If you Know Where You're Headed, It is More Likely that You Will Get There!

If you Know Where You're Headed,
It is More Likely that You Will Get There!

Question | Tasks | Background Information | Resources | Activity | Revisit the Question

What do I want my students to learn and what will my students need to know to get there?

A.     Standards- What do I want my students to learn and what will my students need to know to get there?

B.    Hear a Case Study

C. Theme Discussion and             (Your Theme)            ! What do you want your students to learn?

Background Information

"If you know where you're headed, it is more likely that you will get there."
-Grant Wiggins

What do I want my students to learn?

"To begin with the end in mind means to start with a clear understanding of your destination. It means to know where you're going so that you better understand where you are now so that the steps you take are always in the right direction." Stephen Covey, "The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People".

I start the process of planning my units by reflecting on, "what would I like my students to learn during this unit?"

Then, I begin looking for what others think it is important for my students to learn.

Talk to other teachers

Consult the Massachusetts Curriculum Frameworks

Check out the National Standards

Ask an Expert

I gather all these ideas and then make a professional judgment on what is most important for my students to learn.

What will my students need to know to get there?

To continually move my students forward it is important to build on understanding, knowledge, and skills that they already possess. I attempt to find out what understanding, knowledge, and skill my students possess by reflecting on what I have already taught them, ask other teachers in lower grade levels what they have already taught them, and ask them what they already know?

Hear a Case Study

A few years ago, my father (a retired history teacher) approached me to discuss teaching a storytelling workshop with my students. Since he is a renowned storyteller, I was excited about this opportunity. I needed to figure out how I could work this into my curriculum in a meaningful way. According to my school's curriculum, I had to teach a unit on the middle ages. Was there a way that I could combine a storytelling unit with my unit on the middle ages? (Note: the final product for this unit was The Middle Ages: Storytelling Webquest)

"What do I want my students to learn?"
First, I began by checking out the Massachusetts Curriculum Frameworks in Language Arts and History. I found:

Language Arts
Standard 3: Oral Presentation
Students will make oral presentations that demonstrate appropriate consideration of audience, purpose, and the information to be conveyed.
Standard 27: Media Production
Students will design and create coherent media productions (audio, video, television, multimedia, Internet, emerging technologies) with a clear controlling idea, adequate detail, and appropriate consideration of audience, purpose, and medium.

History
Strand 5: Interdisciplinary Learning: Religion, Ethics, Philosophy, and Literature in History. Students will describe and explain fundamental tenets of major world religions; basic ideals of ethics, including justice, consideration for others, and respect for human rights; differing conceptions of human nature; and influences over time of religion, ethics, and ideas of human nature in the arts, political and economic theories and ideologies, societal norms, education of the public, and the conduct of individual lives.

Second, I knew that I had not done much with storytelling and it turned out that although other teachers have had students do oral presentations there really had not been much direct instruction on how to do a good presentation. Then, I had several conversations with my father around the standards that I needed to teach and his ideas on what kids would need to understand, what knowledge they would need, and what skills they would need to reach those goals. Next, knowing that none of my students had parents who were actors, I wrote to Ask- an- Actor to ask his opinion on what understanding, skills, and knowledge my students would need to successfully tell their story. Finaly, I asked my students what they already knew and what they would like to learn?

I combined pieces of all these ideas to develop a clear picture of exactly my students would need o know to create and tell great stories.

Standards-Based Learning Resources

Our Frameworks and Standards

State Frameworks:

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Arts October 1999

English Language Arts
June 2001

May 2004

Foreign Languages August 1999

Comprehensive Health October 1999 |

Mathematics
November 2000

May 2004
|

INTERACTIVE VERSION

History and Social Science
August 2003

Science and
Technology/Engineering
May 2001

January 2006

FRAMEWORKS ARCHIVE

National Frameworks:

IST E National Educational Technology Standards
National Council of Teachers of Mathematics
National Council of Teachers of English
National Standards for History in the Schools
The National Science Education Standards
NCATE Standards
U.S. Education Standards

Further Reading:

Assessment, Evaluation, and Curriculum Redesign
Understanding by Design by Wiggins and McTighe: A summary
Indicators of Standards-Based Teaching and Learning
Writing Performance Objectives
Teaching to Academic Standards" On-Line Workshop
Integrative Curriculum in a Standards-Based World
Standards-Based Teaching "Opens Up Possibilities"
Creating the Standards-Based Classroom" (PDF file
How to Write Clear Objectives
Understanding Objectives
Reality Check 2002: The Standards Movement
The Union City Story: Education Reform and Technology: Students' Performance on Standardized Tests
ISTE Standards for Technology Use for all Teachers

Activity

(Your Theme) . What do you want your students to learn?

I have asked each of you to come with an idea, or a theme, that you could search for a webquest on. Please take a moment to reflect on what you want your students to learn. Take notes on your preliminary ideas of what your students will need to know about your topic. Refer to your Massachusetts Curriculum Frameworks to figure out what frameworks you cover with your theme. Then, either check out the National standards or ask an expert to find out what they feel your students should understand, what knowledge they should have, and what skills they should have at the end of your unit.

Revisit the Question

What do I want my students to learn and what will my students need to know to get there?

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Created: March 8, 2001
Updated: June 6, 2006

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