1. Developing a Guaranteed and Viable Curriculum

2. We believe all kids can and will learn!
Why?
We believe all kids can and will learn!

3. The #1 factor affecting student achievement is a guaranteed and viable curriculum
~Robert Marzano

4. A Guaranteed and Viable Curriculum
Consists of Enduring Understandings and Learning Targets.
Outlines the concepts and skills that are essential to ensure all students have the opportunity to achieve proficiency.
Provides clarity and guidance for what all teachers must teach and ensure all students learn
Ensures that instructional strategies promote equitable opportunities to learn and succeed.
Allows for concepts and skills to be taught/learned in the timeframe available

5. With a guaranteed viable curriculum
Goals and Measures
Aim of the Organization
Goals and Measures
Aim of the
Organization
Aligned Acts of Improvement
Random Acts of Improvement
Without a guaranteed viable curriculum

6. A Guaranteed & Viable Curriculum
Happens when teachers work collaboratively to:
Study the intended curriculum and agree on priorities within the curriculum.
Clarify how the curriculum translates into specific student knowledge and skills.
Establish pacing guidelines for delivering the curriculum.
Commit to one another that they will teach the intended curriculum (DuFour & Marzano, 2011).
Wendy

7. Owatonna Public School’s vision for a guaranteed & viable curriculum:
2008 Management Conference
Owatonna Public School’s vision for a guaranteed & viable curriculum:
Regardless of the school a student attends or the class a student is assigned, we must ensure that the knowledge and skills that are most essential to achieving the desired results – all students learning – will be the focus of both teaching and learning
Education Division

8. Enduring Understandings
Instruction
The Art
Variable
Formative Assessment
Feedback
Formalizing
Learning Targets
Student Ownership
I Can’s
Enduring Understandings
District Priority
Standards
Non-negotiable
What do we want all students to know and be able to do?
Big Picture Framework
How will we know if all students know it?
A district truly committed to the concept of learning for each student must develop consistent, systematic procedures that ensure each student can and will achieve. a systematic approach to determine what is most important for students to learn aligned to state standards
What will we do if students know it? What will we do if students do not know it?

9. This translates to…
Clear and consistent teaching of the prioritized standards/Enduring Understandings
Frequent assessment of students’ attainment of those standards
A specific response for those students who aren’t “getting it” during the learning
A specific response for those students who already “get it” ensuring student growth

10. 2008 Management Conference
We identify Enduring Understandings so that…
…we have collective understanding and agreement on the things in which all students should know and be able to do
big ideas that are hiding behind the specific standard are brought to the forefront, and essential questions and levels of thinking are identified.
All of these elements come together to guide the development of formative assessments and instruction that is purposefully targeting the learning of the prioritized knowledge and competencies.
Education Division

11. Developing Enduring Understandings

12. What Are Enduring Understandings?
Prioritized standards identified systematically in order to distinguish which standards are absolutely essential.
A common FOCUS for our school system.
Joanne

13. Why Enduring Understandings?
Educators who are given no strategies for managing the volume of standards must, on their own, “pick and choose” the ones they believe will most benefit their students.
This leads to inconsistencies as to which standards are emphasized and which are not.
Enduring Understandings do not relieve teachers of the responsibility for teaching all standards and indicators, but do identify which standards are critical for student success and which ones can be given less emphasis

14. The Rationale for Enduring Understandings
The consensus among educators is that in-depth instruction of “essential” concepts and skills is more effective than superficially “covering” every concept in the textbook.
Robert Marzano calculated 3,500 benchmarks spread across 14 different content areas, “you would have to change schooling from K – 12 to K – 22!”
Joanne

15. How to Identify Enduring Understandings
Criteria
Endurance
Leverage
Readiness
Essential Question - What knowledge and skills must my students learn this year so that they will enter next year’s class with confidence and a readiness for success?

16. Enduring Understandings Identification Criteria
Endurance – Will this standard or indicator provide students with knowledge and skills that will be of value beyond a single test date?
Example: proficiency in reading will endure throughout a student’s academic career and professional life.
Wendy

17. Enduring Understandings Identification Criteria
Leverage – Will this standard or indicator provide knowledge and skills that will be of value in multiple disciplines?
Example: proficiency in creating and analyzing graphs, tables and charts will help students in math, science, social studies and language arts.
Wendy

18. Enduring Understandings Identification Criteria
Readiness for the next level of learning – Will this standard or indicator provide knowledge and skills that is required for the next level of learning?
Example: fluent use of fractions, decimals and percents is an essential skill for students in the sixth grade as they go into pre-algebra in the seventh grade.
Wendy

19. Beginning the Process:
Teachers are grouped into teams spanning more than one grade level or course.
Teams select one grade level or course within their span to examine the standards/benchmarks
Individuals take 5 minutes to identify which benchmarks they think are essential for all kids to learn.
Joanne
Explain the process using a variety of examples…
Grade span of 3-5 LA took 4th grade looked at benchmark

20. Continuing the Process:
Teams work collaboratively to reach consensus comparing choices and noting similarities and differences giving rationale as needed
Table Teams:
Teams share and discuss selected standards
Whole Group:
Teams refer to state testing specs and local test data to revise selections
Discuss changes
Wendy/Joanne
Process is repeated for each grade level or course

21. Vertical Alignment: Grade level charts are posted in sequence
Vertical flow is analyzed within and between grade spans
Gaps, overlaps, and omissions are identified
Selections are revised as needed
Jo/Wendy

22. Vertical alignment document
Joanne
In social studies this would be broken down by:
Citizenship and government
Economics
Geography
History

23. 2008 Management Conference
We identify Enduring Understandings so that…
…we have collective understanding and agreement on the things in which all students should know and be able to do
…the skills and concepts contained within the standards are clear and consisently interpreted.
The unwrapping process also clarifies:
learning targets
big ideas
essential questions
All of these elements come together to guide the development of formative assessments and instruction
We unwrap the Enduring Understandings so that…
big ideas that are hiding behind the specific standard are brought to the forefront, and essential questions and levels of thinking are identified.
All of these elements come together to guide the development of formative assessments and instruction that is purposefully targeting the learning of the prioritized knowledge and competencies.
Education Division

24. Unwrapping Enduring Understanding

25. Overview Unwrapping academic standards
a proven technique
assists teachers in identifying from the standards exactly what they need to teach
Unwrapped standards provide clarity on
what students must know
what students must be able to do
Ainsworth, Unwrapping the Standards, 2003
Joanne

26. Unwrapping Process Choose an Enduring Understanding
Identify key nouns and verbs
Read through the benchmark
Choose an Enduring Understanding
Jo/Wendy

27. Unwrapping Process Concepts– nouns Skills – verbs
What students need to know
Skills – verbs
What students need to be able to do
Jo/Wendy

28. Concept: Skills: Example of Unwrapped Standard:
CONDUCT short as well as more sustained research projects to ANSWER a question (including a self-generated question) or SOLVE a problem. NARROW or BROADEN the inquiry when appropriate; SYNTHESIZE multiple sources on the subject, DEMONSTRATING understanding of the subject under investigation.
Concept:
What students need to know
▪ Short research projects
▪ Sustained research projects
▪ Questions
▪ Self-generated questions
▪ Problem
▪ Inquiry
▪ Multiple sources on the subject
▪ Subject under investigation
Skills:
What students need to do
▪ CONDUCT (short research projects)
▪ CONDUCT (sustained research projects)
▪ ANSWER (a question)
▪ ANSWER (a self-generated question)
▪ SOLVE (a problem)
▪ NARROW (inquiry)
▪ BROADEN (inquiry)
▪SYNTHESIZE (multiple sources on the subject)
▪DEMONSTRATE (understanding of subject investigation)

29. Unwrapped Enduring Understandings 6th grade example

30. Developing Learning Targets
Converting Standards to Student-friendly versions

31. Learning Targets
Statements of what we want students to know and be able to do
Measurable/assessable
Contains a power verb
Focus on a specific skill – not an activity
Focus on a small “chunk” of a standard
The central focus of each lesson
So learning targets in our classrooms are what we want students to learn or know and what we want them to be able to do with that knowledge.

32. Instructional Benefits
WHAT to assess – instructional guide – keep focused
CLARITY in planning – look for instructional activities & strategies to help all students reach that specific target
Better BALANCE of “in depth” study vs. “just covering the material”
Know what your assessments REFLECT
Help to MAXIMIZE student achievement
OPPORTUNITY to work collaboratively with other teaching professionals

33. “Students can hit any target they can see that holds still for them.”
~Rick Stiggins
Convert learning targets into student-friendly language by defining key words in terms students understand. When we have a clear vision of where we’re headed with students, we can communicate that vision to them.

34. Learning Target Process
Identify key words and/or verbs in Enduring Understandings and skills
Define identified words and/or verbs
Rewrite skills as “I can” statements

35. Learning Target Process
Identify key word/verb(s) in skills
Example:
Summarize text
Make predictions
Define the word/verb(s). Use a dictionary/thesaurus if needed
Summarize: to give a brief statement of the main ideas and significant details
Prediction: a statement saying that something will happen in the future
Rewrite the skill as an “I can” statement, in terms that your students will understand
Example: Student Friendly Language
I can summarize text. This means I can make a short statement of the main ideas and most important details from a passage I have read.
I can make predictions. This means I can use information from what I read to guess at what will happen next (or to guess what the author will tell me next).

36. Classroom Application of Learning Targets
Use language that the students understand
Use “I can” statements
Introduce students to new terms and concepts
Relate all instruction to the learning targets.

37. Students who
can identify
what they
are learning
significantly
outscore
those who cannot.
~ Robert Marzano

38. Down the Road… Complete Enduring Understandings for core courses
Identify where Enduring Understandings are taught and align to resources
Develop Learning Targets
Develop and align formative assessments to Enduring Understandings and Learning Targets
Jo/Wendy

39. “What you do…is the PROOF of what you believe!”
~ Sinek