Understanding and Applying Standards
Understanding and Applying Standards
Introduction
What does “standard” mean to you? To me, standard means law rules in a society,
classroom principles in a school and an evaluation way for people. Without laws and
rules in a society, there might be a lot of disorder or crimes that would happen every day.
Without classroom principles in the school, students cannot achieve their highest
academic performance. Without evaluation on a human being, you do not know whether
he or she is good or bad. As the quote shows above - Without standards, there can be no
improvement. Standards help us to know not only what we need to modify, but also notice
us what we need to maintain.
Before, I did this activity, I have known about CCSS and Backwards Mapping from my
school where has been used CCSS standards for three years, and required teaches to
design lessons by using Backwards Mapping approach. To me, it is not a big deal, however,
there is still a big world for me to explore.
What does “standard” mean to you? To me, standard means law rules in a society,
classroom principles in a school and an evaluation way for people. Without laws and
rules in a society, there might be a lot of disorder or crimes that would happen every day.
Without classroom principles in the school, students cannot achieve their highest
academic performance. Without evaluation on a human being, you do not know whether
he or she is good or bad. As the quote shows above - Without standards, there can be no
improvement. Standards help us to know not only what we need to modify, but also notice
us what we need to maintain.
Before, I did this activity, I have known about CCSS and Backwards Mapping from my
school where has been used CCSS standards for three years, and required teaches to
design lessons by using Backwards Mapping approach. To me, it is not a big deal, however,
there is still a big world for me to explore.
Unpacking a standard
A successful lesson design depends on unpacking the standards, starting with the
concept first, then skill and task. Although I have been using CCSS for three years,
I never know that there are many hidden messages in a standard. This assignment
allows me to go deeper to understand a standard closely. When I unpack a standard,
I realized that each verb and noun in a sentence presents the skills or contents /
concepts that students need to achieve or acquire. In other words, through unpacking
a standard means to analyze that language, extracting clues that describe two aspects
of the standard that students need to know: essential knowledge and essential skills
(Teach to Reach, 2014).
A successful lesson design depends on unpacking the standards, starting with the
concept first, then skill and task. Although I have been using CCSS for three years,
I never know that there are many hidden messages in a standard. This assignment
allows me to go deeper to understand a standard closely. When I unpack a standard,
I realized that each verb and noun in a sentence presents the skills or contents /
concepts that students need to achieve or acquire. In other words, through unpacking
a standard means to analyze that language, extracting clues that describe two aspects
of the standard that students need to know: essential knowledge and essential skills
(Teach to Reach, 2014).
For example, one of the standards I chose was “Recount stories, includes, folktales,
and myths from diverse cultures; determine the central message, lesson, or moral and
explain how it is conveyed through key details in the text.” Without understanding the
hidden messages in this standard, most teachers might just teach students to retell the
story. Nevertheless, it requires students to do three things: retell the stories, figure out
the valuable lesson, and demonstrate their understanding on how you figure out these
valuable messages in the text. Each part of understanding presents a skill that students
need to acquire. Take retell the stories as an example, it challenges students to identify
the character, setting and plot in a story first, and then to summarize it. Here, teachers
need to deliver the skills of summarizing and deconstruct the story elements to students.
and myths from diverse cultures; determine the central message, lesson, or moral and
explain how it is conveyed through key details in the text.” Without understanding the
hidden messages in this standard, most teachers might just teach students to retell the
story. Nevertheless, it requires students to do three things: retell the stories, figure out
the valuable lesson, and demonstrate their understanding on how you figure out these
valuable messages in the text. Each part of understanding presents a skill that students
need to acquire. Take retell the stories as an example, it challenges students to identify
the character, setting and plot in a story first, and then to summarize it. Here, teachers
need to deliver the skills of summarizing and deconstruct the story elements to students.
Backwards Mapping
Teachers are a knowledge deliverer for students. If a teacher fails to plan a lesson, or
transfer learning experience to students, how can students meet the specific purposes.
Backwards Mapping emphasizes when teacher plans a lesson, we need to think backward,
that means a teacher should consider about the learning goal first. That means what
learning goals students need to reach, what skills students need to acquire, what
assessments students need to take for meeting their goal, and what activities help
students to obtain their skills. Compared to the traditional lesson planning, backwards
design method supports students to meet their learning goals better.
learning goals students need to reach, what skills students need to acquire, what
assessments students need to take for meeting their goal, and what activities help
students to obtain their skills. Compared to the traditional lesson planning, backwards
design method supports students to meet their learning goals better.
For example, when I plan my activity 2 assignment, I started to think, “what is the goal for
my students in this unit, what standards I need to select, what is big idea, what essential
questions should I ask and what skills and knowledge my students need to reach?” That is,
the final goal for my grade three students is to understand the elements of story and can
create a digital story book by themselves, thus, the standards, skills and knowledge that
I chose needs to meet the learning goal. The essential question should be connected to
the big idea for students to think deeply.
After establishing the first step, the next step is to consider about what evidence that can
prove students meet their goals, either formative assessments or summative assessments.
The formative assessment can be classwork, worksheets, reflections, observations, and
quizzes. The summative assessment can be a project or end of unit test. Last, I will need
to plan learning instruction and activities to support the desired goal and evidence. When
we consider the learning instruction, we can use the elements of WHERETO to design the
learning instruction and activities. W stands for where and why, that is to introduce the
essential questions. H stands for hook and hold, that is to attract students’ attention. Next,
E stands for equip, that is learning activities, performances and tasks that students need to
know. R stands for rethink, review, revise and reflect on their work. The second E stands
for evaluate that is students do self-assessment. T stands for tailored, that is to reflect on
the individual students’ interest and needs. O stands for organized, which just means to
make sure everything is, well, organized. The figure shown below provides a clear
explanation of each stage of Backwards Mapping.
(Retrieved from Understanding By Design Expanded 2nd Edition, P.18)
Concerns
Even though backwards design is a good method for teachers to create a student-centered learning environment which is considering the desire goal for students
to connect to the real world, but there is still some concern in terms of schools,
teachers and students. First, if the students cannot meet the goal that teachers set,
then the teacher must go back and re-make the final assessment to suit the needs
of the students, and that’s a lot more work than the traditional way. At the end of
the day, things come up, and realistically we rarely have the time we think we have
to get through all the content we think we can. For example, in China, a spreadable
disease is an important issue, if a school has students that carry a spreadable disease
in a classroom, even the chickenpox, then the students in that class needs to stay at
home for two weeks to one month. My students enjoyed this experience this year and
were asked to be absent for the month of May. It badly messed up my plans for all kinds
of assessments, including exams. Life happens though. In this situation, my students were
absent, how can I go through all the lessons that I set? Secondly, most teachers are used to
designing a lesson in a traditional way, it is not easy for them to shift to an innovative way.
Thus, school needs to hold a professional development workshop for teacher training for
both new and old teachers. Third, if there are different kinds of curricula in a school, how
can students achieve the exact same standards, for example, English subject uses
backward design to plan the lesson, but art and music subjects without any specific way
to plan a plan, it all depends on teachers’ preference. How can students’ cognitive
development be done coherently? These are the questions that we need to consider.
backward design to plan the lesson, but art and music subjects without any specific way
to plan a plan, it all depends on teachers’ preference. How can students’ cognitive
development be done coherently? These are the questions that we need to consider.
Conclusion
As a teacher, it is important to understand how to unpack a standard, plan a meaningful
lesson and transfer the knowledge to students effectively. It ensures alignment in school’s
curriculum and helps students achieve their academic and career standards in the future.
References:
Maureen Devlin.(2014, March 12). Unpacking the Standard. Retrieved 13th, July, 2017 from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rl5VmqiciIo
Wiggins. G & McTighe. J. (2005). Understanding by Design Expanded 2nd Edition. Retrieved from
Teach to Reach.(2014, August 12). HOW TO UNPACK A STANDARD DRAWING YOUR OWN MAP.
Retrieved from http://blog.learningsciences.com/2014/08/12/how-to-unpack-a-standard/
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