Wise Ways® / Academic Development Institute
Indicator: Instructional Teams develop materials for their standards-aligned
learning activities and share the materials among themselves. (5105)
Evidence Review:
In an effective system, teachers, working in teams, build the taught curriculum from learning
standards, curriculum guides, and a variety of resources, including textbooks, other commercial
materials, and teacher-created activities and materials. Instructional Teams organize the
curriculum into unit plans that guide instruction for all students and for each student. The unit
plans assure that students master standards-based objectives and also provide opportunities for
enhanced learning.
A unit of instruction is typically three to six weeks of work within a subject area for a particular
grade level or course sequence. To pool teacher expertise and secure a guaranteed, taught
curriculum, an Instructional Team can develop a plan for each unit. The plan is shared by all the
teachers who teach that subject and grade level. The alignment process serves two related
purposes: It serves as a check on guide/text/test congruence, and it provides teachers with an
organizational structure for their own planning (Glatthorn, 1995).
The unit plan is developed by the Instructional Team to define a unit of instruction and outline the
standards and target objectives (typically grade level) addressed in the unit of instruction.
The Instructional Team:
1. Determines the concepts, principles, and skills that will be covered within the unit.
2. Identifies the standards/benchmarks that apply to the grade level and unit topic.
3. Develops all objectives that clearly align to the selected standards/benchmarks.
4. Arranges the objectives in sequential order.
5. Determines the best objective descriptors.
6. Considers the most appropriate elements for mastery and constructs criteria for mastery.
7. Develops pre/post-test items that are clear and specific and would provide evidence of
mastery consistent with the criteria established.
Source: Sam Redding, Handbook on Restructuring and Substantial School Improvement.
Evidence Review:
Learning activities, the assignments given to each student targeted to that student’s level of
mastery, should be carefully aligned with the objectives included in the unit plan to provide a
variety of ways for a student to achieve mastery as evidenced in both the successful completion
of the learning activities and correct responses on the unit post-test. An Instructional Team’s unit
plans include a description of each leveled and differentiated learning activity, the standardsbased objectives associated with it, and criteria for mastery. These activities become arrows in
the teacher’s quiver of instructional options for each student.
The unit plan aligns the curriculum to standards and benchmarks. The next step is to align the
curriculum to instruction. This is where the real fun begins – teachers sharing their most
successful instructional strategies for meeting each objective in the unit of instruction. Unit plans
level each objective into three tiers – target, enhanced, and prerequisite. The unit plans also
differentiate learning activities among various modes of instruction – whole-class instruction,
independent work, small-group and center-based activities, and homework. The activity
instructions provide the detail that enables any teacher to use the learning activity, and also
become a means of explaining the activity to students.
Source: Sam Redding, Handbook on Restructuring and Substantial School Improvement.
For English Language Learners
Schools should involve experts, practitioners, and researchers in academic content
instruction and second language development when developing student content and performance
standards in English language proficiency in order to ensure that ELLs are offered challenging
and comprehensive curricula and instructional programming in core academic subjects. Likewise,
when new academic content standards (e.g. Common Core Standards) are adopted, the school
should ensure that ELL teachers are included when planning for standards implementation or
when developing new curricula for the standards.
It is essential that ELL students have equitable access to the full resources of the school such
as all courses of study, all technological resources, libraries, and special programs. Judith RanceRoney (2009) recommends that cross-disciplinary school-wide instructional teams be created to
ensure cohesion across learning activities. These teams would be comprised of the ELL
specialist (ESL, bilingual, dual language, for example), content teachers, counselors, and
administrators who would share a common planning period during which they would work
together to align curriculum; plan integrated, cross-content projects; address student concerns;
and monitor student progress.
In addition, schools should provide instructional materials and resources to teachers that
support ELLs in learning grade-level, academic content such as materials developed in the native
language, properly translated native language materials and English language materials
controlled for linguistic complexity. Furthermore, teachers must be knowledgeable in scaffolding
instruction to enable students to provide evidence of mastery of standards.
References and Resources
Lewis-Moreno, B. (2007). Shared responsibility: Achieving success with English language learners. Phi
Delta Kappan, 88 (10), 772-775.
Rance-Roney, J. (2009). Best practices for adolescent ELLs. Educational Leadership 32-37.
The George Washington University Center for Equity and Excellence in Education. (2008). Promoting
Excellence: Guiding Principles. Arlington, VA. http://www.corestandards.org/about-the-standards
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