Clear Learning Targets
How to deconstruct the standards!
Developed by Regional Teacher Partners with
the PIMSER P-12 Math and Science
Outreach
Research-based Strategies
5 Research-based strategies that
significantly improve student learning:
Sharing criteria (clear learning targets
with success criteria)
– Questioning
– Feedback
– Peer assessment
– Self-assessment
Students who can identify what
they are learning significantly
outscore those who cannot.
Robert J. Marzano
Clear Learning Targets
• Individually, draw
the front of a penny.
• Include as many
details as you can
without looking at
one.
• Do not compare with
a partner until
instructed.
What’s the Target?
Learning/Achievement Targets
Statements of what
we want students to
learn and be able to
do.
“Teachers who truly understand
what they want their students to
accomplish will almost surely be
more instructionally successful than
teachers whose understanding of
hoped-for student accomplishments
are murky.”
-W. James Popham
How do Learning Targets
connect to our assessment
practices?
ACCURACY
PURPOSE
EFFECTIVE USE
EFFECTIVE
COMMUNICATION
DESIGN
STUDENT
INVOLVEMENT
TARGET
The Challenge….
How can we use
assessments to help the
student believe that the
target is within reach?
CLEAR TARGETS
Assess what?
What are the learning targets?
Are they clear?
Are they good?
Are the student learning targets stated and easy to find?
Are the student learning targets focused—are there too
many?
Are they clear?
Are they appropriate?
Do the stated learning targets reflect a bigger plan to cover
all important learning targets over time?
Educators & Students
must be able to answer……
•
•
•
•
•
Where am I going?
Where am I now?
How can I close the gap?
How will I know I’m getting there?
How can I keep it going?
Is this a Target?
What do you think?
• Complete a senior project
• Build a bird Feeder
• Use a band saw safely
• Analyze a lab report
• Construct a diorama
A Mathematics Example
• Math
• Decimals
Subject
Topic
Assignment
• Page 152 in the book
• Going on a decimal hunt
Activity
• Read decimals and put them in order
Learning
Target
The single most common barrier to
sound classroom assessment is the
teachers’ lack of vision of
appropriate achievement targets
within the subjects they are
supposed to teach.
Rick Stiggins
Learning Targets
• Knowledge
• Reasoning
• Performance/
skills
• Products
Knowledge Targets
Mastery of substantive
subject content where
mastery includes both
knowing and
understanding it.
Knowledge Examples
• Identify metaphors and similes
• Read and write quadratic equations
• Describe the function of a cell
membrane
• Know the multiplication tables
• Explain the effects of an acid on a
base
Reasoning Targets
The ability to use
knowledge and
understanding to
figure things out
and to solve
problems.
Reasoning Examples
• Use statistical methods to describe,
analyze, evaluate, and make decisions.
• Make a prediction based on evidence.
• Examine data/results and propose a
meaningful interpretation.
• Distinguish between historical fact and
opinion.
Performance/Skill Targets
The development of
proficiency in doing
something where
the process is most
important.
Performance/Skill Examples
• Measure mass in metric and SI units
• Use simple equipment and tools to gather
data
• Read aloud with fluency and expression
• Participates in civic discussions with the
aim of solving current problems
• Dribbles to keep the ball away from an
opponent
Product Targets
The ability to create
tangible products
that meet certain
standards of quality
and present
concrete evidence
of academic
proficiency.
Product Examples
• Construct a bar graph
• Develop a personal health-related fitness
plan
• Construct a physical model of an object
• Write a term paper to support a thesis
Clear Targets
Clear targets help us:
• Recognize if the formative assessment
adequately covers and samples what we
taught.
• Correctly identify what students know/don’t
know, and their level of achievement.
• Plan the next steps in instruction.
• Give meaningful descriptive feedback to
students.
Clear Targets (continued)
• Have students self-assess or set goals
likely to help them learn more.
• Keep track of student learning target by
target or standard by standard.
• Complete a standards-based report card.
Classifying Learning Targets
• Lay out the four learning target category cards—
Knowledge, Reasoning, Performance/Skill, and
Product—in a row in that order.
• Sort the learning target example cards according
to which kind of learning target it is. Lay these
cards in columns under the appropriate
category.
• When you have finished, walk around and look
at what other groups have done.
Classifying Learning Targets
• What were some considerations for how
you classified the samples you had?
• Is it always clear how to classify a
statement from the standards? Why or
why not?
QUESTION
What is the difference between a
STANDARD
and a
TARGET?
An Example
• STANDARD: An excellent golf swing
• TARGETS:
– Proper placement for feet (stance)
– Proper grip while maintaining stance
When to
should
these be
– Swing A, B, C (3-parts
swing)
• ACTIVITIES:
added and/or
developed?
– Watch videos of great golfers and imitate their
stance
“By setting out clearly in their own minds
what they wanted the students to learn,
the teachers would be in a position to find
out what the ‘gap’ was between the state
of students’ current learning and the
learning goal and to be able to monitor
that ‘gap’ as it closed.”
--Assessment for Learning: Putting it into Practice
Deconstructing Standards
Are the Standards Clear?
• Can your content standards stand alone and be
used as learning targets or do they need to be
deconstructed or ‘unpacked’?
• Deconstruction involves taking a standard and
breaking it down into manageable learning
targets—Knowledge, Reasoning,
Performance/skills, and/or Products—so that
students and teachers can accurately identify
what students should know and be able to do.
FIRST GRADE
Standard/Benchmark:
Produce writing to communicate with different audiences for a variety of
purposes.
Type:
Knowledge
Reasoning
Skill
Product
Learning Targets:
What are the knowledge, reasoning, skill, or product targets underpinning the standard?
Knowledge
Targets
Reasoning
Targets
Skill
Targets
Product
Targets
Hold a pencil correctly
Know what a
sentence is
Distinguish the uses or
meanings of a
variety of words
Understand concept
(word choice)
of word choice
Print letters correctly
according to DN methods
Space words
Use lines and margins
correctly
Stretch out sounds in words
to create a temporary
spelling of the word
Write sentences
with varied
beginnings.
Creating Targets for “Driving a
Car with Skill”
What knowledge will students need to demonstrate the
intended learning?
What patterns of reasoning will they need to master?
What skills are required, if any?
What product development capabilities must they
acquire, if any?
Driving a Car with Skill
Knowledge
Know the law
Read signs and understand what they mean
Reasoning
Evaluate ‘am I safe’ and synthesize information to
take action if needed
Skills
Steering, shifting, parallel parking, …
Products
(not appropriate target for standard)
Practicing Deconstructing
Standards
• Find a partner
• Look at the STRONG example
– How would this help teachers?
– How would this impact student learning?
• Look the WEAK example
– Would this be beneficial to teachers?
• In order to deconstruct effectively, what
skills/knowledge are needed?
Let’s Do a Think Aloud
• Examine the standards given.
• Think about what knowledge, skills, reasoning,
or products students will need in order to meet
that standard.
• Start with the skills column, then move to
understanding, and lastly to core content.
• Do not think of how you will teach the standard
or how you will assess it, ONLY about what
students will need to know and be able to do.
• Let’s do this together!
Working within a group of 3
• Using the standards you have been given,
deconstruct into K, R, S, and P targets.
• Refer back to your verb sheet to help you
categorize and the strong model as an
example.
• When finished, join another trio and
compare your work.
Group Debrief
How did the process
feel?
What is the value of
going through this
process?
What support materials
are needed to facilitate the
process?
D
Without Clear Targets We Can’t Do
Any of the Following…
• Know if the assessment adequately covers and
samples what we taught.
• Correctly identify what students know and don’t
know and their level of achievement.
• Plan next steps in instruction.
• Give detailed, descriptive feedback to students.
• Have students self-assess or set goals likely to help
them learn more.
• Keep track of student learning target by target or
standard by standard.
• Complete a standards-based report card.