UNPACKING THE STANDARDS:
According to Bryan Goodwin and Elizabeth Ross Hubble in their book The 12 Touchstones of Good Teaching, “having standards and unpacking them, however, can help you identify the prior knowledge they do need in order to identify and address any gaps they may have in their prior knowledge.” (Goodwin, B. & Hubble, E., 2013 pg. 12) No two students are exactly alike, and by unpacking the standards, you are able to cater to each student’s individual needs. This will help assist the student in being successful at the task at hand.
To begin my lesson plan, I needed to find a content standard that would drive my instruction for a lesson I will be teaching. Once I identified the content standard, I needed to unpack the standard to “determine what declarative knowledge {e.g., concepts, vocabulary, facts, details} and procedural knowledge {e.g., skills procedures, abilities} students must acquire in order to master the standard” (Goodwin, B. & Hubble, E., 2013 pg. 12), and come up with essential questions that would assist the students understand the relevance in the lesson, and why it is important to them. I am currently developing a beginning storytelling unit that I could teach to first grade students. This lesson includes the teaching of the children’s story, The Little Red Hen. Many of the Common Core Standards will be addressed throughout this lesson, but to begin the unit, we will be dealing with the importance of the beginning, middle, and end of a story. I am using this introduction to the unit as my focus for this page.
Step One: Common Core Standard
Content Standard(s):
Step Two: Unpack the Standard
To unpack the standard, I utilized the example found in The 12 Touchstones of Good Teaching (Goodwin, B. & Hubble, E., 2013) as my guide. I also took into consideration the five-step process for translating the standards into a lesson plan.
1. Identify your focus for the lesson.
2. Determine how you will assess learning.
3. Determine how you will engage students.
4. Determine how you will engage students in learning and mastering content.
5. Identify how to close your lesson (Goodwin, B. & Hubble, E., 2013, pg. 10-11).
Using the example, as well as the five-step process, the following are the skills that the students will need to master in order to be proficient in this standard:
Step 3: Essential Questions
To begin my lesson plan, I needed to find a content standard that would drive my instruction for a lesson I will be teaching. Once I identified the content standard, I needed to unpack the standard to “determine what declarative knowledge {e.g., concepts, vocabulary, facts, details} and procedural knowledge {e.g., skills procedures, abilities} students must acquire in order to master the standard” (Goodwin, B. & Hubble, E., 2013 pg. 12), and come up with essential questions that would assist the students understand the relevance in the lesson, and why it is important to them. I am currently developing a beginning storytelling unit that I could teach to first grade students. This lesson includes the teaching of the children’s story, The Little Red Hen. Many of the Common Core Standards will be addressed throughout this lesson, but to begin the unit, we will be dealing with the importance of the beginning, middle, and end of a story. I am using this introduction to the unit as my focus for this page.
Step One: Common Core Standard
Content Standard(s):
- (CCSS:SL.1.2) Ask and answer questions about key details in a text read aloud or information presented orally or through other media.
- (CCSS.SL.K.5) Add drawings or other visual displays to descriptions as desired to provide additional details.
- (CCSSL.1.4) Describe people, places, things, and events with relevant details, expressing ideas and feelings clearly (Colorado Department of Education Unit of Academic Standards, 2010).
Step Two: Unpack the Standard
To unpack the standard, I utilized the example found in The 12 Touchstones of Good Teaching (Goodwin, B. & Hubble, E., 2013) as my guide. I also took into consideration the five-step process for translating the standards into a lesson plan.
1. Identify your focus for the lesson.
2. Determine how you will assess learning.
3. Determine how you will engage students.
4. Determine how you will engage students in learning and mastering content.
5. Identify how to close your lesson (Goodwin, B. & Hubble, E., 2013, pg. 10-11).
Using the example, as well as the five-step process, the following are the skills that the students will need to master in order to be proficient in this standard:
- Students will be able to answer relevant questions regarding what is going on in the story as well as order of events both orally and in drawing and writing.
- Students will be able to make accurate predictions 75% of the time.
- Students will be able to put a story in the correct order both orally and in drawing and writing.
Step 3: Essential Questions
- Why is it important to tell/read a story in the right order?
- Why is it important to use context clues to predict what will happen next?
- Why is it important to know the meaning of words?
- Why is it important to know what is going on in a story?
Demonstration: unpacking the standards
This is a demonstration that is presented by a Colorado Department of Education Content Specialist. It details one way that educators can go about unpacking the standards.
References
Colorado Department of Education Unit of Academic Standards. (2010). Reading, writing and communicating. Retrieved from
http://www2.cde.state.co.us/scripts/allstandards/COStandards.asp?glid=3&stid2=6&glid2=0.
Goodwin, R. & Hubbell, E. R. (2013). The 12 touchstones of good teaching: A checklist for staying focused every day. Alexandria, VA: ASCD.
Lauer, D. (2010, May 2). Unpacking the standards part 1 [Video file]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0W452p7sgQ8.
Colorado Department of Education Unit of Academic Standards. (2010). Reading, writing and communicating. Retrieved from
http://www2.cde.state.co.us/scripts/allstandards/COStandards.asp?glid=3&stid2=6&glid2=0.
Goodwin, R. & Hubbell, E. R. (2013). The 12 touchstones of good teaching: A checklist for staying focused every day. Alexandria, VA: ASCD.
Lauer, D. (2010, May 2). Unpacking the standards part 1 [Video file]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0W452p7sgQ8.