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If you’ve listened to Teacher Jargon for a while or read my previous blog posts, you might have noticed that I love a great analogy. And as I was sitting around the table with my family on Thanksgiving, I had a revelation: choosing which sides I would give up space on my plate for is much like choosing which standards I would make room for in my curriculum. Okay, if that sounds wild, just keep reading; I promise I’ll make it make sense.
My family insists on keeping to the “traditional” Thanksgiving menu: turkey, stuffing, green bean casserole, sweet potato casserole, mashed potatoes, corn, rolls, gravy. Most of these menu items are delicacies saved specifically for Thanksgiving; the idea is that we must eat enough of these dishes once a year to hold us over until the next year when they will reappear on our table. However, some of these dishes – mashed potatoes, corn, rolls – are not reserved strictly for Thanksgiving. In fact, mashed potatoes and corn frequent my dinner plate at least a few times each month.
As I was selecting which sides I would pile onto my plate, I became increasingly aware of a subconscious criteria I was using to ensure that my Thanksgiving meal was optimal. First and foremost, I had to take into consideration the space both on my plate and in my stomach. I didn’t have an endless amount of space, so balancing quantity with quality was essential. I also carefully considered how frequently I would have access to these menu items throughout the year. Turkey, for example, is reserved only for Thanksgiving, so of course, I would prioritize only the juiciest of dark meat – my favorite is the thigh – to take up precious real estate on my plate. Sweet potato casserole is another dish I only indulge in on Thanksgiving; I mean, honestly, is anyone whipping up sweet potato casserole for any other occasion? Then, I scooped equal helpings of green bean casserole, mashed potatoes, and stuffing onto my plate. This year, I chose to bypass the corn altogether since it wasn’t essential to my Thanksgiving meal. I also passed up the gravy; to be quite frank, my mother’s gravy isn’t great (sorry, Mom) and since I’m not a gravy fan anyways, I decided that I couldn’t sacrifice any portion of my appetite for mediocre gravy.
The process of loading my plate with only the essentials is much like choosing which standards are essential in our curriculum. I often hear teachers who are unfamiliar with standards based grading ask, “Aren’t all standards essential?” How can they be? Inevitably, there will be standards that are more essential than others, standards that teachers will dedicate entire units of their curriculum to instead of glossing over in a mini-lesson. Just like I wasn’t willing to sacrifice more space on my plate for a larger helping of mashed potatoes, for example, I’m also not willing to sacrifice more time in my instruction dedicated to teaching students to use a dictionary. So, how do we decide which standards are most essential? How do we load up our curriculum with both quality and quantity to ensure that our students are receiving instruction that will prepare them for the next year?
I need to preface my suggestions by acknowledging that I am operating under the assumption that teachers have autonomy over their curriculum. I recognize in some districts this may not be true; maybe, you’ve been given a curriculum or scripted lessons. If this is the case, I would encourage you to ask your instructional coach or principal for some flexibility regarding the required curriculum. Try to find areas of compromise so that you can conduct action research to determine whether or not standards based grading and/or the suggestions outlined in this post yield positive results in student achievement. Hopefully, through your action research, you can convince your principal and/or district to reconsider a one-size-fits-all approach to curriculum.
The first step to choosing your essential standards is understanding what your standards are. All courses have standards; if you’re unsure what your content standards are, visit your state’s department of education website. If you teach advanced placement courses, your standards are likely determined by the organization overseeing those courses such as College Board or International Baccalaureate. The course standards outline the skills that we, as educators, are responsible for teaching our students; therefore, being familiar with the standards isn’t enough. Teachers should have a deep understanding of their course standards and how they’re organized. Teachers should also be well acquainted with the vertical alignment of the standards, especially for courses that are dependent upon prerequisites. For example, an algebra 2 teacher should know their course’s standards and be familiar with the standards for algebra 1, geometry, and trigonometry. An English III teacher should have a firm grasp on their course standards and have a basic understanding of the English I, English II, and English IV standards.
Once teachers have a firm grasp on their course standards, they will need to accept that they won’t have time in their curriculum to cover all the standards equally. Much like I had to prioritize certain dishes over others during Thanksgiving, teachers will need to prioritize some standards over others in their curriculum. Determining which standards will be prioritized is essentially the first step of the professional learning community (PLC) process which advises teachers to first determine what they want their students to know and be able to do. Teachers should choose five to ten standards for which they can guarantee 100% student proficiency by the end of the course. If you’re unfamiliar with PLCs or if you think you know what a PLC is but you haven’t read any of Richard and Rebecca DuFour’s work on PLCs, I highly recommend you read the book Learning by Doing. In the book, Richard and Rebecca DuFour explain that teachers can determine whether or not a standard should be considered a priority by examining whether or not it is a readiness standard for the next level of learning, evaluating the endurance of the skill, and assessing its leveragability in other content areas. A standard should be deemed essential only if it is a standard that prepares students for the next grade level, will have meaning even after the unit exam or end of course assessment is over, and can be connected to other content areas. I would also suggest that teachers review any standardized assessment tied to their content to determine which standards are being assessed on these exams. If the state or another entity is assessing our students’ proficiency of a specific skill, we should prioritize that skill in our curriculum. Teachers should choose these five to ten standards independently first. Since this evaluation process is somewhat subjective, teachers should have the opportunity to think through which standards they would prioritize without the input from others. Once teachers have selected their five to ten standards, they should bring those standards as well as a rationale for their selection to a meeting with their content team.
During a team meeting, each teacher should present the standards they have deemed essential. One team member should track these standards either on a whiteboard or on a shared document so that all members can see the list of standards that the teachers have presented. The standards that are repeated should be indicated with a mark, such as a checkmark, so that all team members can see how many times the same standard has been deemed essential. Standards that are repeated by several team members should be added to the list of essential standards. Standards that have not been repeated should be discussed. Remembering the criteria for essential standards, the team should come to a consensus on all essential standards and should only choose the number of standards that they can guarantee in their curriculum. After a content team has agreed on their essential standards, a team leader or representative should attend a meeting with the representative for the content level both above and below to ensure vertical alignment.
After all vertical content area team leaders or representatives have met to ensure alignment, each team can begin designing their curriculum around the essential standards. Teachers should also begin developing SMART goals, summative assessments as well as common formative assessments (CFA) that will be used to measure and track student growth over time. Choosing the essential standards is just the first step to implementing SBG. In the next blog post, I’ll discuss how to establish SMART goals and develop rubrics to determine levels of proficiency. In the meantime, I challenge you all to take a look at your course standards and reflect on the standards you have chosen to prioritize. Do these standards meet the criteria of being an essential standard? Comment below, and remember to be bold and be brave.
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