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1. Vertical Alignment Recording Sheets (Use for share and work time)

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1. Vertical Alignment Recording Sheets (Use for share and work time)

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ELA Vertical Alignment Recording Documents

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2. Protocols for Vertical Alignment: Within and between bands (Use for work time)

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2. Protocols for Vertical Alignment: Within and between bands (Use for work time)

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K-12 ELA Priority Standards Vertical Alignment Protocols

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3. K-10 ELA Standards by Domain (Use to unpack standards, I can statements, unit connection)

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3. K-10 ELA Standards by Domain (Use to unpack standards, I can statements, unit connection)

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Get access to files anywhere through secure cloud storage and file backup for your photos, videos, files and more with Google Drive.

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Project AERO is pleased to offer resources in Math, Science, English/Language Arts, Social Studies and World Languages that are designed to assist teachers. Each of these content areas: 1. identifies the critical areas in each subject area; 2. provides guidance for accelerating instruction; and 3. gives links to additional materials, such as exemplar units, when available.

Math: The AERO Math provides resources for K-10. The resources include the Critical Areas for each grade and high school course, sample scope and sequences, anchor and target tasks, and instructional strategies for implementation.

Science: AERO Science Critical Areas for grades K-5 have been identified, summarized and outlined to facilitate science instruction. This work seeks to support science educators in identifying the key content and practices they will need to target when developing assessments and learning experiences. For each grade level there is a year-long overview as well as individual unit documents that provide some guidance for storylines, phenomena and engineering design when appropriate. Similar documents will be released for Middle School before the end of August.

English/Language Arts: AERO's curriculum writers have reviewed the English/Language Arts Framework (205) and identified the Critical Areas within the four strands of Reading, Writing, Language, and Listening and Speaking for Grades K-5. These Critical Areas have been clustered to be the basis for four units at each grade level. In addition, vetted resources have been included for all units.

Social Studies: AERO's curriculum writers have reviewed the Social Studies Framework (2019) and identified the Critical Areas for grades K-5, and have developed three sample units for each grade built on the critical areas. These units have been designed to guide teachers develop students into global citizens.

World Languages: The AERO WL team has worked with colleagues at every grade level schools to create a set of questions and unit themes that "braid" the World Language curriculum to the other core disciplines. Given the variety of schooling models this year, WL teachers are advised to teach fewer units (two to three units rather than five) that retain all five C's of the 2018 AERO WL Standards and Benchmarks. The model units being released reinforce academic vocabulary and content while building language proficiency, strong intercultural skills and supporting social and emotional learning.

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Project AERO is pleased to offer resources in Math, Science, English/Language Arts, Social Studies and World Languages that are designed to assist teachers. Each of these content areas: 1. identifies the critical areas in each subject area; 2. provides guidance for accelerating instruction; and 3.

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Unpacking Standards with Chat GPT - The Core Collaborative

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Job-embedded, learner-centered, professional learning for schools and systems

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Email:

apriljstout@gmail.com

EKC Strategist

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Resources from our whole staff virtual sessions

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Easy steps to unpacking a curriculum standard

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Easy steps to unpacking a curriculum standard

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A few steps to unpack a standard with the aim of building progressions and microprogressions.

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3 minutes: Unpacking a curriculum standard

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3 minutes: Unpacking a curriculum standard

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Work through this process individually before you convene with your team.

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Come together with your team to build consensus.

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TISA Whole Staff Virtual Session 3: Vertical Alignment

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Check out this Presentation designed by EKC.

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If I have learned anything being in education, I have learned that there is a continual pendulum that is swinging back and forth between various "buzzwords." Just think about the terms "flexible seating," "differentiation," "vertical alignment," and "progress monitoring." It's not that these terms don't have value; I just consider them buzzwords because it's almost impossible to attend a professional development workshop, read an article, or leave a staff meeting without hearing these words. Can I get an "Amen"? Today, I am breaking down vertical alignment and its importance in our curriculum.

VERTICAL ALIGNMENT FIRSTHAND

It was 2008, almost every female student was reading and I was beginning my second year of teaching and my first year in sixth grade. I clearly remember thinking, "I should do a warm up to practice division so I can see where they are at." Well, what I thought would be a quick warm up turned into a great lesson for me in vertical alignment, when a student shared that the answer was "six remainder five."
What on earth? Who uses remainders? Are those even a real thing? Well, apparently eleven year-olds still use remainders.
You see, the year prior I had taught seventh grade, and students were required to multiply and divide decimals, so it only seemed natural that a student would know to add a decimal and zero in the event the quotient didn't go in evenly. My lack of experience with the curriculum led to a small detour in the lesson and a big learning moment for me.

I had to understand where my students were when they left fifth grade.

WHAT IS VERTICAL ALIGNMENT?
According to Dr. Jason Perez, "Vertical alignment is the process of organizing curriculum from one grade level or content area to the next."
The standards are a great place to begin, though not flawless. Vertical alignment includes combing through the standards and determining where a student is coming from and where they need to be at the end of the year. This ensures that you are adequately prepared to introduce the concept with some sort of familiarity for the students and that you have taught the full extent of the standard.

Additionally, I would suggest that it also includes a bit more discussion amongst your team and department. How will you teach long division? Will students be taught partial quotients the year prior? Are you familiar with partial quotients so that you can connect that to the standard algorithm?

In general, this helps with brain development when we can help students make those connections. #dendrites

WHY IS VERTICAL ALIGNMENT IMPORTANT?

First, you are less likely to be caught off guard when your students are doing some strategy you aren't familiar with or to end up in my warm up situation, where your plan has gone awry. More importantly, though, your students are going to be more successful! They are going to be prepared to move seamlessly (okay, maybe not seamless) from one grade level to the next. There will be fewer gaps in the curriculum and students will be able to see how the content builds.

I also think that the time and work required to vertically align the curriculum is valuable in team building and really working together as a PLC. I think it opens up the doors for collaboration, which is good for students and teachers.

IDEAS FOR VERTICALLY ALIGNING CURRICULUM

1. Set aside a chunk of time

If your curriculum is lacking in this area or if you have a large department, then you really should expect this to take a while. Do not attempt to accomplish this within a PLC. I would suggest a half day to get started. Some principals have professional development dollars to hire subs or perhaps you could use a staff development day to accomplish this.

2. Don't start from square one

There are already great resources so that you are not starting from zero. If you use Maneuvering the Middle Curriculum, there is a small vertical alignment component within each unit overview.

This will give you a great starting point so that you can see the grouping of content.

3. Attack each unit one at a time

Now that the standards have been grouped into like content or a unit, then this is where the fun comes in. Discuss within collaboration what students are responsible for at that grade level. A fun way to do this is to have each grade level summarize the content and then share out. Use a timer to keep everyone on track and moving through the content.

4. Jot ideas down on chart paper

Next, you might consider placing a piece of chart paper for each unit with the standards around the room. Using various colored markers teachers, can jot down the different ways they teach content. This gives a very non-threatening way to share ideas, which can be discussed as time allows. It keeps one person from dominating the conversation and keeps everyone on task. A facilitator could then share out, and if clarification is needed, a specific team member could contribute more details.

5. Build on it each year

Remember that this doesn't have to be perfect helps everyone to feel accomplished and to take steps in the right direction without feeling overwhelmed.

This process will not only improve the vertical alignment on your campus, but it will also provide a time to sharpen content knowledge in a collaborative environment. #winning

How does your campus ensure your curriculum is vertically aligned? What benefits do you see from vertical alignment?

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If I have learned anything being in education, I have learned that there is a continual pendulum that is swinging back and forth between various "buzzwords." Just think about the terms "flexible seating," "differentiation," "vertical alignment," and "progress monitoring."

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Part 2 of this blog series strongly points out the importance of " prioritizing, not eliminating" any standards, describes how educators are using the long-established criteria for identifying Essential Standards, and previews the complete six-step process.

Prioritizing certain standards over others does not mean eliminating those standards that do not "make the cut" into the Essential Standards category. Prioritizing the standards has nothing whatsoever to do with "lowering the bar," and everything to do with focus. It is about "less being more". The difference lies in the degree of focus given to certain standards over others.

Identifying Essential Standards is not an irresponsible recommendation to ignore any standards not designated as priorities. It is imperative to continually remind everyone in the school and district community, "The Essential Standards are not all we teach," even while allocating the greatest amount of instruction and assessment time to those standards determined to be essential for student success in current and succeeding grade levels. I always advise educators and school leaders to continually communicate to everyone this message: "Prioritization, not elimination!"

Certainly, all standards must be taught. The less rigorous supporting standards are a necessary first step in building students' foundational understanding that will lead to their eventual attainment of the Essential Standards.

So, how do educators select these all-important Essential Standards and distinguish them from supporting standards?
SELECTION CRITERIA ARE A MUST!
Educators approach the prioritization process with questions: "Which standards do we choose as the priorities? How do we decide? What happens when we don't agree?"

Without a definite set of selection criteria to prioritize standards, teachers who lack proven strategies for managing the volume of standards will often "pick and choose" those standards to emphasize based on what they like to teach, what they have instructional materials for, what they think students need to know and be able to do the following year, and/or standards they believe/know are most likely to appear on the state test. This leads to inconsistencies between and among educators as to which standards are emphasized, and which are not. Without using specific selection criteria for prioritization, everyone will probably choose (and emphasize) different standards from those of their colleagues.

Meeting together in grade-alike or course-alike teams, the prioritization process relies upon continual collaboration between and among teachers across the PK-12 spectrum. To prevent differing professional opinions from getting in the way of reaching a consensus as to which standards to choose as priorities, educators identify through in-depth discussion the standards that meet specific criteria. These established

REAL criteria objectify the selection process:

(prerequisite concepts and skills students need to enter a new grade level or course of study). Educators especially think about the importance of this question: "Will proficiency of this standard provide our students with the essential knowledge and skills that are necessary for future success-in school, in life, and on state tests?"

(lasting beyond one grade or course; concepts and skills needed in life). Participating educators discuss this question: "Will proficiency of this standard provide students with the knowledge and skills that will be of value beyond the present?" For example, being proficient in reading informational texts and being able to write effectively for a variety of purposes across all grades and content areas are skills that will endure throughout a student's academic career as well as later in life.

ssessments or External(preparedness for standardized tests). Educators want to emphasize concepts and skills in the standards that students are most likely to encounter on annual state assessments, college entrance exams, and occupational competency exams.

(crossover application within the content area and to other content areas-interdisciplinary connections). For example, proficiency in creating and interpreting graphs, diagrams, and charts and then being able to make accurate inferences from them will help students in math, science, social studies, language arts, and many other areas. Similarly, the ability to write an analytical summary or a persuasive essay will help students in every academic discipline.
MORE COMPREHENSIVE OR RIGOROUS
Standards that meet all four of these established criteria qualify as Essential Standards. In addition, when considering whether to select one standard over another as being "essential", I always recommend that teachers discuss and decide which one is the more comprehensive or rigorous-not the one that is more foundational. I then hear teachers saying to one another as they look closely at the standards, "If students could do this more challenging one, then they would certainly be able to do this other one."

These preliminary selections are not "set in stone", however. One of the great benefits of the prioritization process is how it relies upon professional discussions. The goal is for participating educators to reach an initial consensus regarding the Essential Standards they select, according to the four criteria. However, there will be opportunities to modify and change their preliminary selections along the way, particularly during the PK-12 alignment step (described fully in Part 3 of this series) when participants look to see how the selected priorities at one grade level align with the priorities selected at the grade levels below and at the grade levels above.
THE SIX-STEP ESSENTIAL STANDARD PROCESS
During Essential Standards workshops, educators follow a linear, step-by-step process to first select and then align Essential Standards from one grade to the next, PK-12. This alignment across the grades ensures a logical progression of those identified priorities from primary grades through high school grades and courses.

There are six Essential Standards process steps. Educators engage in the first two steps to select the Essential Standards. They then align the selected Essential Standards across the grades (Step 3) and confirm their selections by referring to state assessment information process (Step 4). All educators who were not involved in the initial selection process need to have a shared voice in finalizing the Essential Standards (Step 5) that are then published and distributed for use throughout the school district (Step 6).
Step 1: Step 2: Step 3: Step 4: Step 5: Step 6: ASSURED STUDENT COMPETENCIES Revise, publish, distribute. Review annually to make changes or adjustments as needed. Acquire feedback from all school district educators. Look for connections to external assessments (i.e., state tests). Align Essential Standards PK-12. Resolve uncertainties. Reach group consensus. Bold selections for each grade or course on Google sheets or Excel spreadsheets. Make initial selections using the four selection criteria. Reach initial consensus.
This sensible approach is far more likely to prepare students for successful attainment of the standards at each of the next grade levels. In this way, educators can strive to ensure that all students acquire the Essential Standards as grade- and course-specific " assured student competencies ". In this aptly worded phrase, "assured" simply means, "guaranteed", and "competencies" are synonymous with "proficiencies".

Essential Standards represent the "end game" of what students need to know and be able to demonstrate by the end of each grade level and course. This is why end-of-unit assessments are designed to primarily reveal student understanding of the Essential Standards-so that students can provide credible (reliable, valid) assessment evidence that they have indeed demonstrated competency in those standards that their teachers have determined to be the most critical for all students to learn.

For more in-depth information on Essential Standards, here's the link to Volume One of my Integrated Teaching and Learning series: https://www.larryainsworth-claritypathway.com/books and to the Essential Standards workshops at https://www.larryainsworth-claritypathway.com/workshops

For continuing information about all the "timeless essentials" for creating integrated units of study, I hope you will follow me on Facebook, Linked In, and/or Instagram!

I am always happy to answer questions you may have about Essential Standards and any of the other "timeless essentials" presented in the three-volume series. Please feel free to contact me at larry@larryainsworth.com .

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Prioritization, Not Elimination! Preview the complete six-step process:

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Part 2 of this blog series strongly points out the importance of " prioritizing, not eliminating " any standards, describes how educators are using the long-established criteria for identifying Essential Standards, and previews the complete six-step process. Prioritizing certain standards over others does not mean eliminating those standards that do not "make the cut" into the Essential Standards category.

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Simple Articulation Strategy: 5 Ins and 5 Outs

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Catlin, Teachers are now identifying their "ins and outs" during their PLCs. Question: How do you best facilitate Part 2 when they get back together and view the other grade level's ins and outs? I thought I would post them in order in the library by subjects and grade level.

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Get access to files anywhere through secure cloud storage and file backup for your photos, videos, files and more with Google Drive.

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What insights, noticings and wonderings did our discussions around the learning charts surface for you and/or your team?

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Where is your team in our process and what is realistic to accomplish together before January 28th?

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What support and resources would help your team reach your next steps?

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Power Standards: Focusing on the Essential - Just ASK Publications

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Volume V, Issue III Download PDF Subscribe Heather Clayton, the author of Making the Standards Come Alive!, is the principal of Mendon Center Elementary School in Pittsford Central School District, New York. She is also a co-author of Creating a Culture for Learning published by Just ASK. Power Standards: Focusing on the Essential “If everything is important, then nothing is.” – Patrick Lencioni Each day, teachers are faced with the […]

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TISA Aero standards vertical alignment template

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TISA Aero standards vertical alignment template

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ELA essential standards for P3-10th

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ELA Vertical Alignment Recording Documents

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Protocols for Vertical Alignment (within and between bands)

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Protocols for Vertical Alignment (within and between bands)

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K-12 ELA Priority Standards Vertical Alignment Protocols

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 TISA Design Team Session 4: Vertical Alignment

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6-12 ELA Vertical Alignment example (Escola Concept Schools, Brazil)

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6-12 ELA Vertical Alignment example (Escola Concept Schools, Brazil)

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This is one example from a school I work with. They use the Common Core standards, thought it would be helpful to see how they approached it.

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Copy of SP 2026 ELA - MS/HS - Escola Concept - Language & Literacy Std. Checklist

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4. End of session: Next steps for your team

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4. End of session: Next steps for your team

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Final Reflection Questions:

What are your team's next steps? (please add your team name to reply)

What support do you and/or your team need?