important learning of the course. One of the things the Student Learning Objective Calls for is for teachers to identify a Big Idea. This is a time for the classroom teacher to think about the most important concept or concepts they wish for their students to gain. These are not specific to a particular grade level or may not be specific to a single content area. The “big idea” is a target that I want my students to reach, however, the target is more of a larger/global goal that we are all working towards in order to ensure our students are on progressing to be college and career ready.

A suggestion for a Math SLO “Big Idea” Use one of the Smarter Balanced Claims The Smarter Balanced Assessment Consortium established four claims regarding what students should know and be able to do to demonstrate college and career readiness in mathematics. The four claims represent the big ideas that the Smarter Balanced assessments are attempting to measure One source for identifying Big Ideas comes from the Smarter Balanced Assessment Consortium. The Assessment is being designed to provide evidence of four claims regarding students’ readiness for college or a career.

Smarter Balanced Claims Claim #1: Concepts and Procedures Students can explain and apply mathematical concepts and interpret and carry out mathematical procedures with precision and fluency. Claim #2: Problem Solving Students can solve a range of complex and well-posed problems in pure and applied mathematics, making productive use of knowledge and problem solving strategies.

Smarter Balanced Claims Claim #3: Communicating Reasoning Students can clearly and precisely construct viable arguments to support their own reasoning and to critique the reasoning of others. Claim #4: Modeling and Data Analysis Students can analyze complex, real-world scenarios and can construct and use mathematical models to interpret and solve problems.

The Learning Goal A statement that describes what students will know, understand or be able to do by the end of the interval of instruction. The learning goal is grade-level specific Whereas the big idea transcends grade levels (i.e., big ideas are important to the discipline mathematics and applicable to any grade level) Suggestion: use the “Cluster” statements in the CCSS as the learning goal for the SLO.

Using the CCSS “Clusters” as the Learning Goal Go to the HIDOE Standards Toolkit http://standardstoolkit.k12.hi.us Point to “Common Core” and click on Mathematics The first resources to turn to when crafting a learning goal are the standards for your grade level. Which standard or group of standards will you select for your SLO?

http://standardstoolkit.k12.hi.us/common-core/mathematics/ Select your grade level An important resource to turn to when crafting a learning goal are the CCSS cluster level statements for your grade level. Related standards are grouped together under in important idea for your grade level.

Using the CCSS “Clusters” as the Learning Goal The first resources to turn to when crafting a learning goal are the standards for your grade level. Which standard or group of standards will you select for your SLO?

After the Big Idea and the Learning Goal, identify the targeted standard(s) The first resources to turn to when crafting a learning goal are the standards for your grade level. Which standard or group of standards will you select for your SLO?

Example: Grade 4 Big Idea: Problem Solving (Claim #2) Standards: Students can solve a range of complex and well-posed problems in pure and applied mathematics, making productive use of knowledge and problem solving strategies. Learning Goal: A cluster in the Fractions domain Students will be able to build fractions from unit fractions by applying and extending previous understandings of operations on whole numbers. Standards: 4.NF.3: Understand a fraction a/b with a > 1 as a sum of fractions 1/b. 4.NF.4: Apply and extend previous understandings of multiplication to multiply a fraction by a whole number. Note: both of these standards have a sub-part that focuses on problem solving.

Depth of Knowledge SLOs should address learning targets that are at a minimum of a DOK level 2; If there are DOK level 3 targets for the course or grade level, those should be selected.

Depth Of Knowledge Norm Webb

Resources for Common Core Mathematics Illustrative Mathematics: http://www.illustrativemathematics.org Learn Zillion: http://learnzillion.com Inside Mathematics: http://www.insidemathematics.org Mathematics Assessment Project: http://map.mathshell.org/materials/index.php Smarter Balanced Assessment Consortium: http://www.smarterbalanced.org/smarter-balanced-assessments/ Open Education Resources: www.oercommons.org Bill McCallum’s blog: commoncoretools.me

Where can I find resources for instructional strategies?

Instructional Strategies General high-impact instructional practices (that all mathematics teachers should routinely employ) for any mathematics topic: respond to most student answers with, “Why?” or “How do you know that?” or “Tell me what you mean by that.” In other words, teachers should routinely use students’ responses (when appropriate) as a springboard to provoke further discussion about the mathematics; conduct daily cumulative review of critical and prerequisite skills and concepts at the beginning of each lesson (e.g., a 5-minute warm-up task); elicit and acknowledge the value of alternative approaches to solving mathematical problems so that students are taught that mathematics is a sense-making process for understanding “why” (not merely memorizing the right procedure for the one right answer); provide multiple representations (models, diagrams, number lines, tables, graphs, and symbolic expressions or equations) of all the mathematical work to support the visualization of skills and concepts and helping students make connections between concrete, pictorial and abstract representations;

Instructional Strategies General high-impact instructional practices (that all mathematics teachers should routinely employ) for any mathematics topic: create language-rich classrooms that emphasize terminology, vocabulary, explanations and solutions; develop number sense by asking for and justifying estimates, mental calculations and equivalent forms of numbers; embed mathematical content in contexts to connect the mathematics to the real world and everyday life situations; use the last 5 minutes of every lesson for some form of formative assessment (e.g., an exit slip) to assess the degree to which the lesson’s objective was accomplished and to use for planning of subsequent lessons.

Instructional Strategies Instructional practices that may be specific to a mathematics topic or learning goal: designing numerous opportunities for students to make connections between data represented in tables and graphs, create equations to represent apparent relationships, and discuss the relevance of specific points and the unit rate in terms of the given situation (learning activities should include tasks in which students must either generate their own data sets or do some research to find data sets for situations of interest, not simply always being given data sets to work with); giving students concrete and/or pictorial representations of two related quantities and asking them to determine unit rates (e.g., teacher projects onto the whiteboard a picture showing 9 one dollar bills next to 4 cans of spam); modeling how to set up and reason with double number lines (or double tape diagrams);

Instructional Strategies Instructional practices that may be specific to a mathematics topic or learning goal: giving students a completed double number line and ask them to create a situation to match what the diagram represents; coordinating a small group activity in which students generate their own data (or research a topic on the internet that includes data) representing a proportional relationship and creates tables, graphs and equations to represent the relationship facilitating whole class discussions in which selected students present their work and others ask clarifying questions; using the student discussion to help summarize the lesson by comparing the different strategies used and drawing students’ attention to the way(s) we want them to think when approached with similar situations (i.e., teaching students to think generally, not just how to do specific procedures in specific situations).

Instructional Strategies (Marzano et al., 2001) Recommendations for Classroom Practice Identifying Similarities and Differences Use the process of comparing, classifying, and using metaphors and analogies. Summarizing and Note Taking Provide teacher-prepared notes using a variety of formats, and graphic organizers. Teach students a variety of summarizing strategies. Engage students in reciprocal teaching. Reinforcing Effort and Providing Recognition Teach students the relationship between effort and achievement. Provide recognition aligned to performance and behaviors. Homework and Practice Establish and communicate homework policy. Design assignments that support academic learning. Provide timely feedback. Nonlinguistic representations Provide students with a variety of activities such as creating graphic organizers, making physical models, generating mental pictures, drawing pictures and pictographs, engaging in kinesthetic activity. Here are some additional general strategies that have been found to be highly effective with students across grade levels and disciplines. These can also be incorporated into the SLO as appropriate.

Instructional Strategies Recommendations for Classroom Practices (Marzano, et al., 2001) Recommendations for Classroom Practices Cooperative learning Use a variety of small groupings (e.g. think-pair share, turn and talk, numbered heads together, jigsaw). Combine cooperative learning with other classroom structures. Setting objectives and providing feedback Set and communicate objectives that are specific and flexible. Include feedback elements of both positive interdependence and individual accountability. Generating and testing hypotheses Engage students in a variety of structured tasks such as problem solving, experimental inquiry, and investigation. Ask students to explain their hypotheses and their conclusions. Cues, Questions and Advanced Organizers Use explicit cues. Ask inferential and analytical questions. Use stories, pictures, and other introductory materials that set the stage for learning. Have students skim materials before the lesson. Use graphic organizers.