Get to know which practices related to curriculum, instruction, and assessment are essential to make learning the goal for every student! You’ll learn how to Create learning targets that are scalable and transferable within and across units Develop instructional scales for each learning target Design non-scored practice activities and assessments Introduce and model skills that will be assessed and design tasks that allow students to use these skills Differentiate instruction and activities based on data from various types of assessments Maintain a gradebook that tracks summative achievement of learning targets, and score assessments accordingly Communicate progress clearly and efficiently with students and families

Harris and Carr share their experiences with standards based learning and offer practical examples of how to develop standards into units of study. The model and processes they describe in this book help readers in choosing and coordinating standards, topics, products and performances, assessment criteria, exemplars, and scoring guides.

Shifting to standards-based learning is a big change. Rely on Planning and Teaching in the Standards-Based Classroom to help you move forward with clarity and confidence. Authors Jeff Flygare, Jan K. Hoegh, and Tammy Heflebower have created a must-have guide for teachers that delivers straightforward, practical tools and detailed instructions for everything from lesson planning to proficiency scales to parent communication. Understand priority standards and proficiency scales. Develop curriculum maps to plan for the entire year or course. Follow the steps of the instructional cycle to create standards-based units and lessons. Help exceptional students continue to thrive and grow in a standards-based environment. Communicate objectively with students and families about learning. Contents: Introduction Chapter 1: Curriculum Based on Standards and Scales Chapter 2: Year-Long Planning With Curriculum Maps Chapter 3: Unit Planning With the Instructional Cycle Chapter 4: Lesson Planning and Teaching Within the Instructional Cycle Chapter 5: Assessments and Progress Tracking Chapter 6: Communication Using Proficiency Scales Epilogue

Discover how to weave an in-depth understanding of the Common Core into successful classroom practice with this two-part resource. You’ll learn how to power the standards with guided assessment and measure student progress in a way that accurately reflects learning. Included are hundreds of ready-to-use, research-based proficiency scales for both English language arts and mathematics.

This guide is for teachers who seek a model and processes for designing standards-based units of study to use in their classrooms. Douglas Harris and Judy Carr share their experiences with standards-based learning and offer practical examples of how to develop standards into units of study. The model and process they describe in this book help readers in choosing and coordinating standards, topics, products and performances, assessment criteria exemplars, and scoring guides.

What is understanding and how does it differ from knowledge? How can we determine the big ideas worth understanding? Why is understanding an important teaching goal, and how do we know when students have attained it? How can we create a rigorous and engaging curriculum that focuses on understanding and leads to improved student performance in today's high-stakes, standards-based environment? Authors Grant Wiggins and Jay McTighe answer these and many other questions in this second edition of Understanding by Design. Drawing on feedback from thousands of educators around the world who have used the UbD framework since its introduction in 1998, the authors have greatly revised and expanded their original work to guide educators across the K-16 spectrum in the design of curriculum, assessment, and instruction. With an improved UbD Template at its core, the book explains the rationale of backward design and explores in greater depth the meaning of such key ideas as essential questions and transfer tasks. Readers will learn why the familiar coverage- and activity-based approaches to curriculum design fall short, and how a focus on the six facets of understanding can enrich student learning. With an expanded array of practical strategies, tools, and examples from all subject areas, the book demonstrates how the research-based principles of Understanding by Design apply to district frameworks as well as to individual units of curriculum. Combining provocative ideas, thoughtful analysis, and tested approaches, this new edition of Understanding by Design offers teacher-designers a clear path to the creation of curriculum that ensures better learning and a more stimulating experience for students and teachers alike.

Beyond Standards highlights the structural conditions that have undermined the success of the standards movement and challenges us to confront them. The book offers an impassioned argument about the ways that our decentralized educational systems undermine the pursuit of educational equity and excellence. Morgan Polikoff applies a wide array of quantitative and qualitative data to provide a pointed critique of the US educational system. He addresses why standards have failed, whether standards-based reform can be salvaged, and what we can do to improve teaching and learning at scale across America's 13,000 school districts. Polikoff argues that no amount of tinkering can fix standards. Rather, we need to tackle the big, structural issues, such as decentralization. The author identifies curriculum reform as a high-leverage strategy for making meaningful progress at scale and emphasizes that states need to play a greater role in evaluating and recommending high-quality curriculum materials. Beyond Standards proposes a new, progressive vision that emphasizes the central role of states in challenging the antiquated, segregating structures that have thwarted educational improvement.