In our discussion this week, we deeply analyzed our content standards and frameworks. From this process, we have identified some priority standards for our content area and gained an appreciation for the depth a standard can have. For a given standard, a great deal of content and skills are sometimes expected of students. When teaching a lesson based on that standard, it can be easy to overlook certain standard elements or inadvertently bias towards a part of a standard while neglecting another. Thus, successfully unpacking a standard into concepts and skills is only just the beginning. The next step is to identify the criteria by which we will evaluate all students for each concept and skill we unpacked. Ask yourself, what does mastery look like for each concept and skill?
Once you have determined the criteria and know what mastery looks like, then you can begin planning your assessments and activities to align with the criteria. These predetermined criteria will allow you to break up and sequence your instruction appropriately and know when and what feedback students need to progress toward mastery. This is a key component of TPE 3.1: “Demonstrate knowledge of subject matter, including the adopted California State Standards and curriculum frameworks.” We will also see this criteria component in the learning map template of our assignment in Week Four.
Clearly identifying these criteria will also allow you to create appropriate assessments and the rubrics to score them. This is central to TPE 5.1: “Apply knowledge of the purposes, characteristics, and appropriate uses of different types of assessments (e.g., diagnostic, informal, formal, progress monitoring, formative, summative, and performance) to design and administer classroom assessments, including use of scoring rubrics.”
What’s more, having clearly identified criteria for assessing mastery helps identify potential opportunities for differentiation or accommodations for special populations of students to achieve the same level of mastery as all other students.
Instructions
With a focus on teaching mastery as a driving goal, we were to choose three standards we identified as priority standards for our content area that we would teach to mastery. These may be three closely related standards (e.g., would be part of a unit of study), or alternatively, we could choose three disparate standards. We were to repeat the following process for each of the three standards to get sufficient practice analyzing standards to identify the content and skills students must master and determining the criteria by which all students would be evaluated on the progress towards mastery of that standard. This will allow for teacher feedback and student improvement.
After unpacking our standards, we were to read the article and chapters on developing and implementing rubrics to learn the importance of creating well-crafted rubrics and how to create standard-aligned rubrics that measure mastery. While we often devise rubrics based on an assignment, we are working backward here by first identifying the concepts and skills from our standard, then by identifying what mastery looks like, concluding with scales towards that mastery in the form of a rubric. By being clear on this, we can later develop assignments and assessments that are in alignment.
- List the content standard. This can be copied and pasted from your content standards.
- Your content standards must be 7th, 8th, or High School Standards. However, you may use elementary grades if you are currently employed as an elementary school’s music, art, or PE instructor.
- Unpack the standard into concepts and skills. There must be at least one concept and one skill.
- Create a performance criterion for mastery of each concept and skill. This should be described succinctly, clearly, and objectively to both student and teacher.
- Justify your response. Provide a rationale for why you chose these criteria, keeping in mind that this must get to the core of what the standard is expecting of students.
- Create a rubric with the necessary elements and point scales to assess that standard. There must be at least one element for your concept and one element for your skill.
