Standards Literacy
Educators are often asked to unpack or break apart standards to determine the scaffolded content and skills or competencies necessary for their students in be successful learners. Unfortunately, the elephant in the room is that teachers are often not provided insights into how to read standards based on structure and function. Here are two structure-and-function examples:
To improve literacy when reading, interpreting, and analyzing standards, teachers and administrators need to be aware of the textual and symbol nuances that are important to demystify standards’ intent. Being standards literate aids in making more informed decisions when developing student learning and selecting or creating assessment and supportive instructional practices.
If you would like to listen to Janet sharing insights into standards literacy during a Curriculum SparkWebinar, click here.
Likewise, teachers need to use standards literacy to engage in standards fluency. The Latin root for fluency is to flow. In a standards context, teachers need to meet, in person or virtually, to discuss, deliberate, and decide what standards-based student learning needs to look like and sound like as students move toward, and reach, independency.
It is also important for teachers to be involved in standards fluency collaborations to make informed curriculum design, instruction, and assessment decisions. If standards-based decisions are made in vacuums (e.g., single grade level’s or course’s perspective), it can cause standards misalignment, rather than the desired standards alignment.
Janet’s years of experience in aiding schools, districts, and higher-ed programs in their capabilities to decode standard statements with fluency and comprehension lead to empowering educators in confidently determining explicit, and most importantly, implicit learning expectations across and within grade levels and courses.
curriculumdecisions.com © 2023
Designed by CS Design Studios