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Establishing Your School or District's Reason to Map (ASCD) 

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Establishing Your School or District's Reason to Map (ASCD) 

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Sample: Social Studies, Grade 2 - Connecticut (Atlas Rubicon) 

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Sample: Social Studies, Grade 2 - Connecticut (Atlas Rubicon) 

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Sample: Grade 3 - ELA - Pennsylvania ELA 

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Sample: Grade 3 - ELA - Pennsylvania ELA 

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SAMPLE: Evolution: Are We to Blame? (9th Grade) 

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SAMPLE: Evolution: Are We to Blame? (9th Grade) 

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 Evolution: Are We to Blame? Board Presentation 

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Center for the Professional Education of Teachers

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By ROBERTA LENGER KANG

When the back to school sales are at their peak, students and parents are picking out the cutest notebooks and the coolest backpacks. Meanwhile, educators are feeling the pressure and anxiety that comes with the start of the school year - particularly as they think about their curriculum.

Different school communities and districts have different approaches to designing curriculum. Some purchase big box curriculum sets with prescribed lessons, while others have the opportunity to design their own, which can be exciting - and also a bit daunting.

Cultivating a course curriculum is one of the most important and most complicated tasks for educators. It requires deep content knowledge and an accurate anticipation of student ability throughout the school year. Teachers need to differentiate the most important content and the most important skills in the most effective sequence - all while knowing that the decision to teach one thing is also the decision not to teach a hundred other things. The pressure to plan it in just the right way can be overwhelming.

This process will always be a challenge, but it doesn't have to be painful! In our curriculum-focused coaching projects, we support educators as they examine, design, implement, and refine customized or adapted curricula. Each educator and classroom is unique, but curriculum planning often brings up common questions. Below are some of the most frequently asked questions we hear from educators as we support them in the planning process.

What goes into a curriculum map?

A well-developed curriculum map should provide an overview of the course at-a-glance. Maps are most valuable when they include a clear picture of the course goals, how those goals intersect with the content knowledge, thinking skills, relevant standards, and a plan for assessments. Here's a good checklist for a curriculum map:
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Sequence of units aligned chronologically (Unit 1, 2, 3 . . . Marking period 1, 2, 3 . . . Quarter 1, 2, 3)

Course goals (Teaching objectives, essential questions, enduring understandings)

Content knowledge (Key concepts, topics, themes, or vocabulary)

Thinking skills (Critical thinking skills, or academic skills)

Relevant standards (Reference to 2 -3 relevant standards to the unit)

Assessments (Brief description of the formative and summative assessments for each unit)

What's the difference between a curriculum map and a unit plan?

A curriculum map provides an overview or summary of the course, while a unit plan provides the details needed to develop each individual lesson. A unit plan may include specific resources to use in a particular unit, a pacing calendar that outlines the learning goals for each week or each day, lists of vocabulary words, and a plan for differentiating instruction for different learners. Unit plans tend to be longer and include more explicit plans that illustrate the arc of the unit and provide the necessary details to develop daily lesson plans.

There is a critical distinction between the curriculum map as an overview and the unit plan as the detailed guide to support lesson planning. Curriculum maps that include unit plan-level details often become massive documents that are difficult to read. They can become a dumping ground for edu-speak-jargon that doesn't really mean anything. As educators, we want to remember that these documents are tools to support and facilitate our planning process. If they don't do that, they aren't ultimately very valuable.

How much detail should be included?

When it comes to the curriculum map, we want to include information clearly and succinctly, which means we can eliminate jargon or unnecessary details. For example, it's valuable to list relevant standards on a curriculum map because it will give a picture of how all standards are being addressed throughout the school year and how they're sequenced within each unit. However, standards often have a lot of very specific, formal language. Simply copying and pasting the entire standard into the curriculum map is thorough, but not always helpful. It isn't reasonable to expect that anyone will read with that level of specificity, it isn't particularly helpful to teachers who need to see these standards broken down in the unit plan, and it can become extremely repetitive if the units utilize the same standards. In these situations, we recommend using the standard code, and summarizing the standard in a short phrase or sentence. This provides a simple and clear alignment with the standard, demonstrates the educator's understanding of the standard, and keeps the information focused and clear. The same rule can be applied in other categories as well.

How should the map be formatted?

Formatting is often a personal choice, and different people prefer different styles. We recommend using a horizontal chart with a column for each critical component, and a row for each unique unit. The value of this format is the at-a-glance nature. If we can read from left to right along a row, we're getting an overview of each unit in the course. When we can complete the curriculum map in 1-2 pages, we get a good picture of the course goals and the sequence of learning the students will experience. This allows the curriculum map to act as a touchstone planning tool for teachers, and becomes a great document to share with school leaders, parents, and even students.

Can curriculum maps be changed?

One of the things that makes writing curriculum a daunting task is the sense of its permanence. It makes sense to want to keep the curriculum fluid, as the most effective teaching is influenced by a wide range of variables like current events, student cohorts, and shifts or changes in the field. The fear of permanence can often become a justification for not creating a curriculum map. But the benefits of long-term planning, for teachers especially, cannot be underestimated.

The most effective curriculum maps are living documents that provide planning support to teachers throughout the year and communicate the intentions of the course to others (administrators, parents, students, other teachers). We recommend that teachers regularly reflect on their lessons and unit plans as they're implementing the curriculum so that they can make adjustments, remember what worked and what didn't, and update the curriculum as necessary. We revisit our curriculum over the summer or at the beginning of the school year to account for the learning of the previous year.

What are the steps I should follow to make a curriculum map?

In the curriculum mapping process, we see a relatively consistent approach that favors backwards planning, which suggests that teachers should first determine the end point (the ultimate goal or final assessment) and then plan backwards from there. This process is meant to create a clear alignment between content, skills, and instruction.

If this process works for you, use it! The problem is that this process doesn't apply to all teachers or all situations. When it doesn't work, it can create major obstacles in the development process. Our recommendation is to start with what you know, generate your ideas based on any entry point you can find, and fill in the blanks along the way. Then, reflect and revise on the plan from an alignment perspective to ensure that the planning process maintains instructional integrity.

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Cultivating a course curriculum is one of the most important and most complicated tasks for educators. It requires deep content knowledge and an accurate anticipation of student ability throughout the school year.

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CHECKLIST: Implementing Curriculum Mapping 

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CHECKLIST: Implementing Curriculum Mapping 

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CHECKLIST: Curriculum Mapping Implementation_HHJ  

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Building the Future Now: What to Cut? Keep? Create?  

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Building the Future Now: What to Cut? Keep? Create?  

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As the school year is winding to a close and everyone is desperate for a break, looking toward the opening of school next year is already causing unease. Throughout the world, educators face a critical challenge: how to design aspirational and future forward (post-pandemic) learning experiences rather than a temporary fix (triage). In our first blogpost in this four part series, we proposed the importance of beginning with input from students, parents, and teachers about what they are experiencing, what lessons they are learning, and what they will need moving into the next school year. We also looked at factors to mull over what will matter most in the planning for the year rather than jumping onto the "let's pick up where we left off" bandwagon.

How can we shape curriculum right now that will best serve our learners for the future?

This blogpost is centered on two key steps to assist decision makers, learners, and families as they make this determination: development of future forward learning goals and using those goals as a north star to examine and clarify curriculum choices. This work can provide a balcony view to clarify broader learning goals that ideally guide day to day learning choices that teachers and students make-goals that take the long view on determining the strength, approaches, life-skills, and aptitudes needed to support our learners.

For teachers in the identification, creation, and/or redesign of compelling problems, questions, and challenges that can give insight into a refreshed curriculum storyline. Otherwise we are more likely to recycle what we have immediately in front of us, to cover old material, and to miss an opportunity.

For students as they are becoming more skillful, sophisticated, and strategic throughout their school years. This is especially helpful now when students may feel increased pressure/anxiety in anticipation of pace of learning to "catch up" for what was missed.

For the school community in reaching consensus on realistic priorities will be central to our efforts. Otherwise, there may be a tendency to go for the granular, memorize some facts, scramble to construct where "we left off." It is critical to reach consensus as a school community on learning goals that will serve as a North Star to decision making.

STEP 1: DEVELOPMENT OF FUTURE FORWARD LEARNING GOALS

What These Meta-Level Learning Goals Are

Future Forward Learning Goals are overarching, and transdisciplinary. We developed key criteria for these learning goals as well as a few illustrative examples.

Reasonable number and scope to capture all aspects of a learner's life. Goals should cover the range of skills, behaviors, and dispositions that we seek in the long run. We have found that limiting to 10 may be a helpful barometer (not a hard fast rule).

Apply to the range of topics and challenges that learners encounter in all corners of school life-curricular, social, and personal investigations. These lend themselves to both transdisciplinary and subject-specific tasks that can honor existing curricular choices as well as open up the design table to more meaningfully include students.

Describe desired complexity and sophistication. These goals can then be broken down in grade level bands for instruction and coaching.

Provide clarity for your target audience(s). We need to pay closer attention to how well we communicate about what we mean when we use broad generalizations. Fuzzy language implies fuzzy thinking.

The following examples that were drafted in partnership with Bena Kallick illustrate each of the key criteria listed above.

Seek to investigate challenging contemporary global and local issues by pursuing questions or a line of thinking.

Use design thinking and other processes to develop solutions, findings, prototypes, performances, and media.

Navigate through diverse sources and perspectives to make discerning and thoughtful judgments.

Generate, enrich, and craft communication through the strategic use of evidence and command of language.

Share stories, ideas, and points of view to engage others to think interdependently and potentially act collectively.

Think flexibly, take responsible risks, and listen with understanding and empathy as they engage with the world.

Establish nomenclature. It may be that your school elects to give these Future Forward Learning Goals a "name" to stake out the ownership and engagement of your community. We encourage you to do so. Whether these are your Meta Level Goals, Essential Learning Goals or North Star Learning Goals, it is important that they belong to your community and will serve as guideposts to make wise decisions moving forward.

Examine Established Learning Goals as a possible starting point. Right now is a rich opportunity to challenge our thinking about what we truly value through the process of crafting of Future Forward Learning Goals. It is not necessary to start from scratch. For example, many school communities and have crafted descriptions of what a Portrait of a Graduate should demonstrate/look like. These descriptions are in the spirit of what McTighe and Wiggins call "transfer goals"-goals that will be important not only within the life of school but also in their lives well beyond school. We know that these goals reflect college and career readiness, part of the driving force for developing these goals. There are clear meta-level learning goals embedded in IB's Approaches to Learning that serve naturally to guide decision making. There is also a rich source for essential goal setting in the introductory statements of purpose focused on life-long goals for learners in most standards whether through a national, state, or provincial organization. If you already are using one of these models reaffirm and reimagine them to reflect the times.

Gather insight and information directly from all members of the school community. Focus on student agency-having their voices inform what they learn, where they learn, how they learn, and how they demonstrate learning-have been the heart of global conversation with personalized learning for close to ten years. During the current triage phase of our response to COVID19, parents viewed first hand the impact of remote learning had on their children. Lessons are being learned at home right now that are central to planning ahead. Now is the time to pay close attention to our learners and harvest recommendations. In our previous blogpost, we recommended Virtual School Community Summits to bring the community together. Whether the summit takes place in a virtual town hall format or whether it is organized in smaller "zoom room" discussion groups, the mix of parents, learners, and educators seems critical. Certainly thoughtful surveys that encourage specific and actionable suggestions can prove fruitful. An invitation to articulate essential high priority learning goals can be integrated into discussions and into survey forms. We also recommend following a project called #JustAskUs supported by the National Parents Union, Student Voice -Prichard Committee, High Tech High, AERO, Big Picture Learning that is developing tools and approaches to directly engage learners in contributing their voice and perspective in reimagining education now and into the post-pandemic period. The title is inspired by Heather Wolport-Gawron's book, Just Ask Us: Kids Speak Out on Student Engagement, published by Corwin. If you wish further information contact the project coordinator: Masa Uzicanin

Generate new Learning Goals. Based on our current experience in triage mode, the need for new or refreshed learning goals has gained clarity. While most schools value d the idea of growing self-direction in students with the move to full-time remote learning, the urgency of growing this capacity has become more paramount. We move d to name a specific element of self-direction, self-management as a way to move from the broader, generalized statement which, in turn, generated the following future forward learning goal.
Develop self-management skills by making choices for learning and monitoring thinking.

Take a bigger challenge and break it down into smaller, doable increments.

Set goals and monitor/revise them as needed to optimize clarity, viability, and motivation.

Experiment with time management structures to balance focus on task at hand with brain breaks, meeting deadlines, and staying motivated by my thinking.

Another example that is typically highlighted in many Graduate of a Profile statements is collaboration. To clarify this goal, we suggest bringing community voices to engage in conversation about when and under what conditions they feel they can connect and contribute most effectively.
Engage deliberately and cultivate relationships with all members of the school community to build on, better understand, and be influenced by one another's ideas and perspectives.
Collaboration is a dynamic between the way people interact and the work they need to accomplish. Many schools often focus on the management of a task to achieve a common objective rather than the relationships that invite social construction. We moved to draft a future forward learning goal that values both.

Adapt with increasing skill by communicating with others in a given network to develop more effective thinking by listening and questioning.

Recognize how positive relationships impact motivation, openness to new ideas, and connection to the work.

Adhere to norms and demonstrates respectful behaviors as one engages with others to help maintain a safe environment that invites all to participate.

STEP 2: DETERMINING WHAT TO CUT OUT, WHAT TO CUT BACK, WHAT TO CONSOLIDATE, AND WHAT TO CREATE

Armed with a thoughtful and powerful set of Future Forward Learning Goals, the following is a process for examining existing curriculum to determine what matters most for your learners. While this "weeding" may be painful for some, it is imperative that there is consensus so relieve pressure for coverage and provide more space to generate new ideas with students. We have provided the following graphic organizer to help clarify the process:

Future Forward Curriculum Planning Process

First, examine and clarify your current curriculum narrative.

1. Compile existing units of study from your curriculum. Ideally, this can be done in grade level bands (e.g., K-1, 6-8) to ensure the choices you want to make do not put undue pressure on other grade levels to capture essential content. Working in departments on the high school level is obviously important, but it is also equally important to review across a grade level to see what the challenges will be for learners attempting to juggle multiple demands.

2. Examine each one and tell a brief story (thumbnail synopsis) of that unit. Why does it exist? What is the essential learning students will be able to continue to develop and transfer when that unit is over? What are the most critical standards to be in the foreground?

3. Review the storyline through the scope of the year. Are there connections between the units? What does your curriculum value the most?

Could you cut out unit(s) of study to make room for deeper investigation and development of key concepts and skills?
Second, ask yourselves the following questions:

In any composition there is an editorial review where the question of "cutting" material is central to the whole. What matters most given the time that we have for our specific learners with our specific conditions, we must govern how we decide. The unique situation we are facing, will dictate significantly different learning conditions is a sensible element in our deliberations. (Shortened academic calendar, staggered classroom schedules, alternative attendance on-site if it occurs in your location, increased on-line learning demand).

To be clear, when cutting units it will be critical to examine standards that were emphasized in a unit. Given that standards are cultivated over time, it is likely that the faculty teams can readily identify the most critical standards that have been in the "foreground" in the design of learning experiences. It is always a concern to us when we see a unit of study with 30 standards listed (this is not an exaggeration) since these proficiencies take time to develop. Bundling standards that naturally cluster together in student learning is a natural way to align assessments. A faculty team can look at bundled and individual standards to sort out which are the most essential to their specific learners and those that are not.

Could you cut back each unit of study significantly? It is highly likely that educators have already made key decisions to cut back during this current curricular planning Triage phase of COVID19 as of this writing. Given the abruptness of moving to a total online environment over the past weeks, lesson planning may have been arbitrary and left to each teacher. Curricular decisions may have been orchestrated with others in a school, grade level team, department or the process could have reflected both approaches.

Moving forward we suggest your planning teams review the "thumbnail" story of the curriculum through the year to determine places where they may elect to cut back and distinguish the most essential from the less critical material in their units. The task is to distinguish the most essential elements in the curriculum and place them in the foreground.
Could you create a new unit or module to replace this altogether?

Skills: Given the importance of cognitive and technical skills in the long term growth of learners, teachers will want to elevate critical skills integral in supporting students within a given discipline as well as sub skills tied to Future Forward Learning Goals.

Content cuts: Materials, information, facts, subtopics that are non-essential should be cut given the larger aims and goals of the unit. The tendency to "cover" content needs to be confronted in order to move forward. Distinguishing content that directly supports and is central to the Future Forward Learning Goals and storyline might prove to be a great challenge but also a rewarding one. Of particular value will be to proactively have our learners show the connections between the key content and that storyline as the curriculum develops. In our previous we referenced The Big History Project , which takes a big picture view of key concepts through history where learners construct a narrative based on those key conceptual ideas rather than simply diving into minutiae. The approach exemplifies how your team might step back and layout the conceptual framework that is accessible to learners in any course or learning program. To be clear, the review of these cuts will be ongoing once the new school year commences whether on-site or on-line or both.

Assessment cuts: Evidence of learning is bedrock to the design of learning experiences. Coupled with meaningful feedback, our learners can progress in their development. Considerations and decisions about what formative and summative assessments will be the most revealing and helpful demonstrations of learning should be determined as a faculty both across grade levels and vertically. Certainly the impact of state or provincial requirements for public educators and education organization policies (i.e. College Board, IB) is a major factor in decision making. Bottom line, if there are cuts in the curriculum then there will be corresponding cuts in the assessments.

Could you consolidate based on units of study and personal learning progress during the remote learning time?
Have a curriculum that has been consistent for at least 2 years? You could start here.

Given the nature of your course or grade level subject area layout, if there are related and clear connections between units then combining them is possible. To consolidate means an existing unit as a teacher reviews and revises elements and activities based on past experience. Certainly to combine elements to make a more effective coherent whole. On a practical review of the scope and sequence of a year's units, we can step back and not only determine what we might cut and where we might cut back, but where we can merge units of study. Consolidation can certainly occur

It may be that a geology course in a high school begins with a look at the formation of the earth as a planet for the first unit and in the second examines oceans and the third unit looks at land. It seems that these three could be combined to shorten the time and be reframed to look at the early story of planet earth: beginnings and elements.

On the elementary level, a fourth grade ELA curriculum might have a sequence that moves from a unit on historical fiction focused on a chapter book perhaps Number the Stars by Lois Lowry , to a unit on persuasive writing on an issue. It seems plausible to combine those two and consider having students take a stand on a critical issue raised in Lowry's classic work.

interdisciplinary units of study can be a fruitful design consideration when consolidating.
Have a standards-based report card? You could start here.

Generating new curriculum units responsive to the learners and to the zeitgeist is an option that seems particularly relevant. Certainly new units could be interdisciplinary derived from a reconsideration of your existing layout for the school year. A deliberate lens from multiple subject areas on common topics, problems, issues, and themes could provide a fresh perspective for learners. We strongly recommend the development of phenomena-based learning supporting inquiry into emergent problems and issues in a students life. These might be framed on a personal, local, or global level but what is key is there is an immediacy to the situation. (NOTE: Interdisciplinary units emerge from the natural connections we see "between disciplines", that is between the subjects. Phenomona-based is not anchored in our traditional school day but transcends the notion. We are not suggesting one is "better than the other", rather we hope to provide a menu of options as units are generated) .
A key organizing focus could be phenomena-based given the emergent issues regarding the pandemic. Whether an individual unit or a series of units, learners could examine the impact personally, locally, or globally. Certainly developmental considerations need to be primary here. Here are some examples:

On all levels, learners can document and share their experience both from the onset of the restrictions and the closing of on-site school to the present in their transition to school (whatever form that might take). The unit could be COVID19: My Story, Your Story, Our Stories

Secondary students can dive into an examination of the pandemic and/or consider specific angles. For example, as contemporary historians they might develop an annotated timeline since the first reports in November 2019 from China to the present. As journalists they could "cover" certain angles on the pandemic in a series of articles: the point of view of essential workers, impact on a range of families in the community or, the challenge to local government and decision making. Clearly, an area of fascination for all of us is the scientific research and scramble to develop treatments and a vaccine and certainly for our learners that could be covered in an empirical style.

Elementary students might engage and develop service based learning projects to thank local health care and essential service providers. Whether in the form of written communication or in a short video message, gratitude is appreciated and it is important to display. What is more, it may be possible to actually provide concrete support to members of the local community as the adaptation and easing into functional society occurs.

Leading Future Forward Curriculum Analysis, Revision, and Reimagining

This process needs to be implemented with all deliberate speed to develop a solid draft that functions as a rudder to help steer turbulent waters of where, when, and how learning happens in 2020-21. In teaming configurations whether grade level, grade level clusters (i.e.-K-2, 3-5, 9-10), department, or interdisciplinary teams, teachers can meet to review their upcoming plans. Likely to be virtual in nature, these formal reviews will be focused on making collective proposals on what to cut out, cut back, consolidate, and create informed by the Future Learning Goals. Using a collaborative decision making model, leadership in a school or district can coordinate these efforts, document them and share them. Transparency is critical.

Here are two possible starting points to begin the review process:

If your school utilizes curriculum mapping on a software platform, your teams can make a deliberate and formal walkthrough of your units and scope and sequence to make determinations about what to cut out, cut back, consolidate, and create.

Examine curriculum vertically to identify primary areas of fluency that are vital when students engage in more ambiguous and complex problems. For example, in math: Performs multiplication with multi-digit whole numbers.

Teams may want to utilize standards to inform grade level decisions and coordinate vertical choices. What is in the foreground of our subjects given the need to prioritize without putting undue pressures on other grade levels.

Pay particular attention to growing skill development either within a subject or transdisciplinary. For example, here is a sample from a Grade 1 Writing Report Card. The same focus areas are repeated on the report card through Grade 6.

Writing is focused; purpose is clear.

Writing includes details and descriptive words.

Writing is organized.

Writing demonstrates basic sentence structure.

Writing uses grade-level conventions of standard English.

Consider how these focus areas support one to draft a Future Forward Learning Goal in formal communication. For example: Crafts a purposeful and polished text in a given genre for a target audience.

Then, grade level or vertical department teams can make informed choices as to what genres to pay attention to both timeless and familiar ones (e.g., poetry, fairy tales, informational statements) as well as contemporary ones (e.g., interviews, emails, virtual chats).
Part 2: Part 3 (COMING SOON): Assessment and the Return to School: Engaging Student Voice, Self-monitoring, Meaningful Demonstrations, and Feedback Part 4 (COMING SOON): Responsive Return Strategies: Crafting Fresh Approaches to Schedules, Grouping of students and teachers and Shaping both physical and virtual learning spaces Building the Future Now: Deciding What to Cut, What to Keep and What to Create
Wrapping Up and Looking Ahead

Decisions on curriculum matters have never been easy. Educators know that there are certain units of study and learning experiences that are particularly satisfying to teach and are hard to let go. There can be sharp differences of opinion on what matters most for learners between members of a grade level team or department. Conversely, there are great opportunities for collaboration and responsiveness to the needs, especially now, as we work through these decisions. Perhaps there is guidance in looking to the Latin root word for curriculum, which means a path to run in small steps. The familiarity with this path creates ruts that become deeper and make it more difficult to see with fresh eyes. As school faculties lay out a reimagined path in partnership with their learners and families, the opportunity it to leverage specific expertise in service to common and aspirational learning goals. Moving forward into the months ahead, future forward learning goals and a collaborative planning process will inform our choices on what to cut, what to keep, what to create in the curriculum.

In our next blogpost, Part 3 in our series*, we will consider the most meaningful demonstrations of learning to consider as students return to school in light of our future forward learning goals. How might we meet the challenge of determining their readiness to return both academically and emotionally? What types of feedback and grading makes sense as we review student formative and summative assessment? How will we develop self-navigating and self-monitoring skills that have already proven to be critical in remote learning?

*NOTE: We will explore the range of options and key considerations that school leaders, learners, and families might examine as they move forward in our four-part blog series on the Transition.

Part 1: How Will We Return to School? Curriculum Choices in the Face of COVID19.

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Building the Future Now: Deciding What to Cut, What to Keep and What to Create - Learning Personalized

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As the school year is winding to a close and everyone is desperate for a break, looking toward the opening of school next year is already causing unease. Throughout the world, educators face a critical challenge: how to design aspirational and future forward (post-pandemic) learning experiences rather than a temporary fix (triage).

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To process a transaction with a Purchase Order please send to member@ascd.org

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When students clearly understand classroom expectations, they're better able to assess and improve their performance.

Photo by Allison Shelley for American Education: Images of Teachers and Students in Action

The third-grade classroom is busy. Students are in the middle of making slime, and you can sense the level of engagement across the class. The teacher is working very hard to make sure that students are clear on the goals of learning: to understand the relationships between solids, liquids, and gases. The students can see success criteria posted on the wall and examples of successful work spread across the room. Visiting teachers are engaging in random checks of understanding to ensure that students are clear on expectations.

As part of the school's improvement process, teachers and principals are visiting classrooms and interviewing students on their understanding of the expectations of learning, the students' self assessment on their progress, and what next steps they need to take to meet established goals. The team was in the third-grade classroom and filmed student interviews; they discussed the key findings with the teacher after class.

Here are samples of two interviews of students in the same classroom.

Teacher: What are you learning?

Student: We're learning about slime.

Teacher: How do you know if you are successful?

Student: We don't want the slime to stick to us.

Teacher: What are you learning?

Student: We're learning about solids, liquids, and gases.

Teacher: How do you know if you are successful?

Student: We can define and relate each phase. Right now we're learning about solids, liquids, and gases by creating slime.

The teacher is doing great things. The question is whether all students are following the teacher's lead. Building student clarity is a constant pursuit: We never arrive, but it's worth our focus.

Clarity Research Snapshot

When students are clear on expectations of learning, they tend to double their rate of learning. Moreover, when students are clear on expectations, they have a better chance of assessing their current performance and using feedback accurately. As John Hattie explains in Visible Learning, self assessment, feedback, and student clarity yield substantial growth in student learning. Yet the implementation of this idea is extremely difficult.

Let's take a look at some challenges and solutions to implementation.

Challenge 1. Novices don't really understand rubrics: Experts love rubrics because the bullet points clearly delineate the core expectations that they want students to learn. Novices don't fully appreciate the bullet points because they simply don't have a concrete example of what's written. As such, they scan the tool for items that are familiar to them: activities (such as getting into groups), tasks (such as completing six problems correctly), and contexts (such as exploring bridges). Because of this scanning for the familiar, students begin thinking about group work, assignment completion, and bridges and are therefore less likely to be any clearer on the standards they're learning about.

To focus students on the actual learning, teachers are encouraged to start with examples of great work that meets the expectations of the teacher. The more students see examples of great work in multiple contexts, the better able students are to use rubrics to evaluate their own work as well as to give, receive, and use feedback. This also makes it easier for them to focus on the core content that the teacher is after.

Challenge 2. Telling people the expectations clearly doesn't mean the expectations are clear to them: As a school leader, I have found that simply sending a clear message to people doesn't ensure that they are clear on my message. Almost every message I send must be followed up with clarifying emails, meetings with parents and/or faculty, and a series of communication check-ins. As such, developing clarity isn't one way. Clarity is interactive and built through multiple engagements.

Providing students with work samples that illustrate success

Asking students to identify the parts of the work sample that make it successful (i.e., criteria for success)

Writing out the criteria for success with students

Co-construction is an interactive process that enables students to build clarity of expectations. Co-construction is the active involvement of building success criteria with students rather than presenting success criteria to students. Here is one example of co-construction:

Use the fishbowl protocol to share their feedback, and process the accuracy of the feedback to the expectations of the lesson or unit

Begin units with discussions on what mastery looks like, and have students evaluate the differences between various levels of mastery

Challenge 3. The classroom is mostly hidden from teachers, and students give each other inaccurate feedback: As Graham Nuthall tells us in The Hidden Lives of Learners, the majority of the classroom experience is hidden from the teacher's observation. In the hidden classroom, kids typically give and receive most of the feedback to and from their peers, and most of that feedback is incorrect. To address this, we should consider having students do the following:

Students' achievement and attitude improve when they have the tools to own their own learning. As educators, it's up to us to provide those tools.

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Making Learning Targets Clear to Students

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When students clearly understand classroom expectations, they're better able to assess and improve their performance.

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Formative assessment

The goal of formative assessment is to monitor student learning to provide ongoing feedback that can be used by instructors to improve their teaching and by students to improve their learning. More specifically, formative assessments:

help students identify their strengths and weaknesses and target areas that need work

help faculty recognize where students are struggling and address problems immediately

Formative assessments are generally low stakes, which means that they have low or no point value. Examples of formative assessments include asking students to:

draw a concept map in class to represent their understanding of a topic

submit one or two sentences identifying the main point of a lecture

turn in a research proposal for early feedback

Summative assessment

The goal of summative assessment is to evaluate student learning at the end of an instructional unit by comparing it against some standard or benchmark.

Summative assessments are often high stakes, which means that they have a high point value. Examples of summative assessments include:

Information from summative assessments can be used formatively when students or faculty use it to guide their efforts and activities in subsequent courses.

CONTACT US to talk with an Eberly colleague in person!

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Formative vs Summative Assessment - Eberly Center - Carnegie Mellon University

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Human-centered formative assessment drives long-term, holistic success for students. Because there is still confusion around this type of assessment, let's explore what it is and why it should be a part of our responsive teaching and learning cycles.

"Formative assessment" defined

As an organization, NWEA subscribes to the revised definition from CCSSO: "Formative assessment is a planned, ongoing process used by all students and teachers during learning and teaching to elicit and use evidence of student learning to improve student understanding of intended disciplinary learning outcomes and support students to become self-directed learners."

Let's take a closer look at the key phrases in that definition:

"Planned, ongoing process." Formative assessment is a continuous, low- or no-stakes, responsive process comprised of practices, methods, and tools that are selected to support all students in reaching challenging learning goals. Teachers and students collaborate to use this kind of assessment in responsive ways that positively impact learners and learning. They partner to know and respond to strengths, interests, and needs.

"All students and teachers during learning and teaching." Formative assessment is a collaborative learning process happening "with" students, not "to" students.

"Elicit and use evidence of student learning." Formative assessment processes capture levels of knowledge and skill along the learning journey so teachers and students can make small, immediate, impactful decisions to support well-being, learning-goal achievement, and self-efficacy. Using formative assessment evidence is appropriate for making decisions during the practice phases of learning; formative assessment scores are not appropriate for calculating grades or for making placement decisions.

"Support students to become self-directed learners." This type of assessment includes students as active agents in the learning journey, which fuels learning and agency in learning environments and beyond. Engaging students in goal setting is a great way to do this.

What does formative assessment look like?

Little is required to start formative assessment processes because they can begin with a variety of methods and tools. Instead of specific programs, supplies, or resources, effective processes involve partnering with students to incorporate the following five practices into cycles of responsive teaching and learning.

Clarifying learning goals and success criteria within a broader progression of learning. Students should have context for what they're learning: why they're learning it, how it connects to previous lessons and their own interests, and what success looks like. Having goal clarity, purpose, and a path promotes student motivation and agency.

Eliciting and analyzing evidence of student thinking. Whether it's capturing ideas on a whiteboard, responding to an online survey, or giving a thumbs-up or down in response to a check for understanding, an effective process centers on knowing learning goals, then gathering, interpreting, and responding to learning-goal evidence.

Engaging in self-assessment and peer feedback. This type of assessment is more than providing feedback from teacher to student. As I explained in "The importance of student self-assessment," having students reflect on their progress helps them become active participants in their learning. The process should also involve students collaborating with each other, asking questions, making observations, celebrating successes, and suggesting improvements in ways that support them in attaining challenging learning goals.

Using actionable feedback. Once learning evidence is collected, teachers work with students to ensure that they have both the time and processes to apply feedback in ways that move learning forward.

Responding by adjusting learning strategies or next instructional steps. This practice is the "why" of formative assessment. To make the process effective, we must collaborate with students to use evidence and insights to propel learners toward shared and personal short- and long-term goals.

Why formative assessment is so important

As my colleague Chase Nordengren noted, "[f]ormative assessment is [critical] for educators looking to unlock in-depth information on student learning. [...] Using strategies that expose misconceptions, support higher-level thinking within a subject, and engage students in academic discourse, formative assessment provides the real-time feedback necessary to dynamically adjust instruction to meet learner needs as they emerge and change."

In short, formative assessment helps us evaluate whether our plans and responsive "moves" are working, while there's still time to do something about it. It celebrates that learning is an ongoing process, complete with stretches of success and periods of struggle, and it helps us remember that learning is not linear but, instead, an endeavor that rewards effort, persistence, and dedication. Best of all, it helps us collaborate with students as co-partners in the entire learning experience. Together we are a learning team, one that makes anything possible.

Ready for more?

There is no shortage of information and resources available on formative assessment. For easy-to -implement, research-based strategies, check out our eBook, Making it work: How formative assessment can supercharge your practice, and our article "27 easy formative assessment strategies for gathering evidence of student learning." Our professional learning team also offers five workshops that can engage you and your colleagues in deep dives designed and delivered by expert educators.

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Reliable assessment data drives positive long-term outcomes for kids. Formative assessment is a critical part of a balanced system.

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This post is authored by Allison Zmuda, Marie Alcock and Michael Fisher and was first published on the Solution Tree Blog.

Based on The Quest For Learning: How To Maximize Student Engagement

In many classrooms, assessment is still an event. It might be an end-of-unit event, a benchmark event, or a “because it’s Friday” event. Whatever the assessment reason, inviting a more formative approach gives opportunities for frequent feedback in a couple of different ways.

1. It shows the learner how well they are progressing toward a particular target, skill, or standard.

2. It shows the learner which strategies work best for the learner to reach their targets.

In The Quest For Learning: How To Maximize Student Engagement (2017), we propose a simplified descriptive rubric to help teachers manage formative feedback, both at the beginning of a learning scenario and throughout it.

At Target | Approaching Target | Notes
| |
| |

Formative Assessment Rubric from The Quest For Learning: How To Maximize Student Engagement. Visit go.SolutionTree.com/instruction for a free reproducible version of this rubric. (2017)

This version of rubric-making cuts out all of the levels and the potential subjectivity that goes with leveling out a rubric. This way, it’s just the target and whether or not a student has met it. The descriptive feedback is then personalized for each student depending on how they are progressing and the strategies they are using.

Formative feedback is one of the easiest ways to get personal with student learning, and students learn more when the relationship is tended to as much as the grade.

As an example, we recently worked with Kindergarten teachers in Gasport, NY as they sought to upgrade their checkpoint assessments. We specifically honed in on writing and had conversations about what the standard was asking of students. In this case, the standard for narrative writing, which is the first one they assess, states: “Use a combination of writing, drawing, dictating, and/or oral expression to narrate an event or events in a sequence.” (New York State Education Department, n.d.)

Below is a version of their task, with an amended version of the rubric specific to their purposes.

Narrative Performance Task*:

Choose a short-story picture book related to the season or thematic topic.

Ask the class to reenact / retell the story (with discussion of vocab, main idea, and details).

Share the prompt: What happens next in this story? Perhaps have a group discussion about what could happen next. Brainstorm ideas…

Ask students to draw a picture that illustrates what happens next in this story.

Allow students to share their drawings with each other and discuss what they drew and what they think happens next.

Allow a few minutes for discussion with a partner. Give outlined or unlined paper. Then use your typical classroom writing process to support students in completing the writing prompt.

The complete response should include a picture and whatever sentences, words, or letters the student can add. An adult may assist with sounding out or spelling words and/or transcribe the child’s words if desired. Dictation is permitted.

Please distinguish the child’s independent production from words or letters produced with adult help by underlining any part of the writing done with teacher support (and recorded in the rubric). The writing sample will be most useful to other teachers if it is easy to tell where help was given.

Note that at this first checkpoint, kindergarteners have limited writing experience.

*Adapted from the Narrative Writing: On Demand Prompt for Kindergartenfrom Student Achievement Partners. (2013)

Approaching | Proficient | Surpassing
| Narrate an event or events in a sequence using a combination of drawing, dictating, oral expression, and/or writing. |

Each of the areas of the rubric are meant for feedback and anecdotal documentation. Also note that students have until the end of 1st grade to attain the writing as an individual skill. Up until the end of 1st Grade, students can continue to use a combination of drawing, dictating, oral expression, and/or writing. The “and/or” here is very important, particularly the “or.” It was crucial that these teachers came to a consensus understanding of this particular standard’s intention as they created this common assessment.

A second example comes from an AP U.S. History teacher Laura Stott in Madison, CT who clarified proficient or “meets expectations” for the students in connection to an oral history project. What is noteworthy here is that these descriptors can be used with minimal modification for other assignments. In this way, students pay attention to growing key skills over time (over the scope of an assignment and across multiple assignments) rather than orienting themselves to a new set of descriptors.

Requirement | Needs Improvement | Meets Expectations | Above and Beyond
Criteria #1: Developing a Thesis Statement through Synthesis | | You have combined multiple ideas and pieces of evidence from your interview and a variety of research sources to develop a thesis statement that demonstrates thoughtful insight on your topic’s historical significance. Your central thesis causes the reader to think, “I’ve never thought of that before” and to want to explore your ideas further. |
Criteria #2: Historical Context | | You provide an accurate, thorough and relevant historical context for your interview, gathering information from a variety of research sources, including at least one primary source. You include specific examples and evidence to illustrate your points. You clearly address why the historical trends discussed are relevant to your interview. |

Using a simplified descriptive rubric helps both teachers and students see the progression toward their goals. This type of formative assessment and feedback offers something that a summative assessment cannot: the capture of conversational and anecdotal thinking and learning as it’s happening. We see this as much more valuable information than regurgitative end-of-learning assessments.

Also of note here is the different ways in which teachers were able to adapt and then apply the simplified descriptive rubric. That is the ultimate Quest mindset: use the tools the way you need to in order to have maximum impact.

To learn more about how formative assessment plays a key role in Quest-based learning, check out our new book The Quest for Learning: How to Maximize Student Engagement, coming from Solution Tree this fall.

References:

Alcock, M., Fisher, M., & Zmuda, A. (2017) The Quest for Learning: How to Maximize Student Engagement. Solution Tree.

New York State Education Department. (n.d.). New York State Revised English Language Arts Learning Standards. Retrieved September 04, 2017, from http://www.nysed.gov/teachers/new-york-state-revised-english-language-arts-learning-standards

Student Achievement Partners. (2013, August 06). Narrative Writing: On-Demand. Retrieved August 28, 2017, from https://achievethecore.org/page/1287/narrative-writing-on-demand

Related posts:

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Simplified and Personalized: Formative Assessments - Learning Personalized

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Whatever the assessment reason, inviting a more formative approach gives opportunities for frequent feedback in a couple of different ways.

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The what, when and how of assessment.​

Generating rich, robust and comprehensive evidence of student learning requires assessment design.

Assessment design is an important aspect of unit design, ensuring that formal and informal assessment reveals students' progress toward intended learning goals.

Assessment design considers the what, when and how of assessment.

For team dialogue

1. How well do our unit designs clarify what is important for students to know, understand, do and become (intended learning)?

2. To what extent will our assessment design enable us to assess growth and progress in the intended learning?

3. What do we notice about the strengths and areas for further development in our unit and assessment designs?

The 'what' of intended learning is what students are expected to know, understand, do and become, or the development of:

knowledge and understanding

capabilities and skills

attitudes, motivations and dispositions.

In Victoria what students need to learn is set out in the Victorian Curriculum F-10 . It incorporates the Australian Curriculum and reflects Victorian standards and priorities. Victorian government schools are required to use the Victorian Curriculum F-10.

Content descriptors in the Victorian Curriculum F-10 are generally defined in terms of:

concepts to understand

skills to acquire

the knowledge needed to engage with a discipline.

Level standards offer advice on assessment and a progression of learning over time. The rationale for each discipline often defines significant dispositions students need to develop for success.

Capabilities that are important for learners in today's world are also defined in the Victorian Curriculum and elaborated in other sources such as the new pedagogies for deep learning.

The Melbourne's declaration on the educational goals for young Australians defines what all educators should be working towards. This shows that all students should become:

successful learners

creative and confident individuals

active and informed citizens.

Extensive research by respected academics such as Guy Claxton and Carol Dweck identified the importance of cultivating dispositions and mindsets necessary to become successful learners.

Research on motivation, engagement and agency, such as that of Valerie Hannon and Learning Futures, also links students attitudes and motivations to their academic achievement.

For team dialogue

1. How will we find out what our students bring to this learning-what they already know, understand and can do?

2. How will we learn about their attitudes, motivations and dispositions towards this learning?

3. As well as being informed by the expectations set by the formal curriculum, how might we partner with students to create a motivating context for new learning?

The 'when' of assessment illuminates where students are in their learning at the start, middle and end of a unit, which includes determining:

1. the entry levels of students about intended learning

2. how to monitor learning progress as curriculum or unit designs are implemented, so that teaching can be adapted to better target student learning needs

3. the overall impact of a unit's learning experiences can be determined through a culminating assessment plus other targeted assessments.

For team dialogue:

1. How well are we gauging the entry levels of our students about new intended learning?

2. How effectively are we monitoring learning progress throughout a unit?

3. How well do our final assessments reveal growth and development?

An additional consideration is how best to uncover different dimensions of learning. This involves inviting students to say, make, write or do something to reveal:

the depth of their knowledge and understanding

the level of proficiency in their skills and capabilities

how disposed they are to learn.

Knowledge and understanding

The most common ways to uncover and monitor growth in knowledge and understanding involves asking students to say or write something to make their thinking visible. Common techniques include:

standardised assessments such as written tests

concept maps that can be revisited over time to show growth in understanding of big ideas

KWWL (know, want to know, why, learned) charts

visual organisers such as linking charts that help students reflect on new learning

the development of rubrics for deep learning.

Skills and capabilities

As skills and capabilities generally mean doing something, design considerations involves working out what best enables students to reveal their levels of proficiency.

This may involve:

school-wide assessments, such as testing

your observations of your students

the performance of a self-assessment task by students.

Attitudes, motivations and dispositions

Designing to assess attitudes, motivations and dispositions require thinking through how best students, in a safe context, can reveal:

how they see themselves as learners

how they are disposed to be about the intended learning.

This can be assessed by translating research in this area into indicators or reflective prompts that students can respond to. You can then follow this up with a conversation, 'digging deeper' into what their responses mean.

Another data source can be found in the annual Attitudes to Schools Survey (AToSS) survey items where these start with 'I ...' and therefore reveal something about the learner.

For team dialogue

1. What do we all think it means to "uncover different dimensions of learning"?

2. What assessment opportunities do we privilege in terms of inviting students to say, make, write or do something to reveal where they are in their learning?

3. Which students benefit from the ways we choose to assess learning? What are some equity implications?

Multiple sources of data and evidence collection

Any account of a student's learning and development needs to be rich, robust and comprehensive. Quality assessment design ensures that multiple sources of data and evidence are collected.

Data triangulation - that is, using at least three sources of assessment data - capitalises on strengths and reduces weaknesses that can stem from using a single source.

Sources of assessment data and evidence can include:

Standardised assessments from government authorities and reputable suppliers

Standardised assessments from government authorities and reputable suppliers play an critical role in supporting triangulation of data and evidence when they are aligned with unit and assessment design. For example, the Victorian Curriculum and Assessment Authority (VCAA) provides access to a range standardised assessments on the insight assess portal.
VCAA on-demand offers a selection of adaptive assessments in English and mathematics.

Please note that for reasons of equity, we do not include links to commercial tools or resources in the absence of systemic endorsement or provision of these tools.

Locally generated assessments mapped to the Victorian Curriculum

Quality assessment design can include locally generated assessments mapped to curriculum achievement standards. They can provide rich opportunities for building the assessment capability of adults and students.

Teacher judgements against curriculum standards

Teacher judgements against curriculum standards give a broad indication of where students already are in their learning. Judgements are available at least twice a year and, taken together over any twelve or twenty-four month period (depending on the learning area or capability), cover the breadth of the formal curriculum. Teacher judgements provide comparable data points that, when combined with other data and evidence, shed light on how well students have progressed in the intended learning.

For team dialogue

1. To what extent are assessment approaches in our school triangulated? What is working well? What might be strengthened?

2. To what extent are the consistency and quality of teacher judgements in our school supported by collaborative moderation and other verification processes? What is working well? What might be strengthened?

Locally generated assessments are strongest when they are:

built on the foundation of your deep understanding of the student about the formal curriculum, domains of learning and stages of learning and development. This often requires a significant investment of time for teachers to work together to 'unpack' the formal curriculum and come to understand it personally and collectively

developed in ways that build students' assessment capability, so that they understand the purpose of assessment, what is expected of them and how they will be assessed by their teacher, self or peers.

We offer several resources for consideration in generating local assessments that will reveal growth over time. These include:

validated research and other documents, which elaborate on the continuum of learning in the Victorian Curriculum. This resource offers several examples of such research that can deepen and extend our conception of what students are expected to know, understand, do and become

assessment tools and examples developed by schools and researchers to support the collection and interpretation of evidence of student learning growth.

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The what, when and how of assessment.​ Generating rich, robust and comprehensive evidence of student learning requires assessment design. Assessment design is an important aspect of unit design, ensuring that formal and informal assessment reveals students' progress toward intended learning goals. Assessment design considers the what, when and how of assessment.

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Sample:  English Grade 9 - To Kill a Mockingbird -New York (Google Doc template) 

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Sample:  English Grade 9 - To Kill a Mockingbird -New York (Google Doc template) 

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 SAMPLE_UNIT_TKM:  Somebody Else's Shoes 

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In November 2008, John Hattie's ground-breaking book Visible Learning synthesised the results of more than fifteen years research involving millions of students and represented the biggest ever collection of evidence-based research into what actually works in schools to improve learning.

Visible Learning for Teachers takes the next step and brings those ground breaking concepts to a completely new audience. Written for students, pre-service and in-service teachers, it explains how to apply the principles of Visible Learning to any classroom anywhere in the world. The author offers concise and user-friendly summaries of the most successful interventions and offers practical step-by-step guidance to the successful implementation of visible learning and visible teaching in the classroom.

Visible Learning for Teachers is a must read for any student or teacher who wants an evidence based answer to the question; 'how do we maximise achievement in our schools?'

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Visible Learning for Teachers: Maximizing Impact on Learning

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Visible Learning for Teachers: Maximizing Impact on Learning: Hattie, John: 8601401019015: Books - Amazon

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Refreshed Pedagogy for the Contemporary Learner 

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Refreshed Pedagogy for the Contemporary Learner 

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Streamlined Lesson Planning for Learner Engagement 

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Streamlined Lesson Planning for Learner Engagement 

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In design parlance, streamlining means to modernize and simplify: to improve efficiency, effectiveness, and visual appeal. Streamlining is not just paring back; it is making a process or product better. The pandemic cast a glaring spotlight on an education problem that has existed for years: Curriculum and lesson plans desperately need streamlining, both in terms of content and format. We can no longer be driven by a relentless instructional pace that values coverage over learner engagement. This problem is compounded by the demands on teachers to fill out planning templates that are often tedious and one step removed from writing for the desired audience: the students.

Many schools' current approach to lesson planning, whether synchronous or asynchronous, can be a roadblock to student motivation. Learners at every age should be able to decipher with ease the tasks and activities teachers plan for them. If the task isn't clear and compelling, it curbs engagement. At the secondary level, it is difficult to motivate students when they are overwhelmed with a tsunami of daily assignments written in multiple styles from seven different teachers, no matter how interesting the tasks themselves might be.

The Jolt of COVID-19

As education consultants, we have been promoting a focus on what is essential in lesson planning for years. Streamlining emerged as the apt term during COVID-19. The impetus for our initial work in this area came in March of 2020, at the request of the New Haven Public School Magnet Division in Connecticut. The school was seeking a timely response to the abrupt shift to remote learning, and the program director asked a key question:

How will we be able to communicate with the kids and the parents who will struggle with following the list of tasks, activities, and resources in the curriculum? Our teachers are asking for a simplified curricular approach in manageable chunks for lesson planning.

Certainly, educators across the globe can identify with the director's concerns. From the early period of the pandemic through the constantly shifting demands of the 2020-21 school year, teacher and family efforts were remarkable, but the demands were incredibly challenging. Teachers with the best of intentions were sending home packed activity schedules written in a wide range of idiosyncratic styles that were difficult for families to decipher. In April 2020, we interviewed the primary and secondary principals of Hong Kong International School, who noted that when their school went into lockdown during the Hong Kong riots in November 2019, they immediately saw how important it was to write lesson plans that spoke directly to parents and students. They were right: It is crucial that our choice of language and approach in the communication of planned learning experiences shift directly to a student and family audience.

Before the pandemic, the goal of writing lesson plans and tasks-in teacher-facing language-was to communicate the general teaching approach to school personnel. These shorthand sketches were not intended for a broader audience. What crystallized for us this past year was that if we believe that students should be stakeholders and partners in learning, then they also must be the audience in our learning designs.

To better account for this, we developed a new planning approach that streamlines the format of curriculum and lesson design: Learning sets, which communicate directly with students and their families to capture the story of the learning design.

Learning Sets Streamline Curricula

Learning sets are an easy-to-follow series of connected learning experiences we call episodes, written in a narrative style. Learning sets consolidate critical elements of a unit plan, using a more granular daily approach, into a streamlined format. They are designed to be visually engaging and easy to navigate through their use of language, style, and iconography.

To create consistency and focus in learning sets, we use a grid organized around three student-facing action prompts: engage, examine, and demonstrate. These prompts direct learners to purposeful action. Learning sets can work in any planning approach, and educators can adapt them to a specific learner management system or Google Classroom. If school leaders encourage use of this format to provide ease of communication, students and their families will benefit.

A small team of teacher leaders from Vista High School in California were excited to test out our prototype. We shared the icons, learning set features, and visual format to support their curriculum design. Figure 1 illustrates an excerpt from an English learning set from Vista High School in California.

Jody, one of the English teachers who designed this set, reflected:

The previous lesson planning template we had used was time-consuming with lots of boxes to be checked (literally), which did not meet our needs. The new template's value is in its organizational structure, especially with the various progressions built into the unit plan. As we worked with the template, we were able to see clearly where our units needed more development or differentiation. The icons served to visualize where we were not providing enough personalization or differentiation and were helpful in guiding students through the lesson. Students appreciated the template's organization and the clear statement of essential questions, expected outcomes, and formative and summative assessments.

Key Components of a Learning Set

Each learning set follows the same format but can be modified for individual situations, with targeted actions to engage, examine, and demonstrate learning with corresponding tools, tasks, and resources. The following components are ones we believe to be essential:

A compelling storyline. What am I inviting the student to engage in? How am I clarifying that upfront? Am I writing directly to students and parents as my audience?

Unit and lesson planning provides an organizational frame for teachers. With the relentless demand of laying out sequences and supporting resources, a teacher's energy can be sapped and they can lose the focus on framing learning directly and deliberately for their target audience-students and their families. A basic writing tenet is that the author needs to "hook and hold" a target audience; to do this, the deliberate use of language, tone, and context matters. Modeling classic backwards design, start with an essential question, overarching goal, and overview to frame the learning experience and help keep the bigger picture in mind. The narrative style, paired with the essential questions and an overview, must be designed to pique students' interest with an inquiry, design challenge, or creation that is worth pursuing.

Episodes framed by learning targets. What are the manageable chunks in this unit? How might I frame and organize them into episodes that naturally build one upon another? What is the short-term goal that is the driving purpose for the learning experience?

Learning sets provide clarity of purpose-the student knows what actions are expected and how that connects to the learning target. The word episode denotes a playful and deliberate frame for the narrative that students are experiencing. A learning target is a clear statement derived from standards and/or mission-driven goals of what a learner needs to know or be able to do, written in accessible, invitational, and actionable language ( I can ...). These targets are broken down into more manageable goals in service to the overarching goal. The key for engagement is how to play out the target through the three action verbs: engage, examine, demonstrate.

Action verbs. What are my students doing as they engage with the content?

Instead of outlining topics teachers will cover, action verb prompts directly engage students and align to the learning targets. The three verbs used in the learning set in Figure 1 connect to key actions students will take (or things teachers will do to set students up for those actions):

Engage: Generates curiosity and connections, sets parameters for the episode

Examine: Provides an investigation or exploration to probe thinking

Demonstrate: Applies learning to a new or complex situation that provides evidence for the learning target

Embedded in each action prompt are links to tools, apps, assignments, readings, or other resources to assist the learner. Strategic placement of these links within each action prompt ensures resources are immediately relevant (versus listing them at the end of a lesson plan).

According to Craig, Vista High School's lead instructional coach:

In the past, the overwhelming response from teachers was that they spent hours and even days creating curriculum documents but were still no closer to having the lessons, activities, and projects. Leading students to reflect throughout their learning experience could help all students to recognize the strategies, Habits of Mind, [and] actions that they use when asked to analyze, design, [and] evaluate. Students could increase their control over their learning as they could directly see what efforts, activities, prompts, and learning were related to course learning expectations.

Iconography. How can I capture these engagement actions with visuals to strengthen communication?

Using icons lessens the need for written text. When we have explored the use of iconography with teachers, the most common "aha" moment for them was that they spotted their patterns of practice. The use of the same few icons representing types of tasks (for example, read, write, test) reveals the range of learning experiences and prompt us to consider what other ways we can design the lesson to meet the learning target. Some learning-management platforms have icons built into their infrastructure, and there are ample free sources for education icons, but they don't always capture the higher-order thinking skills, dispositions, and behaviors that schools are committed to developing in their students. For example, when we are considering authentic assessments that we want students to engage in, what are the words or phrases that come to mind? Figure 2 shows some examples of icons we have developed and used in learning sets.

Your students can also sketch and upload icons for learning sets that represent their level of thinking and the actions they will take in their inquiries. This helps them to see the benefits of iconography to streamline written text.

Moving Forward

When we take on the challenge of streamlining lessons, we must prepare to sift through a bloated, inconsistent curriculum. In any field, the goal of streamlining is to make performance better and to shed antiquated features of a design or process. As Matt, another Vista High School teacher who piloted learning sets reflected, "In my experience, unit planners were for teachers and administrators. I saw learning sets, however, as an opportunity to invite students into the process and an effective reflection tool for already established units."

Learning sets lighten the bureaucratic burden on teachers' backs by shifting to a student-facing curricular narrative, using accessible language, appealing visuals, and diverse experiences that invite engagement.

Note: To learn more about the design of learning sets, including icons, template, and key components, go to .

Reflect and Discuss

Who is the primary audience for lesson and unit planning documents in your school? How could these materials be more student-facing?

How have remote and digital shifts during the pandemic changed your lesson planning process?

Could a model like learning sets help you create a more compelling curricular narrative? Why or why not?

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Streamlined Lesson Planning for Learner Engagement

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Unit and lesson plans should speak directly to students and families, not just to administrators.

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Interviews and Surveys: Parents, Students, Leaders 

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Interviews and Surveys: Parents, Students, Leaders 

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Given the extraordinary demands on school communities throughout the pandemic, there is real concern about where students are in their foundational skills, conceptual understanding, and ability to apply their learning in novel situations. This concern, framed as "learning loss," includes choices to cut out or cut back on unit topics, challenges of student engagement in school settings, and limited assessment data to demonstrate impact. There also needs to be an uncovering of what "learning gains" have happened, such as increased use in digital tools, self-directed use of time, or developing skills and cultivating interests.

In order to generate responsive curriculum choices and structural formats moving forward, listening is key. A commitment to formal listening should become the drumbeat of a school or system. Listening that informs decision-making is empathy in action. If the pandemic has taught one thing, it is that we need connection and to be understood.

The following prompts organized in role-alike groups are illustrative examples that you might use to identify patterns, generate fresh thinking, and help inform deliberate actions. The intention is to uncover learning loss and learning gains during the pandemic. Whether using focus groups, a virtual listening tour, surveys, interviews, social media groups, personal correspondence, or a community meeting, now is the time to listen.
CURRICULUM LEADERS (e.g,. teacher leads, department chairs, instructional coaches, building/district administrators) What did the leadership of the curriculum look like throughout the year? (check all that apply)

I was left on my own to make appropriate choices based on what I believed was in the best interest of my students.

We worked in PLC's to decide what to cut out, cut back on, and keep based on our school realities.

Our principal/ head of school/ superintendent is requesting an increase in testing to determine loss and gain in students to guide our decisions.

Our principal/ head of school/ superintendent is requesting a review of formative assessments to determine loss and gain.

Our principal / head of school / superintendent expected us to take into account student and family struggles in the design, frequency, and evaluation of assignments.

Our district leadership has organized vertical curriculum reviews to make adjustments to our curriculum moving forward.

Our school leadership has organized vertical curriculum reviews to make adjustments to our curriculum moving forward.

We will continue to structure our schedule and learning spaces on the same pre-covid model.

We will continue to structure the grouping of learners and faculty configurations on our pre-covid model.

Our school/district leadership is considering responsive approaches to schedules, learning spaces (both physical and virtual) based learner needs.

Our school/district leadership is considering responsive approaches to the grouping of students and personnel configurations based on student needs.

Here are actions and ideas that we are interested in pursuing: TEACHING STAFF What was your approach to navigating the established curriculum? (check all that apply)

I chose to cover the established curriculum as planned with minor adjustments.

I chose not to cover 2 or more units.

I chose to cut back on what I deemed to be unnecessary content and skills.

I chose to cut back on what I deemed to be unnecessary assignments.

I chose to create new topics, assignments for my students to make sense of the pandemic.

I collaborated with other colleagues on a regular basis.

I worked primarily on my own.

I received ongoing support from curriculum leaders and/or instructional coaches.

Here are actions and ideas that I recommend moving forward:
What was your approach to teaching and learning throughout the pandemic? (check all that apply)

I focused more on diversity, equity and inclusion to inform my instructional practices and policies.

I revisited unit topics through the lens of diversity, equity and inclusion to identify issues, texts, and tasks to make learning more relevant and challenging for my students.

I chose to group my learners in a range of patterns based on their academic needs.

I kept my learners in consistent instructional grouping patterns to meet academic needs.

I chose to regularly touch base with each student to monitor programs and make adjustments in my teaching.

I chose to work through the established curriculum using direct teaching approaches with minimal adjustments.

I chose to expand my instructional approach using digital and media tools to engage my learners in an on-line environment.

I chose to directly develop dispositions and habits of mind that support emotional well-being with my students.

Here are the actions and ideas that I want to pay attention to going forward: STUDENTS What was your teacher's (or school's) approach to support your social and emotional well-being?

I felt that my teacher understood what I was going through on a personal level.

I did not feel connected to the teacher and school.

I felt connected to my friends and other students most of the time.

I frequently felt disconnected from my friends and other students.

What was your experience in monitoring and directing your own learning? (check all that apply)

I was clear on the actual work and tasks from my teachers.

I was often confused by the actual work and tasks from my teachers.

I sometimes felt overwhelmed by the amount of work assigned to me.

I had more control over my schedule and felt more focused with asynchronous tasks

I needed teacher direction on most of my tasks

I had growth in certain subjects or classes

I fell behind in certain subjects or classes

I fell behind on tasks.

I lost interest in the school tasks.

I was motivated to pursue new areas of interest.

PARENTS What was your teacher's (or school's) approach to support your social and emotional well-being of your child? (check all that apply)

I felt I could get a reasonably prompt response from my child's teachers when requested.

I felt that my child's teacher(s) understood the challenges we faced through the pandemic as a family.

What was your experience in monitoring your students' work and communication with their teacher(s)?

My child was usually clear on the actual work and tasks from teachers.

My child was often confused by the actual work and tasks from teachers.

My child sometimes felt overwhelmed by the amount of work assigned.

My child thrived with more control over the schedule and focused on asynchronous tasks

My child needed constant adult direction on most tasks

I believe my child showed growth in certain subjects or classes

I believe my child feel behind in certain subjects or classes

Gathering input from a full gamut of sources is critical in determining how to make adjustments in program and services in order to move forward. A realistic and powerful profile of a right-now learner must be informed not only from surveys which have value but by their very nature have limits. This profile will serve decision-making in two critical arenas:

Curriculum choices on what to cut, keep, and create

Program structures, the nest where learning occurs. Specifically, schedules, learning spaces (both virtual and physical), grouping of learners, grouping of professionals.

See our chart below.

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Profile of a Right Now Learner: Uncovering Learning Loss and Learning Gains - Learning Sets

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Given the extraordinary demands on school communities throughout the pandemic, there is real concern about where students are in their foundational skills, conceptual understanding, and ability to apply their learning in novel situations. This concern, framed as "learning loss," includes choices to cut out or cut back on unit topics, challenges of student engagement in school settings, and limited assessment data to demonstrate impact.

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Sample Unit:  Grade 6 - ELA Writing- Missouri 

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Sample Unit:  Grade 6 - ELA Writing- Missouri 

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Sample Unit:  Kindergarten -Physical Education - Do the Locomotion with Me- Missouri 

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Sample Unit:  Kindergarten -Physical Education - Do the Locomotion with Me- Missouri 

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SFA-StC (Archdiocese of St. Louis) - SFA_Kindergarten_p.e.

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Monmouth Roseville CUSD 238 - SAMPLE_PD_2_Math

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Streamlined Lesson Planning for Learner Engagement

by Heidi Hayes Jacobs and Allison Zmuda

ASCD Educational Leadership - December 2021 issue

Unit and lesson plans should speak directly to students and families, not just to administrators.

In design parlance, streamlining means to modernize and simplify: to improve efficiency, effectiveness, and visual appeal. Streamlining is not just paring back; it is making a process or product better. The pandemic cast a glaring spotlight on an education problem that has existed for years: Curriculum and lesson plans desperately need streamlining, both in terms of content and format. We can no longer be driven by a relentless instructional pace that values coverage over learner engagement.

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by Heidi Hayes Jacobs and Allison Zmuda ASCD Educational Leadership - December 2021 issue Unit and lesson plans should speak directly to students and families, not just to administrators. In design parlance, streamlining means to modernize and simplify: to improve efficiency, effectiveness, and visual appeal.

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Video (short):  From Cells and Bells to a Learning Community 

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Video (short):  From Cells and Bells to a Learning Community 

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From cells and bells to a Learning Community

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Video:  Prakash Nair on Learning Spaces 

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Video:  Prakash Nair on Learning Spaces 