1. An Overview of Making Standards Work Developed by: Jane Cook EASTCONN Staff Dev/Literacy & Ed Tech Specialist Adapted from materials from The Leadership and Learning Center and the CT State Department of Education

2. Objectives  Understand What Making Standards Work (MSW) is and be able to explain the vocabulary terms related to Making Standards Work to others  Describe how Making Standards Work fits into the “Big Picture” of the CT Accountability for Learning Initiative (CALI)

3. CALI - The Big Picture in CT

4. Deciding What to Teach Within Time Allotted “Given the limited time you have with your students, curriculum design has become more and more an issue of deciding what you won’t teach as well as what you will teach. You cannot do it all. As a designer, you must choose the essential.” - Heidi Hayes Jacobs, 1997

5. What is a Standard? 1) An acknowledged measure of comparison for quantitative or qualitative value; a criterion -American Heritage Dictionary 2) A level of quality or attainment (n) 3) Having recognized excellence or authority (adj) - http://askaword.comhttp://askaword.com

6. Example of a CT English Standard English/LA Standard 1: Reading and Responding Overarching Idea (AKA Big Idea): Students read, comprehend and respond in individual, literal, critical and evaluative ways to literary, informational and persuasive texts in multimedia formats. Guiding Question (AKA Essential Question): How do we understand what we read? Component Statements for Grades 9-12: 1.1 Students use appropriate strategies before, during and after reading in order to construct meaning. a. Activate prior knowledge, establish purposes for reading and adjust the purposes while reading. b. Determine and apply the most effective means of monitoring comprehension and apply the appropriate strategies. c. Select and organize relevant information from text to summarize. d. Identify, use and analyze text structures. e., f. etc., etc. etc.

7. What is a Power Standard?  The essential skills and knowledge that students must learn to move on to the next grade with confidence and readiness to succeed.

8. How Are Power Standards Chosen?  Endurance: What endures over the lifetime of a student?  Readiness: What is essential for a student to progress to the next level of instruction?  Leverage: What contributes to the understanding of other standards?

9. Power Standards Matrix  Click here to view a matrix that can help educators identify the power standards for their district Click here to view a matrix that can help educators identify the power standards for their district

10. Unwrapping a Standard – The Purpose  Identify essential concepts and skills found in the standards and indicators  Define the standard in teacher and student-friendly language  Develop Big Ideas, Essential Questions, Classroom Applications and Assessments

11. Process for Unwrapping a Standard  Underline the important Concepts (nouns) and circle the important Skills (verbs).  Organize the Concepts and Skills in a 2 column format and paraphrase in user friendly language.  Write the Overarching (AKA Big) Ideas. What are the “enduring understandings” that students will take away from this standard?  Write the Guiding (AKA Essential) Questions. What are the essential questions that will guide your instruction and assessment and will lead students to learn this standard?  Contexts and Applications: What do teachers use to teach the concepts and skills?  Assessment Tools – Develop performance assessments that can be used to address the standard.

12. Example of Unwrapping a Standard CT English Standard 2.4.c 1. Underline the important Concepts (nouns) and circle important Skills (verbs). Standard #2.4.c: Discuss how the experiences of the reader influence the interpretation of a text.

13. Example of Unwrapping a Standard CT English Standard 2.4.c 2.Organize the Concepts and Skills in a 2 column format and paraphrase the concepts and skills. Example for CT English Standard 2.4.c Know (Concepts) Skills (Be Able to Do)  Experiences  Interpretation Readers need to know that readers and authors may have different perspectives depending on their experiences.  Discuss  Influence Readers need to be able to discuss how their experiences affect their understanding and interpretation of a text.

14. Example of Unwrapping a Standard CT English Standard 2.4.c 3.Write the Overarching or Big Ideas. What are the “enduring understandings” that students will take away from this standard? Example for CT English Standard 2.4.c Overarching (AKA Big) Ideas (Enduring Understandings): What readers bring to a text affects their understanding and their interpretation of the text. Because readers have different experiences, they may have very different understandings and interpretations of the same text.

15. Example of Unwrapping a Standard CT English Standard 2.4.c 4.Write the Guiding Questions. What are the essential questions that will guide your instruction and assessment and will lead students to learn this standard? Example for CT English Standard 2.4.c Guiding Questions (AKA Essential Questions): What effect does a reader’s background knowledge have on their understanding of what they read? Why might different readers interpret a text or actions of characters differently?

16. Example of Unwrapping a Standard CT English Standard 2.4.c 5. Develop Contexts and Applications: What do teachers use to teach the concepts and skills? Example for CT English Standard 2.4.c Contexts and Applications (Through what classroom activities could this standard be addressed)? Read a short picture book aloud asking students the following questions: How do you think your experience affects your understanding of this text? How do you think others will interpret this text? Why? In general, how does a reader’s experience influence his or her interpretation of a text? Have students do a Think-Pair-Share. Ask them to discuss what connections they made to the book? Have them compare how their experiences affected their understanding and interpretation of the book. Ask them to contrast their answers to the questions with their partner’s answers and discuss why they may be different. Have them develop one major idea to share with the whole class.

17. Example of Unwrapping a Standard CT English Standard 2.4.c 6. Write some Assessment Tools that can be used to address this standard. Example for CT English Standard 2.4.c Assessment Tools Think-Pair Share Student Sheets Reading Logs Dialogue Journals Venn Diagrams Compare and Contrast 3-column Chart

18. Interdisciplinary Connections  Help students to see the connection between and among content areas  Reading and writing are an interdisciplinary connections across all content areas

19. Engaging Scenarios  Motivate students to engage and actively participate!  Provide relevancy and motivation - antidotes for apathy!  Make learning fun!  Curriculum activities should provide students with a real-life purpose and an authentic audience.

20. Relationship Between Tasks and Engaging Scenario  Performance Tasks answer question, “What are we going to do?”  Engaging Scenario answers question, “Why are we doing it?”

21. Making Standards Work Template  MSW Template from The Leadership and Learning Center - Click here to view a draft MSW templateClick here to view a draft MSW template