If the thought of sitting down to read your grade-level standards feels daunting, you're not alone—it can be overwhelming at first. However, I promise it gets easier with practice.
Pro Tip: Start with a high-level overview of the Common Core standards, then move on to your state standards.
Quick Story:
Eight years into my teaching career, I was strongly encouraged to "unpack" the 7th-grade math standards.
I had two major problems:
I didn't know where to find the grade-level content standards.
I didn't know how to "unpack" standards.
Not knowing where to find my grade-level standards meant I didn't know what they were. As it turned out, I was teaching the wrong standards! Instead of teaching my 7th graders how to perform operations with rational numbers (which include the positive and negative fractions and decimals), I was focused on integers.
Although, I only made this mistake for one school year after the Common Core shift. I vividly remember the shock and shame I felt when I realized my oversight. My students deserved better.
That's why I'm sharing with you two steps for unpacking and internalizing your grade-level standards in just a 2-hours.
Step 1: Review the Common Core Standards
Start with the Common Core standards because the website is user-friendly and provides a high-level overview of grade-level standards for Mathematics and English Language Arts.
Sciences (Social and Technical) Don't skip this step; the standards for these subjects are available under English Language Arts for grades 6-12.
Step 1b: Use the 3-Reads Method
First Read: Read one standard.
Second Read: Read the standard again, focusing on the action verbs (e.g., identify, determine, understand, interpret).
Third Read: Internalize what students must know and be able to do.
Here's an example of a Science/Technology Standard for the 9-10 grade band
Analyze the author's purpose in providing an explanation, describing a procedure, or discussing an experiment in a text, defining the question the author seeks to address.
Action Verbs: Analyze, Define
In my own words: Students in grades 9-10 need to define the question being asked by analyzing the author's purpose for providing an explanation, procedure, or experiment.
Step 2: Read and Internalize Your State Standards
Here are two examples: the 2017 Massachusetts Curriculum Framework and the North Carolina Unpacked Standards. The North Carolina Unpacked Standards taught me how to unpack standards and helped me understand the purpose.
The point of unpacking standards is to internalize what your students must know and be able to do by the end of a lesson, a unit, and the school year.
While it might feel redundant to review both the Common Core and your state standards, there's a good reason for it. State standards can be dense and overwhelming. Starting with the Common Core helps mitigate this feeling by familiarizing you with the language and action verbs of the standards.
Your state standards provide examples of what students need to know and be able to do for end-of-year assessments. Knowing how students will be assessed helps you internalize what the standards mean for the teaching and learning that will take place in your classroom.
Understanding the intent behind each standard is crucial to your preparation for the school year and provides guidance on how to help your students meet and exceed grade-level expectations.
Up Next: Take the Tests
In the next post, we'll discuss the importance of doing the work of the state and district assessments your students will take in the upcoming school year.
In the meantime, please leave a comment: What would you add or change to these steps for unpacking your grade-level content standards?
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