This entry is an activity for Teach-Now while working towards a teaching certificate. Specific goals and requirements had to be met by this entry and is by no means designed to be an independent feature.
Why have standards?
In the large picture, we — people of curiosity and judgement — evaluate how one group compares to another group based on criteria of variable sets. To make an appropriate comparison of one group to another the two should have something in common. If there is nothing, then we are simply making a contrasting exploration that simply has no equaling factors but only observations or opinions of one versus the other. Standards allow for the overall evaluation of a single goal to be equally and properly assessed. It would be unfair to judge a class in School District 1234 of State A with a curriculum designed by the administration with their own achievement standards to District 5678 of State W educating students with a different set of guidelines exploring another system of subjects and process and goals. Curriculum is not the consideration, the basic need is the goal. A general observation of a standard considers this claim: standards are designed for equal, concise educational goals with the same elevating effort for all students which allows the development of a common-base data for proper evaluation (Hidden curriculum, 2014).
“The standards themselves were to define what students should ‘know and be able to do’ to the end that ‘all students learn to use their minds well, so that they may be prepared for responsible citizenship, further learning, and productive employment in our nation’s modern economy.’ (NCCAS)”
See the box, unpack.
Unpacking standards means finding the basic goals described in the intentions — “to understand what the standards are asking (Wessling, “Think Alouds”).” Exploring the standard elements provides a set of skills that students need to become productive members participating in a society. The unpacking exercise locates specific actions that create the engagement motivation and the basis of activities, and the specific knowledge and skills that will be acted upon and learned.
Exploring the New York Stated Education Department standards for Visual Arts, the standards have high expectations justifying the necessity of art making and the existence of art (NYSED, n.d.). The standards set a goal for creativity and skilled execution of that creativity. Not all individuals will be artists, but the practice of making art will at least enhance the individual’s visual thinking. Think about a person’s strongest sense — vision. Our eyes absorb shapes, color, contrast, motion, depth, and perspective sending signals to be evaluated and if necessary reacted. Each of these in the basic sense allow for a being’s survival; but in a deeper knowledge development, strategic seeing enhances thinking allowing for more observed data to evaluate and analyze for a greater creative development.
Going Backward
The essence of Backward Design is simply a process of taking a larger goal and designing smaller more manageable skill experiences each with their own goals. Accomplishing the smaller sets allows for a student to then set forth with a skill to the next challenging level progressing to each next level building on the learned knowledge to learn more knowledge. The construction creates the objectives of what the student will learn and the assessment to gauge the accomplishment of that objective. For a person to achieve a large end-goal, the person should be aware that one accomplishment will not get them to final achievement.
I have explored backward design within the Visual Arts Standard, but let me apply my comprehension to a more common experience as an example exercise.
How about making dinner: Students prepare a meal with the proper dietary needs considering taste, presentation, and quantity.
That is a big goal — to have a prepared set of foods for consumption on a table set with the proper format.
There are many skills and instances to consider:
– formal or casual;
– with or without desert;
– the time of the event;
– the number of guests;
– the entrée and sides.
Beyond this list, to make dinner you have to have food knowledge:
– how food cooks based on the type of food and the required time;
– how to prepare food;
– what foods complement each other for a overall good palatable experience.
There are many skills to accomplish in this broad stroke that can be further designed into smaller goals such as the cooking, you will need to set skill experiences:
– to fry;
– to bake;
– to boil;
– or grill;
and which food type works well with which cooking type or even how to exploring each food type in each cooking type.
The design can still refine to food preparation of cutting skills, washing skills, measuring skills, and mixing skills; and each of these can be backward designed into more refined lessons.
So the standard sets an expectation whether large or small. That expectation is not simply making a dinner but the quality and the other experienced cooking and prep skills, cooking process, language, and tools to achieve the quality designed for a tasty and healthy experience.
Making the Objective
The process of Backward Design will decide the basic expectations and goals designed to meet the expectation of the larger one. To achieve those expectations, objectives provide the required experiences of that skill. Objectives mean the skill of the process, assessments of the process and outcome for that goal. In simple terms, when I experience this particular activity I will be able to do something. The something is the objective and that something should be relevant to the larger goal or goals designed in further objectives to the standard. The relevant activity should provide a premise and then challenge the thinking to understand that premise demonstrated through several perspectives. Exploring the concept once may not be enough practice providing confidence of comprehension or ability. Practice with different explorations does not necessarily mean repeating the same execution; the following engagements provide other examples and chances to understand which could even be accomplished by deeper learning.
To cook the proper portions, students will be able to measure food amounts for mixture and preparation.Here the objective is the experience of measuring and learning the terms of the measuring units for different mass types. The objective becomes a lesson (or lessons based on the learning efficiency and effectiveness) where chefs-in-training explore the different devices of food measurement each with their own units for specific food types. A solid could be measured by a table spoon or package for volume and a scale for weight; liquids can be measured by a vessel for volume. Each of these measurements have gradients of small units to more gross units — math and language for the science of cooking.
Wrapping It Back Up
Objectives become the challenges based on exemplars or standards. Standards are units of expectations. A standard does not mean that all teachers of the same subject simply flow through a rote system of lessons with no consideration of unique situations. A recording of a lesson activity in a room of State A School District 1234 should not resemble or even be a duplicate of the same lesson in State W School District 5678. The teaching styles, the activities, and the interactions have not been decided; what has been set is the “instructional coherence (Hidden curriculum, 2014)” of the entire educational system for a stable set of skill growth and development. Creating this expectation allows a more level playing field for all graduated students to assert more of their own individuality and creativity in the competition. Standards “…embody the key concepts, processes and traditions of study in each subject area, and articulate the aspirations of those invested in our schools (NCCAS).”
References:
Wessling, Sarah Brown. (n.d.) Think Alouds: Unpacking the Standards. TeachingChannel. https://www.teachingchannel.org/videos/understanding-the-common-core-standards
Wessling, Sarah Brown. (n.d.) Learning to Read the Core: A View from 30,000 Feet. TeachingChannel. https://www.teachingchannel.org/videos/how-to-read-common-core
Hidden curriculum (August 26, 2014). In S. Abbott (Ed.), The glossary of education reform. Retrieved from http://edglossary.org/hidden-curriculum
NCCAS. (n.d.). National Core Arts Standards: A Conceptual Framework for Arts Learning. http://www.nationalartsstandards.org/sites/default/files/NCCAS%20%20Conceptual
NYSED. (n.d.) New York State Education Department Visual Arts Standard Assessment sample. http://www.p12.nysed.gov/ciai/arts/pub/artsampvisual.pdf