Unwrapped Standards Professional Development/Help
Welcome to the unwrapped standards on Wiki-Teacher. Please use the following help sections to guide your use of the unwrapped standards to improve student achievement in your classroom.
- Components of an Unwrapped Standard
- How the Standards Were Unwrapped
- References
Learning Targets
The learning targets section is the basis upon which each unwrapped standard is developed. The learning targets provide clear targets for the intended learning of each standard. These clear targets allow the teacher to focus instruction, assessment, and communication on a clear academic goal. Establishing these clear goals also permits teachers to easily work collaboratively towards these common goals.
The learning targets are divided into four categories based upon the expectations found in the learning targets.
Knowledge Targets - Knowledge targets represent the factual underpinning of the standard. (Stiggins, 61).
Reasoning Targets - Reasoning targets represent how students must use and apply knowledge. Reasoning targets include the skills of inferring, analyzing, comparing, contrasting, classifying, synthesizing, and evaluating.
Performance Skill Targets - Performance skill targets refer to those skills that a student must perform and that must be observed by a teacher to properly assess. Performance skills often incorporate the use of both knowledge and reasoning targets.
Product Targets - Learning targets are classified as product targets when the target is focused on creating a concrete product.
More detailed information can be found in the books Classroom Assessment for Student Learning or Using Quality Assessment to Target Instruction. Reference Section
Student Friendly Learning Targets
It is important for students to be actively engaged in their own education, and part of this process is communicating to students the academic expectations that they are expected to master. The student-friendly learning targets are provided as examples of how the learning targets can be conveyed to students. They are phrased as “I” statements to empower students and encourage them to take ownership. A teacher using the student-friendly learning targets should adjust them according to the abilities and needs of their students.
Vocabulary
The list of vocabulary provided for each standard includes only terms and phrases that have not been introduced in other grades or standards. The list will also include items with definitions that increase in rigor from previous grades. These terms are intended to convey only the grade-level vocabulary expectations. This list is not exhaustive, and it is likely that a teacher will find that they must teach many other prerequisite terms in addition to the provided vocabulary to take their students to mastery of the standard.
Essential Questions/Big Ideas
The essential questions and big ideas included in this section seek to convey how this standard fits into the larger picture. The essential questions are questions related to the standard that will provoke thought about the standard’s contents and will promote inquiry. The big ideas are the large enduring concepts that connect this standard to other standards and are larger in scope than any one standard.
Both essential questions and big ideas can be used by a teacher as part of the framework for instruction on a standard or multiple standards. By incorporating these concepts into instruction and sharing them with students the purpose will become more apparent and focused on deeper understandings of the content.
More detailed information can be found in the book Understanding by Design. Reference Section
Sample Mastery Assessments
Sample mastery assessments have been created to help further define the standard’s academic expectations. What is provided does not constitute a complete set of assessments for the standard, rather they assist the teacher in designing instruction and assessing students progress towards mastery of the standard.
Each standard includes a test plan/answer key file. This file contains a test plan that delineates what targets are assessed in the sample assessment, what importance those skills have, what assessment method was used, and how many questions were created. This is provided as an example of good assessment practices and to convey which targets are and are not covered in the assessment. This file also includes any directions needed to administer the assessment or any rubrics needed to score the sample assessment.
The second file found in each unwrapped standard is the student version of the assessment. The student version includes the learning targets assessed phrased in student friendly language. These assessment items can be used as the basis for developing more questions for a particular target or can be recombined with other assessments based on the needs of the teacher and students.
One use of these sample mastery assessments would be using the questions provided to develop short skill-specific assessmenst to be used as pre-tests, post-tests, and progress checks during instruction. Another use of these sample mastery assessments is to develop grade-level and standard appropriate practice exercises for students. These are just two examples of many for the question items provided in the sample mastery assessments.
More detailed information can be found in the books Classroom Assessment for Student Learning or Using Quality Assessment to Target Instruction. Reference Section
Prerequisite/Related Standards
It is important to know how each standard fits into the ‘big picture.’ This section identifies related standards both horizontally (within the grade level) and vertically (outside the grade level). Within the grade level (horizontal alignment), standards that should be taught concurrently or directly before this standard are displayed. The standards that are related to this standard in the K-5 spectrum are also displayed (vertical alignment). By looking at the evolution of the standard’s expectations through grade levels, a teacher can identify gaps in a student’s knowledge and push advanced students beyond grade level expectations.
Scaffolded Instruction Suggestions
In the scaffolded instruction suggestions section both remediation and enrichment suggestions have been provided. The remediation suggestions are designed to help make the concept accessible to as many students as possible. Depending on the prior knowledge and skill level of the class, the teacher may use these suggestions when introducing concepts whole group or in small groups to assist students who are having difficulty mastering the standard.
Enrichment suggestions are focused on challenging and extending the content knowledge of students who have already met grade level expectations. Enrichment suggestions may include suggestions on increasing the cognitive level of the standard or suggestions on expanding instruction to more difficult concepts.
The suggestions found in this section are just a few of the many ways that the standard can be scaffolded. Teachers are encouraged to use these merely as a starting point when designing their instruction.
Cross-Curricular Integration Suggestions
The suggestions provided are just a few of the numerous ways to incorporate instruction or practice related to the standard into other subject areas. Integrating the instruction of standards across subject areas has many benefits. By integrating instruction the teacher will maximize his/her instructional time. Students will also benefit by connecting the standard to different contexts.
Achievement Indicators
The achievement indicators are created by the Nevada Department of Education to assist in the definition of academic expectations of state standards. This information can be used to help assist a teacher in classifying students’ work and ability level as “Emerging/Developing”, “Approaching Standards”, “Meets Standards”, or “Exceeds Standards.”
Test Specifications
The test specifications are created by the Nevada Department of Education and specify the scope of questioning that can occur on the Nevada Criterion Referenced Tests (CRT). Although this information can help inform instruction, many times the rigor of the standard encompasses more than what is included in these specifications. The test specifications are provided here as a convenience, but can also be found in their original form at the Nevada Department of Education website http://www.doe.nv.gov/.
How the Standards Were Unwrapped
The information for each unwrapped standard was created by a task force of classroom teachers and specialists. Working in grade level teams, task force members went through the process of unwrapping each of the standards. The task force then worked collaboratively to review the information across standards and grade levels. The task force unwrapped the standards using a framework that was a synthesis of the work found in the books Classroom Assessment for Student Learning and Understanding By Design. Reference Section
The information found in the unwrapped standards will continue to be revised and improved based on feedback from teachers, specialists, and other stakeholders. Please click on the <Make a Suggestion> link if you have suggestions about any particular unwrapped standard.
References
The following resources were used while unwrapping the standards. These books are usually available at your school site in the professional library and are great resources to reference when using unwrapped standards in your classroom.
Stiggins, R. , Arter, J., Chappuis, J., & Chappuis, S. (2006). Classroom Assessment for Student Learning: Doing It Right, Using It Well. Princeton, New Jersey: Educational Testing Services.
Wiggins, G. & McTighe, J. (2005). Understanding by Design. Association for Supervision & Curriculum Development: Alexandria, VA.
Clark County School District-Assessments & Accountability and Educational Testing Services (ETS). (2007). Using Quality Assessments to Target Instruction.
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