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 DESIGN TARGET

EFFECTIVE USE

EFFECTIVE COMMUNICATION STUDENT INVOLVEMENT

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 Activity

• Going on a decimal hunt • 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 – Swing A, B, C (3-parts to swing) added and/or • ACTIVITIES: 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

Hold a pencil correctly Know what a sentence is Understand concept of word choice Distinguish the uses or meanings of a variety of words (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

Product Targets

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.