Discovery
Education
What is a
Guaranteed
and Viable
Curriculum
in the
Wilson School
District?
Wilson School District
March 20, 2013
Karen M. Beerer, Ed.D.
Karen_beerer@discovery.com
Johnna_Weller@discovery.com
Today’s Learning Targets
I CAN define what learning targets are and what they
aren't as well as the role they play in a guaranteed and
viable curriculum.
I CAN explain my role as a leader in ensuring the
effective use of learning targets to align to the look fors we
established at our last meeting.
Norms:
1. Be “present.”
2. Everyone has something to contribute, so
share your thinking openly, honestly and
with respect to other’s ideas and thinking.
3. “It’s okay to disagree.” --- Be willing to
challenge the thinking of others, but in a
thoughtful and respectful way.
4. Recognize and celebrate varying degrees of
knowledge; it helps you grow as an
organization.
5. Be willing to engage in “system’s thinking.”
Today’s Agenda
• Why learning targets?
• What are learning targets? (and what aren’t they…)
• Using learning targets in instruction
• Getting everyone on board using learning targets
•
- A Learning Target Framework
•
- A Learning Target Walk-Through
• Grounding learning targets in the CCSS
• Getting Started
CCSS Unit Plan Template
Combining the work of :
• Wiggins and McTighe (UBD)
• Beers, S.
• Tri-State Quality Review Rubrics
Essential Questions frame the
unit: Example - Can fiction reveal
truth just as much as nonfiction?
• Import the standards
• Determine the standards the unit is
explicitly teaching and assessing.
• Delete the rest.
Essential for designing assessments
Key Question:
What will students know and be able to do
as a result of the instruction?
Complex Texts
and Text-Based
Answers
Writing
from
Sources
Academic
Vocabulary
Integration of
digital media
and
technology
Essential for designing assessments
Key Question:
What will students know and be able to do
as a result of the instruction?
Today’s Focus
The Research Behind Learning Targets
• Ames & Archer (1998). Achievement goals in the classroom.
• Andrade & Krathwohl (2010). Rubric-referenced selfassessment.
• Brookhart (2008). How to give effective feedback to your
students.
• Brophy (2004). Motivating students to learn.
• Hattie (2012). Visible learning for teachers: Maximizing
impact on learning.
• Moss, Brookhart, Long (2011). Knowing your learning target.
• O’Connor. (2009). How to grade for learning.
• William. (2010). An integrative summary of the research
literature and implications for a new theory of formative
assessment.
A Close Reading
CLARIFYING THE TERMINOLOGY
Objective
Learning
Target
I CAN Statement
DEFINITIONS OF TERMS
Objective: Instructional objectives are about instruction, derived from
content standards, written in teacher language, and used to guide
teaching during a lesson or across a series of lessons. They are not
designed for students but for the teacher.
-Know Your Learning Target, S. Brookhart
Learning Target: A learning target frames a lesson from the students' point of
view. A learning target helps students grasp the lesson's purpose—why it is
crucial to learn this chunk of information, on this day, and in this way.
-Know Your Learning Target, S. Brookhart
I CAN Statement: A learning target that is written in a student friendly
way beginning with the words “I CAN.”
-Stiggins (2004)
EXAMPLES:


Objective: Students will be able to distinguish between elements and
compounds and classify them according to their properties.
Learning Targets:






Know the definition of an element
Know the definition of a compound
Distinguish between elements and compounds
Identify properties
Classify them according to their properties
I CAN Statements:





I CAN tell what an element is.
I CAN tell what a compound is.
I CAN tell the difference between an element and a compound.
I CAN identify at least 3 different properties.
I CAN classify elements and compounds by their properties.
Attributes of Clear Learning Targets
Learning Targets Are:
Learning Targets Are Not:
• Accomplished in a few
days at most
• Long-term
• Specific to what and how
• Global and Ambiguous
• Learned using a variety of
instructional activities,
strategies, contexts and
tools
• Learned by a single
approach or a single
activity
• Transferrable to a variety
of contexts
• Focused on one thing that
needs to be done
I can identify the protagonist, theme and voice in a
piece of literature.
I can flip a coin 100 times to determine the
probability of heads.
I can watch a video about the causes of the Civil War.
I can use authentic Egyptian techniques to mummify
a chicken.
I can describe how materials change when they are
heated or cooled.
Review:
Qualities of Effective,
Somewhat Effective and
Ineffective Learning
Targets
Ideas for Using I CANs
Topic
Review
Observations &
Inferences
Review
Experiments,
Analysis &
Conclusions
I Can Statement
Understanding
Evaluation
I can make detailed quantitative and qualitative observations.
1
2
3
4
5
I can tell observations from inferences.
1
2
3
4
5
I can make inferences based on observations.
1
2
3
4
5
I can explain why it is important to control variables in an experiment.
1
2
3
4
5
I can explain why you need to run multiple tests in an experiment.
1
2
3
4
5
I can analyze results of an experiment and take into account the role of
chance.
1
2
3
4
5
I can explain why your experimental results never prove your hypothesis.
1
2
3
4
5
I can explain what heritable alleles are.
1
2
3
4
5
I can explain the difference between genotype and phenotype.
1
2
3
4
5
I can explain what dominant and recessive alleles are and how they reveal
themselves differently in phenotypes.
1
2
3
4
5
I can explain what DNA is as well as how it store and uses information to
build organisms.
1
2
3
4
5
Review Genetics
Can I?…I CAN Exit Slips
Name:_______________________________ Dates:______________________
Period:___________
Objective (“Can I…”)
Rank: (Beginning)
1
Show (“I can…by…”)
2
3
4
5
2
3
4
5
Rank: (End)
1
How do you get everyone to drink from the
same watering hole?
How do you get everyone to drink from the
same watering hole?
One Strategy: Provide a framework
The Four-Step Framework
The four starter prompts of the framework are:
• We are learning to…
• We will show that we can do this by…
• To know how well we are learning this, we will
look for…
• It is important for us to learn or be able to do
this because…
Examining Two Framework Examples
Discuss:
1. Where are your teachers in the use of
learning targets in instruction?
2. What evidence do you have to prove your
beliefs about the first question?
3. What is the next step?
4. How will you help them take the next step?
How do you get everyone to drink from the
same watering hole?
Another Strategy: Collect Walk-Through Evidence
Your Strategies as the Learning Leader
Did you see evidence that the teacher had a learning target for this
specific lesson?
☐Yes, I saw evidence that the teacher had a specific learning target
for today’s lesson – a statement of what the student would be able to
do or come to know as a result of today’s lesson.
☐No, however, I saw evidence that the teacher had an instructional
objective that was used to guide the teacher and that could have
covered more than one lesson.
☐No, I could not find evidence that the teacher had a learning target
for this lesson, nor was there evidence of an instructional objective.
Describe what you observed –the evidence you gathered to support
your response.
Where To Start
A Quick Trip
Through the ELA and MATH CCSS
• Find a partner.
• With your partner, take a trip through the
CCSS ELA and Math Standards and
Appendices.
• When you finish, complete the “ticket”
together on your table.
Deconstructing the Standards
Example:
Grade 5 Measurement and Data
Represent and interpret data.
2. Make a line plot to display a data set
of measurements in fractions of a unit
(1/2, 1/4, 1/8).
Example:
Grade 1 Writing
Produce writing to communicate with different
audiences for a variety of purposes.
Knowledge
Targets
Reasoning
Targets
Skill
Targets
Product
Targets
Know what a
sentence is.
Distinguish
which words are
the most
appropriate for
the purpose
Use capitals
and periods
correctly.
Spell words
correctly.
Write a letter, an
email, a
personal
narrative, an
informational
piece and an
opinion piece.
Your Turn
• Grade 3 Informational Text: Determine the main idea of a text;
recount the key details and explain how they support the main idea.
• Grade 7 Informational Text: Determine two or more central
ideas in a text and analyze their development over the course of the
text; provide an objective summary of the text.
• Grade 11-12 Informational Text: Determine two or more
themes or central ideas of a text and analyze their development over
the course of the text, including how they interact and build on one
another to produce a complex account; provide an objective
summary of the text.
Today’s Learning Targets
I CAN define what learning targets are and what they
aren't as well as the role they play in a guaranteed and
viable curriculum.
I CAN explain my role as a leader in ensuring the
effective use of learning targets to align to the look fors we
established at our last meeting.