Karin K. Hess, Ed.D.
khess@nciea.org OR karinhessvt@gmail.com
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Anticipation Guide
Defining learning progressions
Four Guiding Principles of LPs (Hess article, 2008)
Standards vs. Learning Progressions
Aligning Instruction & Assessment with LPs
 Instructional building blocks
 Pre-assessments/planning lessons
 Building expertise
 Student Work Analysis
1. Learning progressions are the same as a scope and sequence
or pacing guide that lists the order of what to teach next.
2. Big ideas help to frame descriptors (progress indicators) in a
learning progression.
3. An example of a big idea would be: learning how to read.
4. To validate a learning progression, one would consult
cognitive research, as well as teacher observations and
analysis of student work collected over time after targeted
instruction.
5. Students can use learning progressions as a selfassessment to monitor their own progress.
6. Learning progressions can be used to diagnose
individual students’ strengths and weaknesses.
7. Progress maps, developmental continuums, and
learning continuums are qualitatively different from
learning progressions.
8. Other countries have been using research-based
learning progressions for many years to guide
classroom assessment and instruction.
9. Learning progressions can guide development of
formative assessments and formative uses of
assessment data.
10. Learning progressions describe increasingly more
difficult content and skills.
Hawai’i Progress Maps Project
 2 years to develop LPs with teachers (using
available research and professional
judgment)
 1 year to implement and track “struggling
learners” (pre-mid-post assessments)
 50 teachers - K-8 ELA and math
 Progression descriptions validated & revised
using student work samples analyzed
collaboratively
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What do you notice?
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What do you wonder about?
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“descriptions of the successively more
sophisticated ways of thinking about an idea that
follow one another as students learn” (Wilson &
Bertenthal, 2005)
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“a picture of the path students typically follow as
they learn...a description of skills, understandings,
and knowledge in the sequence in which they
typically develop” (Masters & Forster,1996)
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Learning progressions propose the
intermediate understandings that are
“reasonably coherent networks of ideas and
practices…that contribute to building a
more mature understanding…the important
precursor ideas may not look like the later
ideas, yet crucially contribute to their
construction.” (Duschl, et al., 2007)
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Planning & Modifying Curriculum and
Instruction
Developing Meaningful Assessments –
especially formative assessments
Monitoring Progress
 Mastery of Specific Benchmark Concepts &
Skills over time
 Novice
Expert Performance:
increased sophistication & deeper
understanding
1. Based on (& refined by) available Research
2. The big ideas/the “essence” of
concepts/processes are the binding threads
that connect steps on the pathway
3. May not be linear, but articulate movement
toward increased understanding (e.g., deeper,
broader; ability to apply, generalize, or transfer;
more sophisticated) – not just harder!
4. Go hand-in-hand with well-designed/aligned
assessments
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Standards identify endpoints – grade level targets
for learning. These can only be thought of as
“curricular progressions” across grades (not based in
research about student learning over time)
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Standards are not prescriptive – they do not
indicate or suggest an “optimal” instructional
sequencing plan (especially within grade levels)
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Standards do not provide guidance about how
different standards might be linked for instruction ------ or how to build expertise (transfer) when
learning
Targets (defined by key core ideas of each discipline):
 Understanding of core ideas and practices at the
level thought to support postsecondary success.
 Starting Points:
 Children’s initial, or early, ideas and ways of
thinking that they bring to school.
 In between:
 An hypothesized ordered progression of the levels
through which understandings and skills shift and
develop as the student progresses toward the
desired target.
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Vygotsky: Zone of Proximal Development
(What a child can do with assistance today)
What a child can
do independently
now: “ENTRY”
Actual
Development
Area
The
ZONE
What a child can
do independently
tomorrow/future
Potential
Development
Area
LEARNING PROGRESSIONS ZONE:
Dynamic area
Causes development to move forward
Social interaction essential (scaffolding)
Learning Progressions
“Link” the Zones of Proximal Development of
ALL Students
Novice Performers --------------------------------------------------Expert
Explore & challenge
preconceptions
Guide & scaffold
practice
Find each
student’s starting
point for learning
Extend, initiate,
demonstrate
sophistication
Proficient &
independent
Create schemas; deepen & broaden
conceptual understanding
Sub-skills that
develop conceptual
understanding
Prerequisite
knowledge or
emergent skills
Transfer to
new
contexts
Many (but not all) students are
here.
Hess, 2008
Distinguishing differences is foundational to scientific
observation, the ability to make predictions, and sequencing
& interpreting observations, as well as learning to read,
comparing and ordering numbers in math)
 Distinguishes differences in physical characteristics
 Identifies similarities in physical characteristics
 Identifies both differences and similarities in physical
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characteristics
Categorizes objects and materials by physical characteristics
(external, then internal features)
Explains why things belong to a specific group; creates groupings
Distinguishes relevant differences from non-relevant differences
when trying to answer a specific question
Categorize objects and materials by function and by multiple
features or broader categories or classification systems
Excerpt from the Grade 7 ELA Learning Progressions Framework:
Progress Indicators (shaded) /”Steps” for Reading Informational Texts, with
related gr 7 Common Core standards, and possible instructional Building Blocks
for each step (PI) in the learning progression
M.RI.j
use supporting evidence to
summarize central ideas, draw inferences, or
analyze connections
within or across texts (e.g., events,
people, ideas)
7.RI-1, 2, 3, 9
M.RI.i
utilize knowledge of text
structures and genre features to locate,
organize, or analyze important
information
7.RI-5
M.RI.h
flexibly use strategies to
derive meaning from a variety of print/nonprint texts
7.RI-4; 7.L-4, 5a; 7.SL-2
Instructional Building Blocks for this PI
might begin with
 Listen for key ideas and details in
news/media stories 7.SL-2
 Interpret visuals in informational texts
(e.g., arrows in a graphic organizer
showing how a plant grows or how water
evaporates) 7.SL-2
 Answer the question: does this word
make sense? 7.RI-4; 7.L-4
Instructional Building Blocks for this PI
might include:
 Locate text evidence /key details to
support inferences about central ideas in
a text 7.RI-1
Instructional Building Blocks for this PI
 Summarize central ideas 7.RI-2
might include:
 Find similar OR different information
 Locate & use informational text
about a topic in two or more texts 7.RI-9
features to answer questions (captions,
 Draw inferences from or explain
titles, headings, etc.)
connections among ideas, events, or
 Identify the kind of information found in individuals discussed in a text 7.RI-3
different informational texts (e.g.,
newspaper versus magazine)
 Recognize structures that help to
organize information (e.g., introduction,
body, conclusion; signal words for
compare-contrast, proposition-support,
etc.) 7.RI-5
O
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C
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COGNITION: Presents a model of how
students represent knowledge and develop
competence in a subject domain;
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OBSERVATION: Guides development of
tasks/situations that allow one to observe
student performance; and
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INTERPRETATION: Offers an interpretation
method of drawing inferences from the
performance evidence.
[Knowing what Students Know, 2001]
1. Identify unit focus/ end point & “big idea”
2. Review key words in each LP Progress
Indicator for the grade level or grade span
M.WP.a using strategies to better understand genre of
persuasive writing (e.g., discuss opposing perspectives;
analyze mentor texts – ads, essays, book/movie reviews,
speeches, propaganda techniques)
3. Check related CC standards for that grade what (parts) will you focus instruction on
across the unit of study?
4. Draft a possible summative assessment for
the unit – what will they be able to do at the
end of the unit?
5. Develop lesson 1 as pre-assessment, based on
pre-requisites for success to build upon
6. Use PIs to determine instructional building
blocks & plan a general lesson sequence and
formative assessments to monitor progress
7. Use student work analysis at several points
(pre/mid/post) to inform instruction
Student Work Analysis (SWA): a “quick
sorting” of papers
Objectives
not met
Objectives
Objectives
partially met met
Exceeds
Objectives
___% of
class
___% of
class
List
Students +
Describe
what they
typically did
___% of
class
___% of
class
Determine what each group of students needs
next…
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Not linear
Many “strands” in each content discipline
Break down standards and/or combine
standards based on HOW people learn and
develop expertise over time
Still require targeted instruction
Some ‘steps’ in progressions are not
represented in grade-level standards, but
they are important to developing expertise
Others ?
Numerous papers & presentations available at www.nciea.org
 (Hess, 2008) Developing and using learning progressions as a
schema for measuring progress.
 (Hess, 2010; 2011) Learning Progressions Frameworks for
ELA and Mathematics with alignment to Common Core
State Standards
 (Hess, 2012) Literacy profiles by grade span (K-2, 3-4, 5-6, 78, 9-12)
 You can request -- Hess’ “Local Assessment Toolkit”
 Student Work Analysis tool
 LPF planning tools for unit design
 Hess (2010) Science & Children article
 Hawaii video – soon to be posted at www.karin-hess.com