Shifting Ideas
Many schools I visit often state that teachers place learning objectives on the board every morning for the day. If Marzano accompanied me on these visits, he might disagree in the actual labeling what the teachers are putting on the board. Consider walking into an ELA classroom and seeing the daily objective: "Students will create a metaphor representing the conflict between characters." At first glance, it makes sense, but in closer analysis, the overall long-term goal is one that can be reused and tracked all year. The statement above is an activity or an assignment, a one-time demonstration of the intended understanding or skill sought in the long-term planning.
Through research, Marzano reduced learning goals down to a precise statement of what students will know or be able to do. As a rule of thumb, when teachers write learning goals, they should use a syntactical structure mimicking "Students will understand..." or "Students will be able to...". The experts advise having teachers write using just these two phrases in the beginning. As teachers grow comfortable, they can replace these phrases with more specific verbiage. For instance, comfortable teachers might compose this target: "Students will be able to explain the defining characteristics of the cell membrane." Part of this is to present the two targets of knowledge sought in all classrooms. All goals reduce down to declarative and procedural knowledge. Determining and tracking this in the overall scope and sequence can further help balance the mastery attainment of students.
Through research, Marzano reduced learning goals down to a precise statement of what students will know or be able to do. As a rule of thumb, when teachers write learning goals, they should use a syntactical structure mimicking "Students will understand..." or "Students will be able to...". The experts advise having teachers write using just these two phrases in the beginning. As teachers grow comfortable, they can replace these phrases with more specific verbiage. For instance, comfortable teachers might compose this target: "Students will be able to explain the defining characteristics of the cell membrane." Part of this is to present the two targets of knowledge sought in all classrooms. All goals reduce down to declarative and procedural knowledge. Determining and tracking this in the overall scope and sequence can further help balance the mastery attainment of students.
General State Standards Translation
A beginning step for curriculum designers, instructional coaches, and classroom teachers should focus on breaking apart the standards to compose learning goals. This requires in-depth knowledge of the standards and necessitates collaborative discussion with content leaders to determine the core of the standard. When performing this task on my own, I found 10th grade ELA state standards often have 3-5 learning goals per standard if broken down according to Marzano's structure. If new teachers solely work from CCSS or other like state standards then they risk not being direct in the declarative and procedural knowledge implied by the standards.
Examples
Reporting Topic #1: RI.910.2
Determine a central idea of a text and analyze its development over the course of the text, including how it emerges and is shaped and refined by specific details; provide an objective summary of the text.
Reporting Topic #1: RL.910.1
Cite strong and thorough textual evidence to support analysis of what the text says explicitly as well as inferences drawn from the text.
Examples
Reporting Topic #1: RI.910.2
Determine a central idea of a text and analyze its development over the course of the text, including how it emerges and is shaped and refined by specific details; provide an objective summary of the text.
- Goal 5: Students will be able to objectively summarize a text.
- Goal 6: Students will be able to determine a central idea of a text.
- Goal 7: Students will be able to identify where a central idea emerges.
- Goal 8: Students will be able to track the central idea’s development over the course of the text.
Reporting Topic #1: RL.910.1
Cite strong and thorough textual evidence to support analysis of what the text says explicitly as well as inferences drawn from the text.
- Goal 27: Students will understand the difference between explicit and implicit when discussing a text.
- Goal 28: Students will be able to articulate differences between explicit textual references and inferences drawn from a given text.
- Goal 29: Students will be able to paraphrase the text directly in order to identify support for a response.
- Goal 30: Students will be able to identify, extract, and quote text to thoroughly support their reasoning and ideas.
PD OPPORTUNITY
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Use REPRODUCIBLES to have teachers identify declarative vs. procedural knowledge targets
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USE REPRODUCIBLES TO HAVE TEACHERS translate standards into goals and assessment tasks
Teachers work collaboratively to unpack standards. Educators should work to deconstruct the standard into the understandings and procedures in the standard. This often causes some discussion on the steps needed to show mastery as information is often implied by the originating organization.