"But I didn't teach it that way!" Unpacking Standards to Drive Instruction

Recently, prior to administering a benchmark, some teachers realized the language in the standard was not the language they had used to teach the skill. See priority standard L.1B, highlighted in yellow below.

Now, examine the teaching activity for that skill, supplied by our approved textbook company.

Finally, examine the teacher's standard implementation guide (an entirely different document that is not part of the main teacher's manual) supplied by the textbook publisher. This guide tells teachers what students need to know, but does little to help them guide students in FORMING the tense, which is what the standard asks for.

Findings:

• The standard said one thing.

• The activity said another.

• The implementation guide asked teachers to do what was in the standard, but did not provide a learning activity.

I'm sharing this example to help us all learn and grow. In this case study, we learned that the language used in a pre-made activity, even made by the approved textbook publisher, may not reflect the specific needs of a given user- in this case, teachers using the state standards.

That doesn't mean we can't use pre-made worksheets or activities, but it does mean we need to carefully examine the language in a standard and cross-reference it with the activities we've chosen to use.

That practice is called unpacking the standard. I know this is not a practice we've engaged in much in the past, but it is a practice we will engage in to move forward. Here's a 2 minute video that may give you an "ah-hah" moment: Unpacking Academic Standards

Unpacking the standards for rigor and activity alignment is a new practice for the teachers in my building. Who unpacks the standards in your building?