This information is presented to teachers in an effort to facilitate the process of aligning instruction with standards and promoting student achievement.

T. Goosev, Citrus Middle School Principal

Aligning Instruction with Standards

Traditional practice in planning instruction was topic driven. It began with the teacher selecting a topic from the curriculum and then presenting the instructional activities. The unit ended with the giving of a test and moving on to the next topic of interest.

Many teachers taught a lesson because

• they had taught that lesson for years
• other teachers had taught it for years
• It seemed like a fun activity that would motivate students
• It was the way they themselves were taught.
• It came next in the textbook.

With the implementation of State and National Standards for student learning, a careful look at the traditional model reveals that this method of planning instruction falls short of teaching students what they really need to know.

Instructional Alignment requires teachers to begin all instructional planning with the end in mind; identifying specifically what the students are to learn and will have learned as a result of instruction.

This process is also know as the "Backward Design Process" . The steps include: identifying the desired results (standards), determining acceptable evidence (assessment), then planning the learning experiences and instruction. (Understanding by Design, Wiggins and McTighe. ASCD, 1998).

Below is a graphic which illustrates the two planning approaches:

 

STARTING WITH THE END IN MIND

1. Identify the Purpose of Instruction and Relevant Standards

California has established Content Standards for each subject area and requires all school districts to meet or exceed them. (link to CSUN Standards Site for a list of standards by grade level)

• The wording of the standards are important.
• They are more than topics to study.
• They also define skills that students must have as they apply the content knowledge in meaningful ways.

When looking at a standard, it is important to look beyond the topics they define and really examine what students are being asked to master. Understanding the vocabulary is critical in designing your lessons to meet the standards. Students are required to analyze, evaluate, understand, explain, and compare to demonstrate their learning. For example, one 8th grade history standard dealing with the civil war says that students should be able to "analyze the multiple causes, key events, and complex consequences of the Civil War." If a teacher just teaches the history of the civil war and asks students to identify the major battles and remember facts, then students have not come close to learning the content of that standard.

In science, students " should develop their own questions and perform investigations. Students will:

1. Plan and conduct a scientific investigation to test a hypothesis.
2. Evaluate the accuracy and reproducibility of data."

In order to demonstrate that they have met the learning at this level, students will have to learn and experience the thinking skills necessary to perform experiments that lead them to a conclusion. If they just do an experiment and report the results, then the students have not met the standard.

The Language Arts standards require students to be able to "write response to literature with interpretation, organize around clear ideas, and justify interpretation with examples and evidence." In traditional language arts classes (and content areas as well) the emphasis is on students retelling what they have read. However, students are held accountable for this standard on the California Writing Assessments. They struggle with interpretation, author's purpose, and providing evidence for their interpretation as demonstrated by the huge numbers of students scoring far below proficiency. Not because they don't have the skills to do it, but because the standard was not taught explicitly and they don't know how.

As a teacher you must become very familiar with the standards and come to understand the type of instruction and learning that needs to take place in your classroom in order for students to master the standards. You need to strive for higher-level thinking in all of your lessons (see Bloom's taxonomy) if your students are to achieve proficient levels of performance.

All instruction should be based on the California Content Standards. If someone were to ask for the purpose of a particular assignment or lesson, the teacher should be able to identify the Content Standards on which the lesson or assignment is based.

Because there are more content standards than can reasonably be addressed in the available instructional time, teachers must make choices. These standards must be reviewed and narrowed to focus on the "essential standards," the ones that go beyond discrete facts or skills to the larger concepts, principles, or processes - the "big ideas" or "enduring understandings." By identifying standards as those that are essential, important to know and do, or worth being familiar with, the teacher can then begin to design units of instruction that will have the most impact and will help ensure high achievement levels for students in the classroom.

Reviewing the California Standards Test Blueprints will provide further direction by identifying those key standards that are assessed by the state tests.

The "unwrapping standards worksheet" is a tool that can help in analyzing the essential standards to be taught. (pdf file requires Adobe Acrobat)

2. Develop a unit theme or focus and essential questions based on the standard(s) you have selected.

The unit theme or focus establishes the context for the learning and provides the "hook" for students. It should be an issue, problem, or question that is relevant to students. Using personal, social, cultural, and global concerns of students will help engage them in the learning. Examples of themes: friendship, change, community, then and now, the future, independence, the environment, cultural heritage, number theory, health and wellness, communication, revolution, transitions, the media, interdependence, cycles, transitions.

Units can be developed as:

• Discipline-based: involves in-depth study of only one content area
• Parallel: different content areas are planned separately, but around a common theme. The units are taught simultaneously by different teachers.
• Multidisciplinary: a unit that addresses at least two different content areas but focuses on the same theme. The culminating product is shared. Teachers plan the unit together.
• Interdisciplinary: A unit that blends together two or more disciplines and draws knowledge and skills from each discipline.

Questioning Toolkit: Read this article to gain an understanding of the importance of framing your instruction around great questions.

Essential questions offer the organizing focus for a unit of study. They must be written in a way that encourages higher order thinking and promotes in-depth investigation.

Questions may be the most powerful technology we have ever created. Questions and questioning allow us to make sense of a confusing world. They are the tools that lead to insight and understanding. Jamie McKenzie, FNO

3. Identify How the Instruction Will Be Assessed

How will we know if students have achieved the desired results and met the standards? What will we accept as evidence of student understanding and proficiency?

First, let's take a look at assessment in general.

Types of Assessment

1. Norm Referenced
2. Criterion Referenced
3. Classroom

All three types of assessment play important roles in education. It is important for teachers to understand that their roles are different. Most importantly, teachers need to understand that when they design a classroom assessment, they must not use the concepts associated with a norm referenced assessment. If they do, the assessment will not be properly aligned, and the assessment will not measure what it is supposed to assess.

Norm Referenced Tests

NRT's begin with the goal of sorting students according to a bell-shaped curve of performance.

The bell-shaped curve is often called a normal distribution of scores.

Years ago, psychologists determined that student ability fell in lines with a bell-shaped curve of performance, with the general population being roughly equal, but with some people standing out in either direction. Items are carefully crafted so that they can be answered correctly by different segments of the population to different degrees. When a test population is measured, the point at which half of the people scored higher and half lower is identified as the median.

The diagram below shows a comparison of the various of test scores based on the bell-shaped curve.

Different NRT's report these scores using different numbering systems.

SAT: The mean is called 500. Each standard deviation is 100 points. The lowest score possible is 200 and highest is 800.

SAT/9 and CAT 6: Scores are reported in percentiles. The 50th % percentile is considered grade level and shows that the student scored equal to or better than 50% of the students taking the test.

Criterion Referenced Tests

Criterion Referenced Tests (CRT's) do not score students based upon a comparison with other students.

• CRT's identify a specific standard of performance and measure the student's performance in relation to it.
• CRT's do not report scores in percentiles.
• Scores are reported based upon the numbers of students who achieve a specific standard.
• CRT's usually report scores in ways that compare students to the standard. "Advanced," "Proficient," "Basic," "Below Basic," and "Far Below Basic" are the terms that California uses.

Because they are designed to measure a specific content, that content is not a secret. Individual questions are, of course, not revealed. A student's score reflects how he or she did in relation to a standard, not in comparison to the other students in the test group. The California State Standards Tests are an example of a CRT.

Because Criterion Referenced Tests compare students to a standard of performance, they use language consistent with that purpose. Each scoring category indicates how the student did in relation to the standard: Advanced, Proficient, Basic, Below Basic, and Far Below Basic.

NRT vs. CRT

Norm Referenced Tests and Criterion Referenced Tests are each important parts of an assessment program, but they have very different purposes and should not be confused with one another.

Norm Referenced Tests	Criterion Referenced Tests
The goal is to compare a student's performance to other students. Ideally, the scores will follow a bell-shaped pattern to show that comparison	The goal is to compare a student's performance to a constant standard. Ideally, all students will succeed and perform at a high level.

Classroom Assessments

• Classroom assessments resemble CRT's.
• The purpose of the assessment is to measure the degree to which students have mastered the targeted content.
• The goal of instruction is to have all students succeed on the assessment.

For the classroom teacher, the important thing to remember is that their classroom assessments are more like CRT's than NRT's. The goal of the NRT is to rank order student results. This is done without any reference to a standard of performance.

The goal of the classroom assessment is to ensure that the assessment measures a standard of performance, and the goal of instruction is to see that all students reach that standard.

There is no reason to sort students by ability. Therefore, the test should be straightforward and predictable. Students should not be surprised by an assessment content. All questions or tasks should relate directly to the standards and benchmarks of an instructional unit.

• A valid classroom assessment measures exactly what students are expected to learn.
• The goal of the instructor is to provide all students with the instruction they need to succeed on the assessment.
• Aligned instructional technique can overcome most problems that prevent students from succeeding on a good classroom assessment!

A teacher's job is to make all students successful. Research has shown that careful alignment of instructional strategies can overcome questions of student ability. The bottom half of the bell-shaped curve is supposed to reflect low student ability; if the teacher is successful in instruction, that part of the curve will will not exist in assessment results.

If a classroom assessment is designed to reflect the standards and benchmarks accurately, students who were having trouble initially should have received the help they needed to succeed on the final assessment.

Types of Assessments

Quiz and test items

These are simple, content-focused questions. They

• Assess for factual information, concepts, and discrete skill.
• Use selected-response or short-answer formats.
• Are convergent - typically they have a single, best answer.
• May be easily scored using an answer key (or machine scored).
• Are typically secure (not known in advance).

Academic Prompts

These are open-ended questions or problems that require the student to think critically, not just recall knowledge, and then to prepare a response, product, or performance. They

• Require constructed responses under school or exam conditions.
• Are open. There is not a single, best answer or a best strategy for answering or solving them.
• Involve analysis, synthesis, or evaluation.
• Typically require an explanation or defense of the answer given or methods used.
• Require judgement-based scoring based on criteria and performance standards.
• May or may not be secure.

Performance Tasks and Projects

These are authentic, complex challenges that mirror the issues and problems faced by adults in the real world. Ranging in length from short-term tasks to long-term, multistaged projects, they require a production or performance. They differ from prompts because they

• Feature a setting that is real or simulated: one that involves the kind of constrains, background noise, incentives, and opportunities an adult would find in a similar situation.
• Typically require the student to address an identified audience.
• Are based on a specific purpose that relates to the audience.
• Allow the student greater opportunity to personalize the task.
• Are not secure. Task, criteria, and standards are known in advance and guide the student's work.

(see performance-based assessment for a list of possible products and performances)

(see Rubrics from the Staff Room for a comprehensive list of rubrics and assessment resources)

There are many ways to measure student performance. Incorporate a variety of assessments or "multiple measures" that show a student's true performance.

The important thing is to remember to align the assessment carefully with the requirements of the standards and benchmarks. Assessment validates the student's level of achievement or the reaching of a goal of instruction.

MOST IMPORTANT: We need to make that goal clear BEFORE we plan our instruction. Assessment cannot ever be an afterthought.

4. Decide what learning experiences will enable students to learn what they need to know and to do.

With clearly identified results (standards) and appropriate evidence of understanding in mind, teachers can now plan instructional activities.

Several key questions need to be considered:

• What knowledge (facts, concepts, and principles) and skills (procedures) will students need to perform effectively on the assessment and achieve the desired results (mastery of standard)?
• What activities will equip students with the needed knowledge and skills?
• What will need to be taught and coached, and how should it best be taught, in light of performance goals?

REMEMBER: Teaching is a means to an end. Choices about teaching methods, sequence of lessons, and resource materials are made after identifying the desired results and assessments. Having a clear goal helps to focus our planning and guide purposeful action toward the intended results.

Determine Prerequisite Skills

• Prerequisite skills are the skills and behaviors students have learned previously that are required in order to learn something new
• All learning involves the application of old learning to new situations

Prerequisite skills are essential to instruction because all learning involves the application of old skills and knowledge to new situations. Without the proper old learning, students will not get the new learning.

Research is showing that proper identification and instruction of prerequisite skills in many cases can effectively eliminate the supposed advantage some students have in ability over others and actually facilitate learning.

• Identify key prerequisite skills, identify students who need help, and provide that help.
• Trying to teach students who do not have the necessary prerequisite skills is a futile measure.

Build the background knowledge, teach reading comprehension strategies when the activities include reading (see reflecting on reading strategies) , work on vocabulary development as a means to make the content more accessible and your students will be much more successful in reaching the goals!

5. Plan/implement instruction to assure that each student has adequate opportunities to learn.

• Is the overall design of the unit clear, coherent, and effective?
• What materials and resources are best suited to accomplish your goals?
• How will you guide students in revising and refining their work based on feedback and self-assessment?
• How will you guide students in self-evaluation to identify the strengths and weaknesses in their work and set future goals?

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PLANNING FORMS

Unwrapping standards worksheet: A tool to help analyze the essential standards to be taught. (pdf file requires Adobe Acrobat)

Performance Assessment template: This is a template for developing performance assessments. (pdf file requires Adobe Acrobat)

Unit Planning Template I: Here is a one page unit planning template that will guide you through the process of developing a unit of study. (pdf file requires Adobe Acrobat)

Unit Planning Template II: Here is a 5 page unit planning template that will guide you through the process of developing a unit of study. (pdf file requires Adobe Acrobat)

Year-At-A Glance: This is a 3 trimester planning form for year long courses. (pdf file requires Adobe Acrobat)

2 Trimester planning form: This is a 2 trimester planning form for 2 trimester courses. (pdf file requires Adobe Acrobat)

Lesson Plan Form : Here is a individual lesson plan form that will help you think through the process of planning for instruction. (pdf file requires Adobe Acrobat)

Lesson planning template: This template provides you with a list of instructional strategies to consider when planning lessons. (pdf file requires Adobe Acrobat)

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Other Resources

A Handbook for Classroom Instruction That Works, Marzano et al, ASCD, 2001 This is a link to ASCD where you can view some of the chapters on line. Research-based instructional strategies with proven results in increasing student achievement.

Questioning: Read this overview of how improving questioning can improve learning

6. Conduct the assessment and use the data to provide feedback, re-plan and re-teach, or repeat process with next set of relevant standards.

Take time to reflect and evaluate the unit.

• What did your students learn during this unit? What evidence do you have?
• Did they learn what you intended?
• What were the strengths of the unit?
• What were the weaknesses of the unit?
• How could the culminating performance/product be extended or enhanced?
• What additional resources should be included?
• Could this unit be shared with other teachers?