Becoming a better teacher

The eigh t innov ati onsincluded in this book are l essen t ial questions,2 curr iculum integrati on,3 sta ndards-based curriculumand assessmen t design, 4 authe n t icassessmen t, 5 sco

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M artin-Kni ep , G iselle 0., 19

56-B ecomi ng a b etter t eacher : e igh t inn ovati on s th at w ork / G iselle O.

M artin-Kniep

p c m.

Includ es bibli ographical r eferenc es a n d ind ex.

"A SCD p roduct n o 100043" - T p ve rso.

I SBN 0 -8712 0-385 -5 ( alk p ap er)

1 Ef fect ive t eaching 2 C urriculum pl anning 3 Edu cati on al t ests

a n d m easurem ents I Titl e.

LB10 25.3 M 3 7 2 00 0

To the colleagues who believein teachers asI do

Dian e, Dian a,Mark

To thosewho remind me of what isimportant

Rick,Nan ette,Jean, Carl

List of Figures vi

2 Curr iculum Integrati on as aTool for Cohe rence 7

3 Sta ndards-BasedCurr iculumand AssessmentDesign 14

6 Portfolios:A Window into Studen ts' Thinking and Learning 66

7 Reflection :A Keyto Developing GreaterSelf-U nderstan ding 74

8 ActionResearch:Asking and AnsweringQuestionsAboutPractice 8

b yD iane C unningham

Appendix A: ToolsforDeveloping a Curr iculum Unit 107Appendix B:ToolsforDevel opingAuthenticAssessments 117Appendix C: Toolsfor DesigningPortfolioAssessments 124

References and Resources 140

3.1 A Teach er'sRepr esentation ofaSoci al StudiesCurriculum 16

3.2 Curr iculuman d AssessmentDesign Process 183.3 Scoring Rubric for aKindergart en Unito Commun ity 23

4.1 Draft 1ofan Assessmentfor aPersonalResistanc eTrainingProgram 294.2 RevisedDraft ofan Assessmentfor a PersonalResistanc e

5.4 A Rubric for Oral Presentation Skills forMuseum Volunteers 38

5.5 A Rubric for Developing an dSupport ing an Inform edOpinion 39

5.7 A Rubric for Principles ofCritical Thinking 43

5.10 A Rubric for"DoesEgypt Qualify as aGreat Civilization?" 50

5.11 A WritingMechanicsRubric That Violates Con ten tGuidelines 5

5.12 A WritingRubric That ViolatesGuidelinesfor Structureor Form 53

5.13 A Rubric for an OralPresentation on a Culture

(Illustr ating Common Probl emswith Rubrics) 555.14 A Holistic Scie nce LabRubric with Ben chmark Samples 58

7.1 A Teach er- andSt uden t-Ge nerated SuccessScale 78

7.3 Studen t-Gene ratedCriteria for a Good Reflection 80

9.1 A Mapping Structure for Planning an Integrat ed Curr iculum 101

Schools are bomb arded by good ideas an dbad

ideas, an deven man y of the good ideas are

poorly implem ented Someof thebest

inno-vat ions die aquick death becausenot eno ugh is

donetoinstitutionalizethem Thereasons are not

difficult tounderstand.Educati onal syste msare

conservati veby design and resistanttochan ge

Many schools lack basicequipmen t,supplies,an d

space Many teacherslack thetraining an dad

min-istr ative support required to con fron t a growing

number ofstuden ts with myriad socia l, emo t iona l,

and cognitiveneeds Somet imes polic yismade

without suppor t ing evidence of thevalidity of the

proposed cha nges Schools react ,initiallyrespond,

and even tually becom edistr act edby compet ing

forces and newideas.Professionaldevelopmentis

too often considered aluxury,insufficiently

sup-portedbyall butahandful ofschoolsand districts

throughout thenati on

Man yteachersin theUnited Sta tes donot

have access to serious professionaldevel opment

afte r they get their educa t iona l degrees.Their

induction into schoolsandsubsequen tsurv ival

depend grea tlyon thepeople theywork with,the

vii

condit ions that surro und them , an d themor eexperienced peerswhomentor them Teacherswhohave access toprofessionaldevelopmentfarebetterthan thosewhodon't,inasmuch astheylearn abo uteducat ional innov ati ons and aregiventhetoolsto incorp orat ethem intotheir teachingpractices.However,without a supportiveadmin is-

trati ve staffand continued feedb ack on their use

of theseinnov ati ons,teacherstend to aban donany innovati on that distancesthem too muchfrom the sta tus quoin their schools

Thisbook is abo utgood innovati onswell worthimplementing.It is aimed at teachers and admin is-

trat orswho mayhavehad littleform al exposure tothem and whowantto cons ider their implem enta-tion.It is alsosuitable for teacherswhohavebeenexposed to someaspects of learner-c entered educa-tion but havehad few oppor tun ities tolink theseinto a cohe ren t whole.Ichose the eigh t innov a-tionsdiscussed in thisbookbecause, as awhole,theyfoster a studen t-cen te red classroom en viron-mentthat isboth equitable and rigorous.Each oftheinnov ati onshas alonghistory of implementa-tion an d hasbeenresearched an devaluated in a

viii Becoming a Better Teacher: Eight Innovations That Work

vari ety ofsettings.Some of themhavebeen the

subjec tofone or moreprofessionalbooks,but I do

notknow ofany book in print that examines

sever-al innov ati onsin one conveni entpresentati on

My decision todo so ste ms from abeliefthat

these innov ati ons are nec essary,but individually

they are not sufficien t to enhance studen t learning

In fact , one of theprobl emsin professional

devel-opmen t workshops an dcon feren ces isthat these

innovati ons are treat ed as self-con ta ine d ideas and

techniquesthat aredivorced from a suppor t ive

context.For example, workshops on rubrics or

assessmen t donot sufficien tlyacco un t for thefact

that rubrics an d perform anc e assessmen ts need to

be attache d tocurriculumassign men tsan d learning

experien ces Similarly, it makesno sense for teach

-ers todevel op portfoliosfor st uden ts if theyd not

provide st uden ts with worthy assign men ts for their

portfoliocollecti ons an d withongo ingopportun

i-tiesfor st uden ts toreflect on their learning.Many

teacherworkshops are not long eno ugh toinclude

timeto link theuse of portfolioswith thekinds of

assign men ts that are likely to enha nce their use

Although I havewrittenthisbookforteach ers

whohavelittleprior knowledge of theinnov ati ons

describ ed ,more experien ced teacherscan also ben

-efit fromreviewin gtheseinnovati ons an d

consid-ering them aspart s ofacomp rehensivewhole.It

isdifficult for teacherstonurturetruelearningif

theydon't experience thelearningprocessfor

themselves

In addit ion, I urgeteacherstopursue in-depth

experien ces withan yone of thetopics addressed in

thisbook The eigh t innov ati onsincluded in this

book are (l) essen t ial questions,(2) curr iculum

integrati on,(3) sta ndards-based curriculumand

assessmen t design, (4) authe n t icassessmen t,

(5) scoring rubrics,(6) portfolios,(7) reflection,

and (8) act ion research.Thechapt ersthat discuss

theinnov ati ons aresimilar instruct ure in that theyinclude arati onale, adescription of what theinno-vati onrequires and what it lookslikein different

classroom settings,an danoverviewof the stepsteacherscan take in incorporatingit intotheirpractice.Eachchapteris also drivenbyan essen tial

question and is supported by work samples fromteachers an d by comp ositeimagesthat allow teach-ers ingradesK-12 tomake sense of themat erialpresented.Annot at edlists of recommendedresourc esfor furtherlearning appea rat the end ofthechapters

Cha pter 1 tacklesthe essen tial question,What

is essen t ial ? It showcases theuse ofessen tial tions as amean sto increaseclassroom discourse

ques-an d thinking, as a toolforcreatingcurriculumcoherence, and as avehiclefor helping studen tsrealize that learningis an endless journey-that is,themoreweknow,themoreweknowwhat wehaveyet tolearn Thechapt er addresses thefol-lowingguidingquestions:What areessen tial ques-tions?What do theylooklike ?Howcan teachersusethem ?When should teach ersusethem ?Howare theydifferentfrom guiding questions?Whosho uldgene rate them ?Howd we assesscurricu-lum that is supported byessen tial questions?It is

no acciden t that thisisthefirst chapter of thebook.Thetopic makesthe sta te men t that substa n-tiveinquiry around importantquestionsisintrinsic

to a valuable educa tionalexperien ce

Cha pter 2 dealswith theneed tointegrat ethecurriculumsothat teachers an dstuden ts experience

itas acoherentwholerather than as a smorgasbord

of isolat ed activit ies It tackl esthe essen tial qution ,Is all integrati on good? This cha pter laysthefoundati onfor integrat edcurriculumand assess-mentdesign and provid esteacherswith criticalbackgroundinform ati on formakingimportantdesign decisions.Asisthecasewith many othe r

es-innovations, attempts at integrating thecurriculum

areoften poorlythought out and too superficia l to

be good for studen tsor worththetimeit takesto

put themtogether.Thischapterprovid esreasons

forcurricular integrati on, offersguidelines forthe

selectionand use oforgan izing centers, suggests cri

-teriaforjudgingthemerit s of integrat edunits, and

raisesimportantissuesrelat ed tothedevelopm ent

of units at theelementary and secondary levels

Cha pte r 3addressessta ndards-based curriculum

and assessmen t design Politician s and educa tors

alike cons idersta nda rds tobenecessaryforthe

attain men tofabetter educat ion for studen ts But

the sta n dards mov ementlacksmod els of practice

-that is, specificstrateg ies that help practitioners

use such sta n dards tomake sound curriculum,

instruction, and assessmen t deci sions.Teachers are

curren tly ill-equipped todesign studen t-cen te red

and sta ndards-basedconstruct ivist curriculum an d

assessmen tsan d havefew opportun it ies to

deter-minewhat part of their curriculum is essen t ialand

what isredundant orobsolete Thischapt ertackl es

the essen t ial question,What isthebest wayto

pack age learning? and seeks toprovideteachers

with practical ideasfor addressing thedemands

posedby district, sta te, and nati onal sta ndar ds

It helpsteachers graph ically representtheircur

-riculum and use thisrepresentati on as abasisfor

identifyinglearner outco mesan d relatingthem to

outsidestan dards It also helpsteachers"unpack"

stan dardssotheycan usethemto establish

educa-tionalprioritiesfortheir studen ts

Cha pte r 4 highli ghtstheuse ofauthe n t ic

assess-ment an d is driven bythequestion, Can learning

inschool be authe n t ic? Authentic assessmen t has

been advoca tedsin ce themid-1980s as a mean sto

helpstuden ts engage with real or plausible

prob-lems an d challen ges.Y most school programs are

not conduciveto authe n t ic learning experiences

In fact, one could argue that schools themselves,especia lly high schools,are design ed tominimizeauthe n t icity After all, howman y of us experiencelife in 42-minute segmen ts? Thischapterdefin esthe att ributesofauthe n ticassessmen t and sho wsteacherswhat it mightlookliketorefin e existingassessmen ts tomakethem more authe n tic It pro-vides examplesofauthe n ticassessmen tsan dguide-linesforwhen an d howtodesign them in differentcontext s

Cha pter 5 followsnaturallyfrom theprec edingcha pter byexploring theuse ofscoring rubricstosupport an d measure learning.The essen t ial ques-tionforthechapt er isthis:Howd wecommuni-cate what wemean b "good" ?Man y sta tes, dis-tricts, an d classroom teachers are nowusing sco ringrubricsto evaluate studen t learning.However,littlehasbeen said abo ut the roleof rubrics as scaffold-ing an dsupport ing toolsfor learning.This cha pteridentifiesqualityindicat ors of rubrics,helpsteach-ersassess existing rubric s, showsexe mplary rubrics,

an d providesvarious strateg ies fordevelopingrubricswithand without studen t input

Cha pter 6 is abo ut theuse ofst uden t portfolios

aswindowsinto stude n ts' thinking and learning.It

is supported by thequestion ,Who are we asers? It argues forportfolios asthemostcompreh en -sive toolfordocumenting studen ts'growth, efforts,

learn-an dach ieve men ts in one or more areas Portfoliosprovid e evolving images ofstude n ts' work and,acco mpan ied bystuden ts' reflections, ena ble read-ers towitnesswhat studen ts think abo ut them-selvesaslearners.Thischapterdescribesdifferentkinds and uses ofstuden t portfolios.Itprovidesteacherswithguidelines for initiatingtheuse ofportfolios an d helpsthem useportfolios ascommu-nicati ontoolswith parents andothe r teachers

Cha pter 7 addresses thetopic of reflection as amean sfor teach erstodevelop a grea ter understand-

x Becomin ga Better Teacher : Eight Innovations That Work

ing of their studen tsand tohelp thembecom e s

elf-regulat ed learn ers.It is supported bythe essen t ial

question,Howd welearn ?The cha pte r is guided

by thebeliefthat if wewant st udents tobecom e

thoughtful individualswho can assume responsibil

-ityfor their own learning,wehavetoteach them

howto analyzeand evaluate their work Wehave

tohelp them defin erealistic yet challeng ing goals

for their con t in ued learning an dsho w themhowto

identify appro priatestrateg ies for attain ing those

goals The cha pte r provides variousstrateg ies to

help studen ts become reflective andshows what

studen t reflectionlookslikein variousgrades

Cha pter 8addresses thetopic ofact ion research

and answers thefollowingquestion :Howdo q

ues-tion steach ?Acti onresearchis about askingq

ues-tion s and identifyingprobl emsthat can be solved

through syste mat ic inquiry.Itis about believingthat

we, asteachers, can produce valuable knowledge

aboutour work This cha ptersho ws teach erswhat

action researchrequir es and provid es a step-by-step

process so that they can begin touseit in their

practice.It also describes variousaction research

studiesconducted by educators in different sett ings

Thefinal cha pte r in thisbookis abo ut putting

all thepiecestogether.It tacklesthefollowing

question:What doesit lookliketobe alearn

er-cen te red teacher ?Tofullyimplem ent all theprceding innovati ons,teachersneedto embrace cer-

e-tainbeliefs abo ut themselves an d theirwork , some

of which runcon trary to common teachingprtices.Theyneedto assume responsibilityfor the

ac-design and implementati on of their curriculum

instead ofseeing themselves simplyasimplem en

-tors ofschool,district, orsta te mandat es.They

needtofocus their atten t ion o studen ts' learning

an d not on what they sho uldcover from dayto

day.Theyneedto assumealong-t erm view towardimprovingtheir practice an d redesigningtheir cur-riculuman d take sho rt steps that lead themin thatdirection.This cha pter providesteacherswith

beginning ste ps for embracing these beliefs

taught seemssenseless,devoid of any m

ean-ingfulcontext Thepressuresteach ers feel to

"cove r"the curriculum orto preparestudents for

stan da rdized testsresult inacurriculum that is

content-dri ven rather than learn er-based It isdif

-ficult to mediatetheneeds of the st uden ts while

attending to thepressures of thetext, which is

still themostcommon curriculumorganizer Texts

are logical, organ ized, crisp,and in black and

wh ite Stude n ts' needs and backgrounds, on the

othe r hand , areextrao rdina rily diverse and c

om-plex.I the goal is efficiency, thetext and the f

or-mal curriculumwill prevail.The exception to this

rule occursin kindergart en and preschoole

duca-tion, mostl ybecause youngch ildren's readinessto

respon d as passive learn ersis very limited.The

sit uat ion changes quicklywith socializatio np

res-1

sures and with a curriculum that is too often divorced from st ude nts' needs and backgro unds.In

-man y grades and subjec ts, it isuncommon tofind

acoh erent,learner-based curriculum

Teach erscan use essential question s to engage

studentswith thecurriculum.Thesequestions

allow teacherstotacklethe curriculum while

helpingthem treat itas someth ing tobediscov

-eredand negoti at ed.Essentialquestions can r

e-mind teachers andstude n ts that learn ingis aj

our-ney,that thequesttoknowisnever-ending, and

that the voyage can begin atany point in time

Essent ialquestionscan raise the level of discourse

inaclassroom by ena blingeveryone to question

and investigat e, to discuss an dto debat e.They

canalsoprovide the gluefora un itor a seriesof

lesson s, and they can respect the man ynewtests

man dated as aresult of new, ofte n more d

emand-ing sta nda rds

2 Becomin g a Bett er T eacher: Eight Innovations That Work

Essentialquestions are compelling Theytran

-scendcult uraland age boundaries in ways that no

othe rquest ionsdo They are universal.They are

neverfully answerab le Themoreindividu als grow

and mature, the more they kn ow abo ut howmuch

theyhave yet tolearn aboutsuch questions.E

ssen-tial questions somet imes donot appearessen t ial

Their answerappearsobv iousat first, aswith the

quest ion H ow far isf ar?However, asthepondering

begins,it becom esclear that the answe r isnot s

im-pleat all,but rather subjec t tomultiplep

erspec-tives and interpr et ati ons.Essential quest ions lead

totherealizati onthat knowledgeis an ongo ing

search, andone that makeslifeworthliving

The quest ionof who sho uldgene rate essen t ial

quest ionssuggestsvarious possibilities.Teachers

can gene rate essen t ialquest ions individually oras a

school faculty Studen tscan alsogene rate essen t ial

quest ionseithe rby the mselves or withthe teacher

What Do Essential Questions Look Like?

Thefollowing aresomeexamplesofessen t ialques

-tions Units driven by these questions can result in

powerfuldiscussions an dcha lleng ing proj ect s

• Arewereallyfree ?

• Areleadersmade orare they bornwith l

ead-ersh ipqualit ies?

• What is the meaning of life ?

• Doeshistoryreallyrepeat itself?

• Wheredoespercepti on endand reality begin?

• Howfar isfar ?

• Isthere suchathing as a selflessact?

• Istime an absolute thing?

• What makeswriting worth reading?

• Isit bettertolivewith the quest ion or the

wrong answer?

• How dowe explain the unexpl ainable ?

• What is essen tial?

• What isprogress?

• Dowehave con tro loverourdestiny?

• What'sthepoint ofapoint ofview?

• Isthere any th ingorigina l?

• Ifwe areso alike, howd we explainourdifferences?

• Can there be good without evil?

• Can a ch ild be a scie ntist?

• Arehuman sinhuman e ?

• What isjustic e ?

• Dopeopl ereally rule?

• Can amoralpersonbeimmoral ?

• Are allcult uresequallyvaluab le?

• Which culture isbest ?

• What ishappiness?

• Doestechnology drive new technology or do

peopl e drive new tech no logy?

• Istechnologyinvented or discovered ?

• Islove at first sight love ?

• Can a virt ue be a vice?

• What makes art grea t?

• What is good poetry?

• Who shoulddefine what art is?

• Does art changesocie ty?

• When does loyalt y becomecoward ice?

• Can you win an d lose at the same time ?

How Might Essential Questions Be Used?

Aswith theremaining cha pte rs in thisbook ,this

cha pter beginswith aquestion (What isesse ntial? )

that provides aframework for thechapt er.In the

classroom , essen t ial questionscan frame a unit, a

course,or a year Theycan be used tohook s

tu-dentsinto an inquirythat theywillconduct them

-selves.A quest ion for a yearlongstudycould be

What mak es m e wh oIa m?orWhatispr ogress?Man y

of thequestionslistedin thepreceding sect ion lend

themselvesto specific units ofst udy Whatfollows

aresomeexamplesof howthesekinds of questions

can relat e todifferent con ten t and becom e the

organ izing centers of inquir y-driven units

Wha t sth e m ost imp ortant di scovery of th e 20th ce

n-tury ?can launch aunit in whichgroupsofstuden ts

research a specific discovery,write apositionpaper,

andsubmit it toLi femagazinewithaproposalfor

includin git in an upcomingissue on innovation s

worthremembering asthenew cen tury begins

H ow d oes a rt r eflect th e h ealth o f a s ociety?canbe

used in aunit in which 10thgrade rs visit an art

galleryor museum and interviewfive visitorsabo ut

what the artexh ibit communicat es abo ut socie ty

Aftercompilingthisinform ati on,the studen tscan

useit todevelop aclass-gen erat ed lettertotheN

a-tionalEndowm entfortheArtsrecommending a

specificstance on thefundingfor specific kinds of

work

ThequestionWh enisth e cos t o f d iscoverytoo

hi gh?can serve asthe springboa rd to a studyof the

eth icsof cloningin ahigh school biologyclass

Ca n w e h ave a fa mily o f o ne? can lead akind

er-garte n classin exploring the conce pt of family

Isw ar a n ecessity?can frame amiddle school

uniton theCivil War

Essentialquestions can easily berelat ed to sta

n-dards.Cons ider thefollowing examples:

• NewYork Sta testa ndard: Studentswill und

er-sta nd mathematics an d becom e mathem atic ally

confiden t by communicating and reasoningm

athe-matically,by applying mathematic sin real-world

settings, an d bysolving probl emsthrough the int

e-gratedstudyof number syste ms, geometry,algebra,

dat a ana lysis, prob ability, and trigonom etry

Possible essen tial questions:What o f m athematics

ise ssential? Ar e numb ers r eal?

• Florid a stan dard: The studen t understandsthe

roleof thecitizen in theAmeric an democr acy

Possible essen tial questions:Dop eople re ally rule ?

Is th e c ivil ri ghts m ovement o ver?

How Can Essential Questions Be Used in Assessment?

Essentialquestionscan becom e one of thetools

that teachersuseto assess st uden ts' learningin aunitofst udy Teacherscan usethem as adiagnosticassessmen t if they ask thequestionbeforebegin -ning a specific unit, an d theycan usethem as a

summat ive assessmen t if they askstuden ts the same

question at the en dof theunitor if theyhave s

tu-dentsreview and revisethe answer they gave to

thequestion at thebeginning of theunit.Thus,

even if thequestion isnevercompletely answered,

teachers can bringtheunit toclosurebyallowing

studen ts to assesstheir growth in understanding

from thebeginningtothe end of theunit

For example, Rick Hinrichs, a6thgrade teacher

in Mattituck,NewYork , asked his studen ts the

followingquestion on pre- and post-t estsfor aunit

o an cien t Egypt :DoesEgypt qualify as a grea tcivilizati on ?Hereisthecomplet epret estresponse

ofone of his studen ts:

Y es, I t h ink th at E gypt qu alifies as a g reat

c ivilization b ecause th ey h ad p yramid s,

4 Becoming a Better Teacher: Eight Innovations That Work

wh ichthey used astombs,lots ofsand,

wh ichthey traveled across; theyhad e

le-phantswhich they rode,and the queen ,

Cleopatra who was verypowerful.All these

thingshavetodo withcivilization

Her e are excerpts fromthepost -t est response of

the same stude n t:

I think thatEgypt qualifiesas a greatciv

i-lizationbecausetheyhad avery strong

gov-ernment Theyhadpharaohsthatmade

rulesthatthepeoplehadtofollow The

Ancient Egyptian governmentwaskindof

liketheUS Government The pharaoh was

likethe presiden t,and hehadpeopleto

helphim makelaws

Tobe civilizedyoualso need alanguage

Ifyou have alanguage youareable to talk,

write,and learn Ancient Egyptian writing

was called Hieroglyph ics

You also need aReligion Egyptiansb

e-lievedin many gods

Ancient Egyptianshad a culture,a way of

life.Butalmosteverymanhadtohelpbuild

the Pyramid thatthepharaoh of thattime

would beput inwhen he died Themain

people thatbuilt the pyramids were farmers

andslaves because they madeu most ofthe

Egyptian population

Sincescribes mademanyrecords, alot of

them were found in later years, All the

recordswerewritten on Papyrus.Papyrus

wasmade of reedsfrom the deltainthe

mouth of theNileRiver

Along thesidesof the Nile Riverthere

was very rich soil The soilwas sorichb

e-causeeveryyearwhen the Nile River ove

r-flowed.Whenthe water level came back

down Silt hadbeen deposited on theri

ver-banks Therich soil partswerefullof

plan ts becausethey grewverywell there

People plante d plant sinthe middle of the

deserttoo Since theplantsneededtob

watered, EgyptiansneededIrrigation This

includedwells andcanals

All thesethingshavetodo with whyIthink thatAncien tEgypt was civilized

Thedifferencesin the stude n t's responses on the

pre- an d post -t est to the same essen t ial questi on

clearl ydemonstrat e growth in learning.For a

rubric used to assess such a essen t ialquest ion,

please see therubric in Figur e 5.10 (p.50)

Why Ask Essential Questions?

Educators should ask essen t ial questi onsbecause

there are timeswhenit isimportantfor stude n ts

to ponder universal issues,to do subs ta n t ive rsearch that ismor ethanthemere gather ing of

e-facts,to learnthatthe world of ideas is comp lex

an d that some t imes manydiffer ent andeq ually

validways of interpreting the same eve n tor issue

app ly Without aski ng essen t ial questi ons,what is

ther efor educa t ion to do? Essential questi ons

sho uld be at theheart of learningwithinan do

ut-side schools

How Do Essential Questions Differ from Guiding Questions?

Essentialquesti ons are notmeantto elic ita"right"

or "wrong" answer; they are meant to be addressed,

to prompt st ude n ts to think expans ively, to co

n-side r ideas.They are universal an d do notbelong

to a specificsubjec t Guiding questi ons, also

known asunit questi ons, ste m from a spe cificcriculum.They areobjec t ives turned intoquesti ons

ur-For exa mple, the objec t ive "Studentswill identify

thetop ographic charac te rist icsof Jap an" can b

e-com etheguidingquestion "What are thet

opo-graph iccha rac terist icsof Japan ?"

Some examplesofguiding questionsthat ste m

from thequestionWhat isth e m ost i mportant d

iscov-e ry o f th e 20th ce ntury? are these:How did the

in-ven tion of thetelephonechan ge socie ty? Howhas

ourability tomap thehuman geno me affected our

ability to exte nd life ?The essen t ial questionIsw ar

a n ecessity?couldbe supportedby thefollowing

guiding questions:Whowerethemaindecision

makersduringthe Civil War ?What arethe various

justificati on sforthatwar ?Whowerethelosers?

Whowere thewinners?

Whereas on lyone essen t ial questiondrives a

unit,man y guiding questions suppor t it

When Are Essential Questions Appropriate?

Teachers sho uld use essen t ial question stolaunch

an inquiry-based unit in which theyd notfeel

compelled toprovid e studen ts with the one right

answer Essentialquestionswork bestwhens

up-porting aunit integrat ed around broad conce pts,

such aswar,justic e, commun ity, tradition, interd

e-pendence, syste ms, power, and light.They are

harder todevelop, but just asimport ant, for units

that are drivenb narrowertopic s, such asH amlet,

the Civil War, orCh ina Essentialquestion s sho uld

notbe asked when aunit involv esn inquiry-that

is,when theteacherhas a specific body of inform

a-tiontodeliverwithout an y questioning or research

by studen ts Thefollowing aresomecriteria forthe

development ofessen t ial questions

1 T eachers s hould b e co mfortable with n ot a

nswer-i ng th e qu estion.Themainpurposesforusin g esse

n-tialquestions are tohelp st uden ts ponder issues or

ideasthat are intrinsicallycomplex an d torealize

that the search forknowledgeis ongo ingan d does

not en d when aunitorcourse is over Thequ

es-tionmayliterallybe answered, buteveryone will

recognizethat evena very thoughtful andcarefully

prepared answer isnot the on ly possible answer to

an essen t ial question Someanswers,ofcourse, may

bemorepersuasivethan othe rs

2 Ev eryone s hould re lateto th e qu estion.A qu

es-tionis essen tial if peopl e ofallages, eth n icities,

and backgroundsfind it important.However,theuniversalnature ofessen t ial question sdoesnot

mean that themat erial that supports the m is

equallyaccessible to allst uden ts Teachers sho uld

ens ure that themat erial isrelevant an dsign ifican t

for specificgroupsofstuden ts

3 Th e qu estion s hould b e co ngruent w ith th e unit

co ntent. Theunitorcourse needstoprovide s

tu-dentswitheno ugh mat erial and contentforthem

tobe able tounderstand thequestion at amuch

deeper level They sho uld havemoreto say abo ut

possible answersat the end of theunit than when

theyfirst asked themselvesthequestion

4 Th e qu estion s hould b e rea listic a nd t eachablein

th e co ntext o f th e t ime a nd th e co urse o r gr ade tau ght.

Thequestionneedstobe approacha ble within thetime and resourc es available duringtheunit

5 Th e qu estion s hould e licit multipl e p erspectives

Thequestion should be accompan ied by oppor nitiesfor studen ts to explore differentviewpoints

tu-orapproaches tothequestion

6 Th e qu estion s hould ge nerate a s m any qu estions

as it a nswers.Endingtheunit with man ymore

quest ions than the studen ts had when they began

theunitsho ws that theyhave attainedadeeperunderstanding of thequestion and itsimplicati ons

Theadage "Themore weknow themoreweknow

what wedon't know" applies here

6 Becoming a BetterTeacher: Eig ht Innovations That Work

Activities for the Reader

1.Creat e one or twoguiding questionsfor one

of thefollowing essen t ial questions:

a.Are somestereo types true ?

b.Should all citizensbetreated equally?

c Can/sho uld chan gebe sto pped?

2.Generate an essen t ial questionfor an inqui

ry-based unit you plan toteach.Usethe crite ria in

thischapterto assesswhether you have anessen t ial

question ora guiding question

Recommended Resources

Integra-ting the curriculum and assessment K-1 2.Al exandria,

a ny di strict int erested in d eveloping a m ap o f th eir

K-1 2 p rograms in tegrating c urr iculum a nd assess men t.

es-se n t ial qu estions t o fr ame o r g uide c urricular d esign

o r sc hool di stri ct.

[ acobs o utl ines seve n s te ps ( ph ases) di strict s ca n f

ol-l ow wh en c rea t ing a nd workin g with c urriculum m aps

t he ir ow n di sciplines b ased o n w hat th ey act ua lly t each

C urriculum m apping p rovid es a v isual t o id en tify p oten

ap-p ing A ppendixes prov ide sa mple c urriculum m aps a nd

exa mples o f esse nt ial qu estion s.

e-sign.Al exandria, VA : A ssociati on f or S upervision

a nd C urriculum D evelopmen t.

er-s tand ing Th e a uthors r efer t o esse nt ial a nd unit qu

es-ti on s in seve ral o f t he c ha pte rs a nd includ e num erous exa mples o f esse n t ial qu estion s th roughou t th e b ook

as a Tool for

Coherence

Essential Question:

Is ALL Integration Good?

In manyclassrooms,teachersfeeltheyhave too

much todo an d toolittletimetoteach

every-thing stude n ts need toknow.Textbooks and

supplemen ta ry resourc escontinueto grow in

re-sponse to an increased knowledgebase.In

addi-tion, an increasin gnumber of district, sta te,and

nati onaldem andsimpinge on teachers' use of

classroom time.On the othe r hand, studen ts'

needshavenotdiminish ed Human probl ems,

es-peciallythose of children an dado lescen ts,are best

dealt with through intense and continuous one

-on one communicati -on an d through healthy

in-teracti onsthat ena bleadults tobecomepositive

role models andguides.Such communicati on is

increasin glydifficult tocom ebygiven the

ever-growing comp artmentalizati on of the school day

Havingtoomuchtoteach with increasingly

thicker and moredemandingtextbookspresents a

challenge.It makesit difficult for teach ersto ca

re-fully consider therelati onship sbetw een seeming ly

7

unconnect ed mat erialsfromwithin and acrosssubjects Muchof what stude n tsexper ien ceastheymov efrom one classto ano the rand from onesubject to ano the r isunconnect edto alargerwhole.It isthereforeimperative tofind waystoconsolidat econtent sothat studen tsan d teach erscan make sense of the myriad st imuli that affectthem

Teachersneed to assume grea ter control of thelocalcurriculum by designing an d implementing alimited number of integrat ed units an d lessonsin-stea d of relyingprimarily on textbooks an d teach-ingisolat ed act ivitiesan d lessons.The overallprincipletokeep in mind isc oherence Curriculumintegrati oncan be acritical mean sfordevelopingcoherenceinstuden ts' learning experien ces.This cha pter presentsreasonsforcurriculum in-tegrati on,describ esthreedifferentkinds of cur-riculum integrati on, provid es guidelines forthe se-lection and use oforgan izing centers, suggests

8 Becoming a Better Teac her: Eig ht I nnovations That Work

criteriafor judging thevalidityof integratedunits,

and raisesimportant issuestoconsider in thedevel

-opmen tof units at theelementaryand seconda ry

level s.Chapter3 goesthroughthe ste ps todesign

an integrat ed,stand ards-based unit Thischapter

providesthebackground an d guidelines teach ers

needtounderstandbeforetheycan build a

practi-cal unit with curriculum integrity.Although this

chapt er is sho rt, thecautions and guideposts are

many.They are not meant tocon stitute afixed

templ at e an d neednotbeslavishlyfollowed They

are meant to give teach ers afeelingfor what is at

stakeandgene rally howtoproc eed

What A re the Reasons fo r

C urriculum Integration?

Curriculum integrati oncallsfor thedevelopment

of connectionsbetween somet imes natural an d

somet imesseemingly disparat ebodi es of knowledge

and skills, and betw een studen ts'experiences an d

backgrounds an d what theylearn inschool The

primaryreasonspropellingcurriculum integrati on

are (1) growing support for learning and assessmen t

experien ces that requir e the applica t ion of

knowl-edge rather than memorizati on an daccumulat ion

of facts;(2) increasing understanding of howthe

brainproc essesinform ati onthrough patterns and

conne ct ions withan emphas ison coherenc e;

(3) emerging awareness that knowledge isneither

fixed nor universal, an d that problems of real

sig-nificanc ecannotbe solved out ofa sin gle

disci-pline of knowledge; and (4) thebeliefthat an

inte-grated curriculumcan help teach ers and studen ts

overco me rigid and arbitrary percepti ons ofsubject

boundaries.For more than 70 years,philosophers,

researchers, an deducators havequestioned the

va-lidityofseparatesubjectapproaches tocurriculum

(Wrightstone,1935,1936; Inform alcommittee oftheProgressiveEducati onAssoci ati on,1941;Aikin,1942; Hanna& Lan g,1950; Soodak &Martin-Kni ep, 1994).These reviews indic at e thatstuden ts' learningis en ha ncedasthe curriculummov esfurther in thedirection of integrati on

Wha t A re the Fo rms of

C urri cu lum Integration?

Curriculum integrationcan appear in variousform s.Integrati on of contentreferstoconnections of thecontentwithinand amongsubjects A socialstud iesteach er'suse ofartor literature to enablestuden ts

todevelop abroaderunderstanding ofaculturalgion is an exampleof contentintegrationwithinaclassroom A socia lstudies teach er andan Englishteach er teaching ajointlydeveloped uniton culturethat blurstheboundariesbetween thetwo subjects

re-is anexampleof contentintegrati on acrosssubjects.Both of theseform s of content integration arealsoreferred to asinterdisciplinarycurriculum

Integrati on ofskills involv esconnections amongskillsan d proc esses an d thecontextsin which theyapply (that is,reading,writing, and thinking acrossthecurriculum).Integrati on ofschoolan dself

concerns connectionsbetw eenwhat goes on inschoolan d the st ude n ts'outside world ,includingtheir desires, experiences, aspirations, and interests(C ase,1991)

Each of theseform s of integrati onhas arightfulplace in theclassroom an d requirespurposeful andstrateg ic decisionsb teach ers.This cha pte r ad-dressesthe integrati on ofcon te n t and skillsan dhow such integrati onrelat estocurriculum design

Cha pter 7 addresses thetopic of reflection, which

is one of themost usefulwaystopromotethegrat ionofstude n ts'selvesan d their learning

inte-What Are Organizing (enters?

The organ izing center isthehubof theunit-what

hold sit together.There are manykinds oforgan

iz-ingcenters,includingtopic s(theAmeric an R

evo-lution,African Americ an s) ,themes (bears, a

via-tion) ,concept s (war,change,flight) ,phen om en a

and probl ems(deforestati on in Brazil, violen ce in

schools),and issues (human rights,immigrati on

intotheUnited Sta tes )

Severalauthorsoffer variousclassificati onsfor

organ izing centers.Theseclassificati onscan help

teachers assesstherelativemerits ofsomeorgan

iz-ingcenters overothe rs For example, Bean e (1997)

classifies organ izing centersintothefollowingcat

e-gories: (1) topic s con ta ine d within the separate

subjects (C olonialliving,myths an d legends,the

MiddleAges) ,(2) socia l probl ems or issues(c

on-flict,the environ men t, educa t ion ), (3) issues and

concerns ofyoung people(getting along with

peers,lifein school, Who am I?),(4) appea ling

topic s (dinosaurs, apples, teddy bears) , and (5)

proc ess-oriented topics(change, syste ms, cycles)

On the other hand, Willard Kniep (1979) iden

-tifiesfour kinds oforgan izing centersthat can ,in

turn,becom eunit them es:(1) proc esses of inquiry,

(2) concepts, (3) phen om en a, an d (4) persistent

problems.Process-basedthemesresult in s

kill-buildingunitsthat focus on thewaysthat social

scien tistssolve probl ems and investigat ereality

Proc ess-based unitsinclude observing, gathe ring

dat a, esta blish ing comp arisons, an d makingmodels

Such units cansomet imes betaught aspr

erequi-sitesofconcept-and probl em-basedunits.For e

x-ample,ateacher mightteach a unito observa t ion

and classificati on before launching a uniton mass

media that requiresstuden ts to cond uct ind

epen-dentresearch and collectdat a

Concept-based units are design ed toprovide s

tu-dentswith mental structures they can usetod

e-scribe theworld theylive in Exampl esinclude

cause/effect relati onship s,community,culture,

change,famil y,motivati on,popul ati on, scarcity,

syste ms,supplyan d dem and,technology, an d v

al-ues.A concept-basedunit focu sed on thefamily

mightbe guided by the essen tial questionCa n y ou

ha ve a f amily o f o ne? an d might requirethat s

tu-dents exploredifferen t kinds of famil yunits and

confi gurati ons acrossgene rationsand cultures and

in the arts

Phen om en on-basedunits ena blestude n ts toun

-derstan dtheworld aroun d them.Examplesinclude

bank s,communities, eco no micsyste ms, famili es,govern men ts,groups, landform s,literature,media,

ocea ns, political organ izat ions , religions, an d wars

A unitcen te redo economicsyste ms might ask

studen ts to analyze different economicsyste ms at

themicro an d macrolevels;to explore therel

a-tionship s among technological, economic, and plitical syste ms;an d to investigat ethe socia l, cul-tural, and psych ological implicati ons of differenteconomicarrange men ts

o-Unitscentered on persistentproblems enable

studen ts tounderstandpersistentworld probl ems

an d to apply what theyknowtopossible solutions

for thoseproblems.Anexampleofsuch aunit

wouldbethecurrentdepleti on of therainforest ,

whereby studen ts would investigat etherainforest

as aprobl em that affects multiplean d diversep

eo-ples andsyste ms

Someorgan izing centers -eonflict and war,for

example- can becategorized as aconcept, aph

e-nom en on, orapersistentprobl em However,the

learning experiences an dassessmen ts that teachers

select help defin etheuse of the organ izing centerwithinaunitsothat it can be appro priately placedwithinone of thesecat egori es

10 Becoming a Better Teac her: Eig ht I nnovations That Work

According to Boyer (1995), organ izing centers

shouldbeselected as theypert ain tothehuman

commonalitiesthat contributetothe educa ted p

er-son Thesecommonaliti esincludethelifecycle,

lan guage,the arts, time an dspace, groups and

in-stitut ions , work ,thenaturalworld , and thesearch

for meaning

Regardless of theclassificati on and choice of

centersfor aunit, the organ izin g center sho uld p

ro-videthecontextforunifying theknowledge and

skills in aunit.In turn,thecontent andskills

withinaunit becom ecriticalto studen ts' und

er-stan din gof the organ izing center

What Considerations Affect Selection of an

Organizing Center?

Someorgan izing centers are better than othe rs for

ancho ring lessons an dsupport ing inquiry Concepts,

problems, an d issuestendtobemoregen erative

than themes and topic s.A gene rat ive center, such

astheconcept of war, allows for better and more

in-terdisciplinaryconnections and real-life a

pplica-tionsthan alessgenerativ ecenter, such asthetopic

of theCivil War in theUnited Sta tes Thus, one of

theconsiderationsfor select ing anorgan izing center

sho uld bethe exte n t towhich it is gene rat iveand

can enable teachersto address multiple outco mes

andstandards,aswell ascontentfromdifferent s

ub-jectsthat are naturallyrelat ed to eachothe r Ac

-cordingtoBean e(1997), organ izing centersthat

are notrelat edto sign ifican t selfan dsocia l issues

are not appro priate forcurriculum integrati on

When select ingan organ izing center,teach ers

sho uldask themselvesthefollowingquestions:

• Will thiscenter berecognized asimport antby

people of different genders, races, and cultures?

• Will thiscenterbe astimelyan drelevan t 5 or

10 yearsfrom now asit istod ay?

• Isthiscenter equallyappro priate an dcen tral

to all the subjectsand disciplinesthat theunit willincorp or ate ?

• Isthiscenter equallyappro priate for studen ts

in differen tgrade levels?

• Doesthiscenter suppor t theuse of critical in

-formati on abo ut atheme,issue, or problem ?

• Doesthiscenterfoster the exploration ofa

theme,issue, or problem fromdifferentdisciplinary

venu es?

• Doesthiscentercreat ethepossibilityfor s

tu-dentstomakeimportant gene ralizations abo ut

what they learn ?

What Criteria Can Be Used to Judge the Merits and Validity of Integrated Units?

Having a generativeand sign ifican torgan izingce

n-teris anecessarybut not sufficien t condition fordveloping avalidunit.Asteach ersdevelop an inte-

e-grated curriculum unit,theyneedtodet erminetheunit'svalidityby applyingat least three othe r im-

portantcriteria:(1) sign ificance or meaningfuln ess,(2) relevanc e, and (3) cohesiveness or coh erenc e

Thefirstcriterion, sign ificance or m

eaningful-ness,referstothe substance of thelessonswithin

theunitand of theunit itself.It seeks todet ermine

if thelessons an d unit address import antcontent

in the subject areasaddressed To apply thiscrit

e-rion,teach erscould ask themselvesthefollowing

questions:

• Aretheconcepts addressed by theunit imp

or-tantfor all thedisciplinesinvolved ?

• Istheunit likely tohelp st uden ts better

un-derstan d a specific discipline-based concept or idea

becauseit hasbeen dealt with in an interdiscipli

-naryfashion ?

• Isthemat erial in theunitsoimportantthat it

tran scendsdiscipline-based boundaries?

• Doestheuniten ha ncest uden ts' learning

processes?

The secondcriter ion , relevan ce, concerns the

exten t towhich themat erial andstrateg ies used to

presentthelessonsin theunitallowstude n ts to

makemeaningfulcognitive or affect ive c

onnec-tions.Framed as a quest ion, the crite rion asks,Can

studen tsrelate personallytothemat eri al and the

deliv ery stra teg ies used toteach that mat erial ?

Thelast crite rion, cohes iveness orcohe rence,

concerns the exte n t towhich the act ivit ies within

thelessons and theunit itself are closelylinked

and art iculated toprovide atightfit betw een them

It alsoconcerns the exte n t towhich theinstru

c-tional strateg ies used are consistentwith thelesson

objec tivesan d unitoutco mes

What Issues Should Be Considered When

Exploring Curriculum Integration?

Regardl ess of the grade orsubjec t taught, all t

each-ersshouldcons ider thefollowingissues:

• V alidity o f mat erial.All mat eri al and units

sho uld meet every test an dstan dard theteachers

norm allybringto any th ing theyteach

• C urrent c urricular st rengths and w eaknesses

Teachers shouldselect organ izingcen te rsan d d

e-velop unitsthat arecons isten t with their own c

ur-ricular streng ths and interests

• P erceived c urricular n eeds Thefirst unitsto be

develop ed sho uld bethosethat fillan exist ing gap

in the curr iculum

• C urrent pr ogrammatic s trengths a nd w eaknesses

Some programs are naturally conducive to an ds

up-portive ofspecific units and cen ters (that is,

schools that havehumanitiesdepartments instead

ofseparate socia lstudies,art,and English depart

-mentscan best support humanities-oriented units;

schools whereteachers are grouped intoteamswho

teachthe samegroupsofstuden ts in SO-minute

blocks are better able to implem entintegrat edunits)

• Aw areness o f pr esent curri cular sco pe a nd se

-qu ence, and am ount o f c urriculum s lack Unitsd

not exist in isolati on.They aresituated in specific

con te xts in which import ant con te n t precedes and

followsthem It isimportanttorememb er theneed

tobuild horizont alrelati onship s (acrosscontent)without sacrificing verticalrelati onship s(acrosstime)

• O pportunities f or fac ultyto e xplore c urricula.

Thedevelopment of integrat ed unitsismost e

ffec-tivewhen teachershavethe opportun ity to behave

aslearners and explorersaswell as designe rs

Curricular integrati on presents sign ifican t

cha llenges toteachers.At the elemen tary level,

teachersmusthave enough understan ding of the

disciplinestheyteachto allow thoughtful co

nsider-at ionsof thepossible and natu ral relat ionsh ips

among thosedisciplines.Thisisdifficult forthe

man yelementaryteacherswho aregene ralists, with

depth of knowledge inon lyone or twodisciplines

othe r than reading andsocia lstudies Both ele

men-tary an dsecon dary teachersface the additiona l

cha llengeof havingtoknowhowtousethe e

xperi-en t ialand learner-centered pedagogical strategies

necessaryforthe explorationof elationsh ips,co

n-cepts, and insightsthat are prevalentinsolid int

e-grated units.Thisiscontrarytoprevailing instruc

-tion alpracticesthat emphas ize teach er-dominat ed

12 Becoming a Better Teac her: Eig ht I nnovations That Work

talk.At the secondary level ,teach ersface thech

al-leng es of rigidstructures that maketeam teaching,

collaborativeplanning, and back-to-b ack sche

dul-ing difficult; inaddit ion, they somet imessuffer

from lack ofadmin istrat ivesupport

Notwithstandingthechallen ges,theintegrati on

of curriculum is aworthwhile an d important goal

Thenextchapterdescrib estheproc essteach ers

can useto acco mplish it

What Is the Process for Developing

Integrated Units?

Integrat edunitscan bedevelopedby individual

teachers or by two or moreteachers of different s

ub-jectswho sha re the samestuden ts Individualt

each-ers can followthedesignprocess outline d inCha

p-ter3 Teach ers sha ring studen ts can amend that

processb followingthese steps:

1 Eachteacherwithin a group identifiestwo

learn er outco mes for his or hercour se orsubject

One of the outco messho uld refer to someth in g

that studen ts sho uld be able todo;the othe r

sho uldaddresssometh ing important(aconcept or

key idea) that studen tssho uld know.The group

consolidat es alloutco mes listed

2.The group brainstorm spotential organ izing

centersthat would addressasman ylearn er o

ut-com es as are on thelist and selectsacenter that

best meetsthecriteria ofsubsta n t iveness,ge

neraliz-ability, relevanc e, andso on

3.The group identifies one essen t ial questionfor

that organ izing center,withsupport ing guiding

6 The groupselectsact ivities for theunitand

sketches them in pencil, start ing from the authe tic assessmen tan d workingbackward tothebegin-

n-ning of theunit.When sketch ing, the group iden

-tifieslessons and assessmen ts for each day

Recommended Resources

B eane,J A (19 97) C urriculum int egration: D esigning th e

co re o f d emocratic e ducation. N ew Y ork : Co lumbia Univ ersity, T each ers Co llege Pr ess.

Th e a ut ho r as ks e duca to rs t o l ook b ack t o c urr iculum

in tegration as th e roo t o f pro gressive e ducat ion in th e

1 920s a nd '3 0s H e a rgues th at w e ca n a pply kn owledge

t o qu estion s a nd co nce rns th at h ave p erson al a nd soc ial

s ign ificance in th e co mmon w orld b y o rgan izing c urr lum in s pecific w ays H e esta blishes th at th e diff eren ce

icu-b etween int egrated c urriculum a nd multidi sciplinarv o r int erdi sciplinary c urriculum i s th at th e l att er di stinctl y

se parates cl assical s ubjec ts a nd fr agmen ts l earning In

te-g ra ted c urriculum, o n th e o the r h and, r aises q uest ions

a bout co mmon soc ial i ssues, u sin g co nce pts a nd l earn ed

s kills as t ools t o ti e kn owledge t ogeth er, a n d u ses a hi

er-a rchy o f thinkin g t o so lve a p robl em

E gan, K (19 86). T eaching as s tory t elling.C h icago: Uni

-ve rsity o f C h icago P ress.

E gan o ffers a n a lte rnat ive t o th e ge ne rally acce pte d e

le-m entary sc hool c urriculum th at b egins with th e co

n-c rete a nd build s to ward th e a bstract Af ter q uest ion ing

so me o f th e e duca t iona l p rinc iples o n whi ch th e t ypical

c urriculum i s b ased, E gan s uggests in stead a n e lementary

sc hool c urriculum b ased o n w hat h e ca lls " T he G reat Sto ries o f th e W orld C urriculum." H e s uggests t each ers

u se hi s Sto ry F orm M odel, w h ich b egins with qu estion s

s uch as " W hat i s m ost imp ortant a bout thi s t opic?"

" W hy s ho uld it m atter t o c h ildren?" " W hat i s e ffect ively

e ngag ing a bout thi s t opic?" " W hat bin ary o pposites b est

ca tch th e im port an ce o f thi s t opic?" a nd " W ha t co ntent

m ost dr amatically e mbod ies th e bin ary o pposites , in

o rder to p rovid e access t o t he t opic?"

Elli s, A rth ur K , & S tuen , Caro lJ (1 99 8) The

interdisci-plinary curriculum. R aleigh, N C: E ye o n Edu cation.

Thi s b ook includ es c ha pte rs o n th e n ature o f kn owl

-e dge , co mpone nts o f th e inquir y p rocess, co ncept f

th e ro le o f expe rience in l earning Th e a utho rs o ffer

C urr iculum D evelopmen t.

Th e a utho r g ives a r ather d etailed ove rv iew o f va rious

as pects o f br ain r esearch, includin g l earning a nd th e t wo

sc hool st ude n ts; f ood f or th e br ain, n ot ju st f or mu scle

grow th; h ow e nr ich men t f or a ll s tude nts (n ot o n ly g ifted

a nd ta len ted ) ca n m ake t he br ain b et ter ; t he link b

design.Al exandria, V A: A ssociation f or S uperv ision

a nd C urriculum D evelopment.

kn ow a nd b e a ble t o d o, t each ers s ho uld d esign t he sess men ts th at s ho w ev idence o f thi s und erstanding.

co nstructivism, co nce pt ual c ha nge , a nd " uncoverage"

Thelogic behindusingstand ards asthef

oun-dati onfor curriculum,instruction, an das

-sessmen t iscomp elling First, schools, like

most othe rorgan izat ions, need topay at least as

muchatten t ion tothequality of what they pro

-duce,namely graduates-as theyd tothe

proc esses andcon te n t involv ed.In fact,that is

theprim arylogicbehindnati on al and sta testa

n-dards efforts.Second, curriculum content and

teacher expecta t ions for st ude n ts in the same

courses an dgrade levels varygreatly within and

across buildings,districts, an dsta tes Although

thereisn questionthat teachersneed thefr

ee-dom toteachin differentwaystobest meet the

needs ofst ude n ts, it isdifficult tojustifythat a

teacher in one 1st grade classroom can defin e

reading ashaving stude n ts memorizefivewords

perweek ,while a1st grade teacher across the

hallwayhas studen ts readingbooks ofallgenres

1

throughouttheweek.Finally,teachers' grading

practicesvarywithinan dacross grade levels.This

variabilitycouldbe greatly decreased ifschools

had a sha red understanding ofan d commitment

tothe samesta ndardsand benchmarks

The standa rds movementlacksmodels of prtice-that is, ofspecificstrategies that help practi -

ac-tionersuse such stan dards tomake sound decisions

abo ut curriculum, instruction, and assessmen t.Thischapterpresents a sta ndards-based curricu-lum andassessmen t designproc essthatcan help

teachersdevelop or refinetheircurriculum in ways

that are aligne d with their own exit outco mesandwith district,sta te, or nati onal stan dards

Thedesign proc essdescrib edin thischapt eris

comprehen sive and labor-intensive.It involv es

thedevelopment ofalimited number of int

e-gratedcurr iculum unitswithaccompanying

assess-mentsthat encompass requireddistrict, sta te, and

nati on al stan dards It requires afair amo untof

teacher effort and though t Obv iously, teachers will

not be able todesign everyth ing they teach with

greatcare,given thetime constraints posed by

their school-year demands.This processassumes

that teachers aregiven timeduringthe yearand in

the summer todesign one or more integrat ed units,

eithe r individu ally oras a team.It also presupposes

tha t teacherswill devise alon g-term strategy for

curriculum design ,tinkeringwith 10 to20 percent

of their curriculum yearly an d planningtorevamp

orredesigntheir en t irecurriculumoverafive-to

seven -yearperiod

Beforedeveloping a sta nda rds-based unit with

accompa ny ing assessmen ts, it isimportantthat

teach ers gene rate alist ora visual representati on of

the compone nts of their subjectorgrade -level cu

r-ricul um.Thistask involves listing,webbing, or

graph ing the concepts,skills, texts, assessmen ts,

topics, and outco mes it includes.The curric ulum

compo ne nts would bedifferent for elementary,

middle, seco ndary,andspec ialarea teachers.What

mattersisthat before committing to thedesign of

one or more multiweek units, teache rs have a sense

of their yearas a whole so they canseehowthis

unit fitsintothewholeplan

Figure3.1 is alist that Rick Hinrichs -a6th

grade teach erin theMattituck School Districtin

Lon gIsland ,NewYork-develop edforhis social

studiescurric ulum

Thecurriculum design processdescribedhere

hasman y possible points ofdeparture Some t

each-ers begin the design processb defininglearn er

outco mesforstuden tsand then designing a unit

to meet them.Figure 3.2 onpage 18 shows thisp

ar-ticularapproach tothe design process and listsqu

es-tion sthatteach erscan askastheybuild their

cur-riculum units

When and How Are Standards-Based Units Designed?

Because standards-based unitsrequ ire conside rable

plann ing and organization, they arebestdeveloped

whe n teachershave ablock oftime available for

design-duringthe summer, for example,orac

om-bination of vacat ion time,release timeduringthe

schoolyear,an dafte r-school meetings

Thedesign processisrecursive; itoccurseverytimetheteacherteaches aunitand thinks abo ut

what works an d whatdoesn't.Inothe r words,units

and assessmen tsarealways works in progressthat

comealiveon ly whenthey are mediat edby s

tu-dents' interests,backgrounds, andquestions.Thisdoes not mean that teach ers can never claim to

have a solidcollection ofunits.Teach erscanevolveasdesigners an d reach a pointat which they

have several unitsthat addressallor most required

student outco mesan dstandards The un its th

em-selves undergo some kind of transform at ion whe n

theycom e incontactwith a groupof stude nts.This

tran sform ati on maybeminor, asinextending or r

e-arrang ing some lesson s; or it maybemajor, asin

preservin gthe organ izingcen te ran d theculminat

-ing assessmen t, but repl acingmuch oftheunit c

on-tent with morerelevant orupdat ed information.Individualteachers orteams of teacherscanbuild a successful unit byfollowingthenine ste ps

describedbelow.Inaddition, see Appendix A for a

Curriculum Unit Design Modul e, aTemplat efor a

Unit Sketch ,and aRubricfor Develo pinga C

ur-ricul um Unit.The CurriculumUn it Design Mod

-uleis a step-by-step list of questions and prompts

that guide teachersthrough thedevelopment of a

sta nda rds-based unitfrom beginn ingto end.The

Template foraUnit Sketch enables teachers topost or list their ideasforunitlessons and assess-

16 Beco ming a Better Teac her: Eig ht I nnovations That Work

[

FI GURE3.1

ATEACHER'S REPRESENTATION OF A SOCIAL STUDIES CURRICULUM

Units

Early man: Beginning of civilization

Essential question: What made civiLization

possibLe?

Concepts: civilization, tribes, agricuLture,

specialization cuLturaL manifestations

Mesopotamia/Industrial Valley

Guiding questions: What was the most important

invention to mankind? Why was the FertiLe

Cres-cent a perfect pLace for civiLization to emerge?

Concepts: civilization, culture, agricuLture,

specialization human/environment interaction

Technology and mathematics application:

expLo-ration of pyramids' structures

Literature connection: The Egyptian Game

Greece

Guiding question: Is Greece the foundation of

modern civiLization?

Concepts: sound body and mind, family, tradition,

education, food, dance, city-state, culture gods

Design and art connections: comparisons with

ar-chitecture in the United States modeLed after

Essential question: Can a civiLization last forever?

Guiding questions: What events canLead to thefaLL of an empire? What is the roLe of citizens inkeeping a civilization strong? Is it necessary to go

to war to preserve an empire? What are the Larities between Roman civilization and contempo-rary United States? Does everyone deserve a voice

simi-in government?

Concepts: empire, citizenship, war, cuLturaLsimiLarities and differences, Laziness, corruption,architecture

Design and art connections: comparisons with

ar-chitecture in the United States mode led fromRome

Middle Ages

Essential question: Mundane or magnificent? Guiding question: How were the Crusades both a

success and a faiLure?

Concepts: education, ignorance, knowLedge,

feudaLsystem, Literacy

Math connections: impact of printing press over

500 years; comparative charts with printing bers today

-Science connections: comparison of Da Vinci's

di-agrams of machines, human anatomy, and ogy with today's scientific models

astrol-(continues on next page)

FI GURE3.1

ATEACHER'S REPRESENTATION OF A SOCIAL STUDIES CURRICULUM (continued)

Contemporary Eu rope

Guiding question: What were the major events

that changed Europe in the past 300 years?

Concepts: nationalism, citizenship, forms of

gov-ernment, war and peace, alliance,treaty,

appeasement

Science and technology connections: advances in

science technoLogy resuLtingfrom war

Literature connections: D iary of Anne Frank

V ietnam

Essential question: Was the Vietnam War an

exercise in futility?

Concepts: poLiticaL movements, roLe of

govern-ment, war, hero, activism

Science and technology connections: advances in

science and technoLogy resuLting from war

Math connections: comparative graphs of human

and other costs in Korea, WorLd War H, and

Source: Rick H inrichs, Mattituck School D istrict, L ong I sland, New York.

mentswithinaunit withouthavingtoelaborat e

on them If teachers sketch usin gPost-it notes,

theycan easily reorgani ze or chan gethe sequence

ofactivit ies withinaunit withoutinvesting a s

ig-nificant amoun tof time.The rubrican dacco

mpa-nyin gunit rating sheet enable teachersto sel

f-assesstheir unitdevelopmen t work and toimprove

unitcompone n ts that receive lowratings

2 Adopt a position and support it with data

3 Identify characteristics of good citizenship

4 Appreciate cuLturaLdiversity

5 Understand the contributions of earLycivilizations to contemporary cuLtures

6 Identify the origins of contemporary UnitedStates cuLture

7 Identify the consequences of war

8 Work effectiveLyin groups

Thoughts on Unit Representation

• Identification of redundancies:Citizenship, forms of government, and war show

up in many different units.I couLd shift some ofthese from one unit to another to increase thedepth of treatment

• ReconceptuaLization of units from themes toconcepts:

I couLd deveLop one or more units centered onthe three most frequentLy taught concepts.Per-haps I shouLd start the year with citizenshipand end with war, Leavi ng remaining units more

orLess intact

AppendixA wasdevelop ed tohelp teachers as

-sess and revisetheir curriculum units.Therubrics

are notmeanttobeused as a summat ive sheet

where you might add the scores to gene rate agrade Instead,therubric s sho uld beused asform a-

tive toolswhereby every rubricdimens ion isind

e-pendentfrom one anothe r Teachers can assess

the ir work on one or moredimensionsif theywan t

18 Becomin g a Bett er T eacher: Eight Innovations That Work

• What does each outcome/standard look like?

• What do they mean in my classroom/

subject/grade?

• What will students produce if they are working

to attain the outcomes/standards?

Learning Opportunities

• What do I need to teach or have students perience so that they will attain the learningoutcomes/standards?

ex-• What concepts/skills/processes shouldtheunit support?

Essential and Guiding Questions

• What compelling questions couldI pose to my

students to focus my teaching and drive

their inquiry and learning?

• What guiding questions can I use to provide

coherence between different sets of lessons

and activities?

Assessment

• What do I need to collect or administertoprove that students have grown toward and/orachieved desired outcomes/

• How good is good enough?

Source : A preliminary version of thisfigure appeared in Mortin-Kniep, Cunninghom,&F eiqe(1998) Copyright© 1 998by GiselleO Mortin-Kniep U sed withpermission

to The n/s mean snon-scorable.Thiscod eindi

-catesthat theteacher/authorhasnotincluded s

uf-ficient inform ati on on a specific dimen sionfor it to

be scored

1 Select an Organizing Center

As sta ted in Chapter 2,the organ izing centeris

thehubof theunit-what hold sit together.The

many kinds oforgan izin g centersincludetopic s

(theAmeric an Revolution,African Americ an s) ,

themes(bears, aviat ion ), concept s(war,chan ge,

flight) ,probl ems(deforestati on in Brazil,violence

inschools),an d issues(human rights,immigrati on

intotheUnited Sta tes ) One of themost imp

or-tant considerat ions in selec t ing anorgan izingcen

-ter isthe exte n t towhich it can enable teachersto

address multiple outco mesand sta ndards

2 State the Rationale

Therati onale isthejustific ati onfor a unit.It

addresses the specific an d importantknowledge,

skills,and dispositionsthat the unit willaddress,

and ofte n it incorp or at estheteach er's exit o

ut-comes aswell as an y relevantdistrict, sta te,or

nati onal stan dards Followingis an excerpt from a

rati onalefor amiddle school uniton conflictd

e-veloped by Kim McLaughlin,HeatherBacon, and

BethMastrowith theNewYork Sta te Comprehe

n-sive School Health and WellnessProgram This

rati onaleusescurrent socia l problems an d research

to advoca te for theunit

Th e p ercentage o f yo uths age d 12-1 9in

1998wh o r eported b eing v ict ims o f st uden t

vi olence o n sc hool g rounds h as ri sen from

3 4 p ercent t o 4 2 p ercent w h ich i s eq ual

t o a lmost o ne milli on o f th e tw en ty-four

milli on s tude n ts o f th at age M ore th an

6,000s tude nts w ere ex pe lled in 1996-1997

f or brin gin g fir earm s t o sc hools Th e d

evel-o pmen t o f int erp ersonal co mmun icat ion

s kills h as d em onstr ated e ffect iveness in im

-p roving s tude nts' a bilit ies t o p eaceably n

ego-ti at e co nfron ta t ion a nd r edu ce v iolence.

Thi s unit i s d esigned w ith ac t ivit ies b ased

o n r esearch a nd eva luat ion s tudies which

p rovide ev ide nce th at t he s trategies u sed ca n

pr event o r r edu ce v iolence o r di sruptive b

e-h avior a mo ng yo ut h.

Thenext example illustr at es adifferentkind

of rati onale.Unliketheprevious one, which uses

sta t ist ical dat a on youthviolence asthebasisfor a

uniton peermediati on and peacekeeping,this

unitemphas izes theimport anc e of considering

human s'relati onship totheir en viron men tasthe

basisfor aunito an imal habitat s and their rel

a-tionship todiverse ecosyste ms It is an excerptfromarati onalefor auniton the interactionsbe-

tween an imalsand their environ men t, devel oped

by 5thgrade teacherLou Parrinello of the Co

pi-ague School District in LongIsland,NewYork :

M odern sc ien tists utili ze multipl e l en ses

wh en exa min ing a p arti cul ar o rgan ism S

im-pl y li sting a n a n ima l's we igh t , s ize, a nd a

p-p earan ce i s n ot e no ugh t o co mprehe nd h ow

a n a n ima l ex ists in r elation t o it s e n v

iron-m en t a nd hum ankind Z oologists a nd e nv

i-ro n mentalists a like s tudy a n a n ima l's d aily

h abitats a nd h ow i r elates t o th e s urrounding ecosyste ms, t ypically e ncompassing int errela-

ti onship s b etw een th e a n imal a nd hum an s Hum ani ty's e ver in creasing imp act o n th e

s urro und ing e nv iron men t i s a larm ing ly a

p-p arent wh en l ooking at th e c ha nges a nd

g lobal e ffects o a n imals Thi s unit e mploys

a st ude nt-se lected a n ima l as a ve h icle t o

h elp s tudents di scover di versity wi thin th e

e nv iron men t , as w ell as r elati onship s within

th e ecosys te m In a dd it ion , t he exa mina t ion

o f a p articular o rgan ism i s a w onderful o

p-p ortunity f or st udents t o l earn a bst ract co

n-ce pts in r eal w orld s ituat ions St ude nts will b e c ha llenge d , u sin g a se ries o f qu es-

20 Becoming a BetterTeacher: Eight Innovations That Work

ti ons a nd ac t ivit ies, to o rgan ize a nd sy n

the-s ize inf ormation abo ut t he ir se lected a n ima l

w hi le dr awin g co nclusions a nd id entifying

r elationshi ps b et ween in terd epen dent

s pec ies.

3 Describe the Context and Present an

Overview

Thedescrip tion of the context provid esneeded

informati on abo ut the target audienceand grade

levelfortheunit It also describ esprerequisite

knowledge and skillsaswell asnecessarytime an d

resour cesforteaching the unit.Thefollowingis an

excerpt fromthe con te xtsta te men t develop ed by

Karen Ann Paqu et-aform erteacher in theMi

d-dle CountrySchool District in LongIsland,New

York-for a 2n dgrade unit that uses breadas a

themeforthe studyofcultures:

Thi s uni t s u sed as a n int roduction t o c

ul-t ures a nd tr aditional ce lebrat ions , es pec ially

durin g th e m onths o f Octo ber th rough

De-ce mber wh en h olidays a re num erou s a mo ng

peop le o f seve ral diff eren t c ult ures. It i s u sed

as a sp ring boa rd f or a yea rlong st udy of dif

-fe ren t c ultura l gro ups, w hethe r d om estic o r

fo re ign.

Abo ut a n h our-and-a-h alf i s n eed ed eac h

d ay t o wor k o n th e uni t act ivit ies a nd

assess-m en ts, a ltho ugh n ot n ecessarily in o ne bl ock

o f t ime Th e state sta n dards in tegrated

in t h is uni t in clude l an guages ot he r t ha n

En glish, En glish l an guage a rts, a nd soc ial

st ud ies W hi le th ese a re th e o n ly assesse d

sta ndards in th e unit , th ere a re m an y oppo

r-t un it ies t o i ntegrate th e c urr iculum a reas

o f m athem atics, h ealth, a nd ag ricultura l/

eco no m ic i ssues w ith in t he th em e o f br ead.

Conte xtstatemen tsneednotbe elaborate The

followingis a con tex tsta te men t for theunit d

evel-oped byLou Parrinello on an imalsand their int

er-actions withthe environ men t:

Thi s uni t was d esigned f or a h eterogeneous

5 th g rade cl assroom co ntain ing specia l e

du-ca t ion st ude n ts a n d st ude n ts cl assified as

ES L ( English as a seco nd l an guage) in a multi cultural sc hool di stri ct Th e tim e fr ame

in volved in thi s uni t i s our wee ks, w ith prox imately 1 5 h ours o f d aily in stru ction It

ap-in tegrates l earning sta ndards f or m ath em ics , scie nce, a nd tec h no logy; En glish l an -

at-g uage a rts; a n d soc ial st ud ies.

The overv iewofthe unit's scope and activities

maybe linkedtothe con tex tor rationale or pr

e-sen ted as a separate, self-con ta ine dsection The

followingisLou Parrinello'sunitoverview:

Thi s uni t b egins b h avin g s tudents in gate th e in terrelationship s betwee n a n ima ls

vesti-a nd th eir e nv iron ment th rou gh lit er ature

a nd mul tim edi a r esources St ude n ts a re

g uided in t he ir l earning t hrough th e u se o f exte ns ive q uest ions w h ich a re link ed t o

t he ir l earning oppo rtun it ies Th e c ulm

i-n ating unit pro jec t incl udes a n in ter active multim edia a nd o ral p resentation in t he for m o f a l esson t hat st ude nts h ave t o teac h

to a dif ferent class.

4 Devise Essential and Guiding Questions

Asdescribed in Cha pter 1, essen tialquestions

can become the cen te rpieceofan inquir y-driven

unit.Theyhook studen tsand serveasthemeans

throu gh whichthe entire unit becomesa coheren t

whole Guiding questions support the essen t ial

quest ion byframi ngthe varioussetsof lessonsthat

makeu theunit.Hereis an examp leofan esse

n-tial questionwithsupporting guidingquestions for

the conflict unit mentioned earlier:

Es sential q uestion :Wh en i s i b etter n ot t o

m edi ate a co nflict?

G uiding q uestions :Wh at i s co nflict? H ow i s

co nflict dif feren t fro m v iolence? W hat a re

t he ro les a nd r esponsibili ties o f a m ediat or ?

5 Determine Exit Outcomes and Indicators

Exitoutco mesaresta te men ts thatdefinewhat

studen ts will know,be able todo, and value as a

re-sultofacourse ofstudy Here are two examples:

"Studentswill writefor avari ety of purposes an d

audiences,"an d"Studen ts will usemathematic al

skillsan d conceptsto solve real-lifeprobl ems."

Outcom es are fairly gene ral They often tran scend

subjectsan dgrade levels

Outcom e indic at orsrefer tothe grade-levelor

subject-cen tered characteristic s ofan outco me

Thefollowing are twopossibleindicat orsfor the

first outco me: "Studentswill writefriendlyletters,"

and "Studentswill writeto con vey their feelings

and emo t ions." Outcom es and indic ators arecrit

i-cal totheproc ess of developing aunit because they

forc e teachersto thinkabo ut their overall picture

forcurriculum ratherthan focu s on specific act

ivi-ties or textbook chapters.It isimportantfor

teach-ers to gene rate their own exit outco mesbefore

identifyingpertinentdistrict, sta te,or nati onal

stan dards becauseit is en t irely possiblethat they

will identify anexitoutco me that isimportant

(e.g., that stude n ts areempathe t ic) but that has

notbeen identified as a stan dard If teachersd not

consider their own exit outco mes beforereferring

to district,sta te, or nati onal stan dards, theymight

notconsider incorp oratingtheir own outco mes

intothecurriculumandassessmen t design proc ess

6 Review District, State, and National

Standards

Learning stan dardsare becoming an increasingly

prevalentcomp on ent of thediscourse at the

dis-trict, sta te, an d nati onal level s.They are important

tothecurriculumand assessmen t design proc ess

because theyrepresent acollective art iculat ionof

theneeded knowledge, skills,and att it udes

stu-dents sho uld possess atdifferen tstages of their

edu-cati on.Unfortunately,mostdistricts and sta teshavedevelop ed stan dards independentlyfrom oneano the r, therebycreating overlapping layers ofsta ndards that can easily becom e overwh elming toteachers Somestrategies for dealingwith thisproblem include thefollowing:

1 Physi cally r econciling d istrict, stat e, a nd n ational

s tandardsto in corporate th eir e ssence.This effortcan

betediousbut will cert ainlyresultin morecom plet eunderstanding and effective incorp orati on ofthedifferentkinds an d levels ofstan dards Theun-dert akingprob ably needstobe guided by a schooldistrict as a specia l project

-2 De cidingo o ne se t o f stand ards a nd u sing it clu sively.Thiscan bedonewhen a school districthas adopted a specificsetofstan dards

ex-3 Ad opting re conciled v ersions o f standards A

number ofautho rsand organ izations havedonethis (e.g.,Kendall& Marzan o,1996)

Regardless of the strategy used,teach ers sho uldpair contentwith process sta ndardssothat theirunit meets asman y sta ndardsaspossible.For ex-ample, theproc ess standard "Studentswill access,gene rate, proc ess, an d tran sfer inform ati onusingappro priate technologies"can becombinedwiththecontent sta ndard "Studentswill use mathemat -ical ana lysis,scie n tific inquiry, an deng ineering de-sign, as appro priate, toposequestions, seekan -swers,and develop solut ions " Teach ers sho uldalsousethe stan dards fordefiningperform anc ecriteriafor the assessmen ts theywill admin ister tomeasurestuden ts' learningthroughoutthe unit.For exam-ple,the stan dard indicat or "Studentswill use sta tis-tical methods such as graphs, tables, an d chartstointerpr etdat a" sho uld beincorp orat edintothescoring rubric for an assessmen t in which studen tshavetouse sta tist ics fordat a ana lysis.See Cha pter

22 Becoming a Better Teac her: Eig ht I nnovations That Work

5 for amoredetaileddescription of howteachers

can developrubrics from standards

7 Devise Learning Opportunities

Learning opport un it iesare the experien ces,

lessons, an d activitiesthat teachersprovidefor

stu-dentstoattain target ed unitoutco mes and stan

-dards Following are severalexamplesof learning

opport un it ies developedby KathyDavis -akind

er-gart en teach erin theBay DistrictSchools, Panama

City,Florida-for auniton community:

• A sk s tude n ts t o r espond t o th ese p rompts:

Wh at d o yo u kn ow ab out yo ur t own ? Wh at

m akes a co m mun ity? Int erview s tude n ts t o

r ecord e xact s ta te ments.

• H ave c h ildren brin g ph otos o f th eir

h om es H ave eac h c h ild dr aw a pi cture o n

3 -inc h -square p aper a n d p ost o n a w all

g raph Di scuss H ow a re h om es a like /

diff erent ?

• Ha ve c h ildren d esign a c halk , o il p astel,

o r t emp er a p ain ting o f th eir h ouse, u sin g

ph oto t o g u ide th em Co ncen tra te o acc

u-r at e r epresentati on

• H ave c h ildren u se KidPi x S tud io t o c reate

a co mpute r-generated g raph ic r epresentati on

o f th eir h ome a n d w rite o ne se n te nce t o

d escrib e i t

8 Develop Assessment Opportunities

Assessment opportun it ies include allefforts to

document stude n ts' learningbefore (diagnostic),

during(form ative) , and at the en dofaunit

seg-ment orat theculminati on of theunit (

summa-tive).To serve bothteachers an dst uden ts well, as

-sessmen tsshould be seamlessly wov en into theunit

sothat teacherscan usethem to supportaswell as

measure st uden ts' learning.Following aresome of

the assessmen ts that KathyDavisuses in her unit

• Co mpute r-gene ra te d r epresentati on o f st

u-d en t's h ouse (f ormati ve)

• Int er view o f st ude n t's r ecall o f sa fety rul es

(f ormati ve)

• Int er view o f s tude n t's r ecall o f th e m ean

-in g o f diff erent t raffic s igns (f ormative)

• St ude n t-ge ne rated m ap s howing l ocati on

o f h ome r el ative t o sc hool a n d o the r build

-in gs (f ormative)

• Ob servati on o f dr am ati c p lay f ocused o n

h ow t o see k h elp in thr eatening s ituat ions (f ormati ve)

• C hecklist o f s tude n t's id entificati on o f

dif-fe ren t kind s o f tr ansportati on (form ati ve)

• Vid eotape a n d rubri c o f s tude n ts d

escrib-in g th eir m od el co m mun ity ( summative)

Theunitsho uld include an oppor tun ity for st

u-dentstodemonstrat ebefore an audience ethingtheyhave learned in theunit byapplying it

very-in the con te xtof dealingwithareal or plausible

problem These "authe n ticassessmen ts"are d

e-scribedat len gth inCha pter 4.When such assess

-ments are usedfor summat ive purposes-that is,to

give studen ts credit orgrades- the ysho uld be a

c-comp ani edby explici t perform ancecriteri ain the

form ofche cklistsor rubrics.Thecriteria should be

based onan d informed b thedistrict, sta te, an d

nati on al sta ndards teachershave identified.Figure3.3 on page23 sho ws therubric that KathyDavis

usestohelpher kindergart en stude n ts develop and

describ e amodel community She discusses eachof

the elemen tsof therubric with the ch ildren wh

en-evershe introduces ano the rste pof thework-an

effect ive waytobegin usin grubricswith n

onread-ers (See Cha pte r5for acomplet ediscussion ofrubrics.)

My Writing

I have s hown a clear awa reness

of the topic I have used

com-plete s entences and e xpressed

my self clearly My hand writing

i s legible w hen w riting over My

illu strations are

clearlyrecog-nizable and match my w ritte n

w ords I use lots of detail.

I have an a wareness of the

topic I have used complete

sentences but maynot e xpress

my self clearly I can form most

of my letter s correctly w hen

w riti ng over My illustrations

are recognizable and match my

w ritt en w ords but need more

detail.

I may not use complete s

en-tences , or I maynot be able to

express myself clearly I can

form most of my letters

cor-rectlywhen writing over It is

hard to tell e xactlyw hat

myil-lustration sho ws My w ords lack

details

My Community

I know what makes up diffe rent

communitie s I can identify and justify the most important peo- ple , places , and things in a community I can describe w hat

a community w ould be like

wi t hout these people , places ,

and things.

I kno w w hat make s up a munity I can identify some of the important people , places ,

com-and thing s in a community.

I may not be able to describe

w hat a community w ould be like without these people, places ,

and things.

I am not sure what makes up a community I can identify only one important person, place , or thing in a community I cannot describe what a community

w ould be like wi t hout this son , place , or thing

per-My Building

I give e xcellent reasonsto tell

w hy mybuilding is important to the community I can identify the community helpers w ho

w ork in this building I kno w

w hat tools and /or vehicles are needed to do their jobs I can

de scribe all of the shapes a

ssoci-ated with mybuilding.

I can tell w hy mybuildingis important to the community.

I may not be able to identify the helpers w ho w ork in this building, or I may not kno w

w hat vehicle s or tools are needed to do the jobs I can describe the basic s hape of my building.

I maybe confusedabout the name of mybuilding , or I am not sure whymybuildingis im- portant to the community I cannot correctlyidentifythe community helpers who w ork in this building I do not kno w the tools or vehicles needed to do thei r jobs I am confusedabout mybuilding'sshape.

Speaking and Listening

I look at the audience when I

am talking I s peak clea rly, and everyone can hear me I stand straight and use appropriate body language When others are s peaking, I listen totally

w it h my e yes, ear s,

and body.

I look onlyin one di rection

w hen I am speaking or times looka way I mayspeak too s oft ly or too loudly When others are speaking I may not listen totally with all body parts: eye s, ears, and body I maybe moving around.

some-I cannot be heard clearly some-I am unsure of myself , or I act very shy I turn awayfrom the audience.

Source : D eveloped by Katharine D avis T his rubricpreviausly appearedin Centerfar the Study af E xpertise in T eaching and L earning (CS ETL) (1998) Sta ndards-Based C urricuLum a nd A ssessment P rototypes.

Vo L 4 NewYork: A uthor Capyright© 1 998by CS ETL Reprintedby permission

N

24 Becomin g a Bett er T eac her : Eig ht I nnovations That Work

9 Develop Reflective Prompts

Reflectiveprompts areopen -ended questions or

promptsthat helpstuden ts think abo utor proc ess

their learning.They sho uldoccur throughout the

unitsothat teach erscan monitor st ude n ts'

think-ing and identifypot ential areasof confusion ,

misinform ati on, orexplorat ion Lou Parrinello

includesthefollowing reflect ive promptsin his

unito an imalsand their environ men t:

• Wh at did I e n joy l earning m ost thi s wee k?

Wh y?

• H ow did it f eel t o h ave m ore o r l ess th an

o the rs durin g th e ro le pl ay?

• H ow will w hat I h ave l earn ed a bout p

ollu-ti on c ha nge th e w ay I ac t?

• Wh at w ould I wa n t ot he rs t o d if I w ere

a n end a n ge r e d s pec ies?

• Wh at h ave I le arn ed a bout t aking ca re o f

th e e rth ?

• Wh at h ave I le arn ed a bout a f ood w eb ?

H ow imp ortant i s w ha t I h ave l earn ed ?

• Wh at h ave I le arn ed f rom t eaching m y

l e s son t o ot he r st udents? Wh at w ould I d o

diff erently if I ta ught m y le sson aga in ?

Cha pte r 7 includes acomprehensivediscussion of

reflection

What Do Standards-Based Units

Look Like?

Most stan dards-based units are integrat ed-a c

har-acte rist ic that makesthem easier todevelop at the

elem entary and middle school levels.Integrating

con te n t fromvarious subjec t areas isdesirableb

e-cause many sta ndardscan then beincorp orat edin

afewunits.Here areafew sample units:

• In a 2ndgrade six-week unit titled "T

echnol-ogyin Our Lives," studen ts usethe scien t ific

process and thelan guage arts to inquireintothe

nature of technology.They exploresimple m

a-ch ines, invent atechnology-based gadget to solve a

problem in their classroom , and design amarketing

strategy fortheir invention.The essen tial question

that driv esthisunit is, Can technologyhelp us andhurt us at the same time ?

• The6thgrade unit "Childhood" focuses on

the conce pt ofch ildhoo dand on the essen tial

quest ion, Are all "children" ch ildren? Thisis anine-week language artsan dsocia lstud ies unit inwhichstude n ts conduct researchon differentcoun-tries,investigating and writing abo ut the con te xts

an d conditionsunderwhichch ildren live.F

ollow-ingtheir research, studen ts participat ein pan els

discussing their findings and proposing solutions to

ch ildhood issuesthrough apublic showcase

• Thehigh schoolSpan ish IV uniton thecon

-ceptof povert yincludes aliterary exploration of the

conce ptof povert y; studen t-driven research on

poverty indifferen tSpan ish-speaking countries and

among different groups in theUnited Sta tes; point

-of-view writing abo ut howdifferentcharact ers dealwith poverty and surv ival;adiscussion of two essen -

tial quest ions, Whatdoesit mean tobepoor ? and

What separa tes survival fromliving?; and apan el

discussion on poverty and on waysto alleviate the

cond it ionsof thepoor in the local community

Cha pter 4 expan dso one important aspect of unit

design-namely,thedevelopment ofa culmina t ing

authe n t icassessmen t that can helpstuden ts use

an dapplyeveryth ing theyhavelearn ed as aresult

ofa specific unit

Recommended Resources

Cas e, R., D ani el s,L.,& Sc hwartz,P (19 96) Cr itical

c hallenges in soc ial s tudies f or j unior hi gh s tudents.

V ancouver, Bri tish Co lumbia, Ca na da: Th e C ritical Thinkin g Coo perat ive.

Thi s bo ok i s part o f a se ries d evot ed t o s trateg ies for d

e-v eloping s tude n ts' critic al thinkin g Th e bo ok includ es

18 se lf-con taine d l earning e xperiences addr essin g t opic s

s uch as Buddhi sm, int ellectual id eas o f th e Middl e

A ges, e arly R enaissance art, Chri stopher C olumbus,

Oliv er Cromw ell, a nd th e Am eric an R ev olution Ev en

th ough th e se ries i s Canadian and th erefore ali gned

with curriculum r equirem ents in Briti sh Columbi a, th e

l essons ar e e xe mplary and c an e asily b e adapt ed f or

s cho ols in th e Unit ed Stat es.

M artin-Kniep, G O (1998).Why amIdoin g this ?

Purposeful t eaching with portf olio ass essment.P

orts-mouth, NH : H einemann

Thi s b ook i s about c h ang ing t eachers' pr actices throu gh

e xtens ive prof essional d evelopment o pportun it ies It i s

about th e w ork o f mor e th an on e hundr ed t each ers in

an initiativ e call ed th e Hud son Vall ey P ortfolio A

ssess-m ent Proj ect It i s divid ed int o thr ee sec t ions Th e fir st

se ct ion e xplains th e Hud son Vall ey P ortfolio A

ssess-m ent Proj ect, th e pro gram co mpone n ts, a nd th e d esign

proc ess u sed t o d evelop n ew form s of a ssessment Th e

se cond se ct ion r ev eals se vera l t each ers' s tor ies r elated to

chan gin g h ow th ey think ab out l earning and curricu

-lum For e xa mple, in C hapter 5, th e t each er a ut hor

g ives a d etailed d escription o f h ow s he e n abled h er s

tu-d ents t o b e r esponsible e nough t o t ake o wne rsh ip a nd

c ontro l o f th eir l earning Th e t eachers' in sights ar e a

v aluable r esourc e for t eachers, a dmin istra to rs, and s taff

d ev elop ers in th e ar ea of alt ernative a ssessments,

portfo-li o d evelopment, a nd e ffect ive t eaching In th e third

part of th e b ook, th e auth or di scusses th e natur e o f

t eacher ch an ge An a ppend ix contain s ch art s, t each er

e valuat ion rubri cs, and a s imulat ion on m anagin g

ch an ge amid multipl e int erests.

Marzan o, R (1992) Adiffer ent kind of classroom :

T eaching with Dim ensions of L earning.Al ex andri a,

VA: A ssociation f or Sup ervi sion and Curriculum

D evelopment.

Thi s w ork e xplores th e th eory and r esearch b ehind th e

Dim en sions of L earning fr amework a n d provid es s

pe-cific e xamples of th e fram ework in acti on Th e Dim

en-s ions fr amework purport s to b e a m eans for cl assroom

r estructuring that i s l eamer-centered and i s ali gned

with state s tanda rds Thi s b ook cl arifies th e fr amework

and see ks t o s upport s chools tha t ar e u sin g it a s th e

ba sis f or th eir s cho ol r eform pl an s.Itprovid es

informa-ti on o n additi onal s uppor t m at erials s uch a s t each ers

manual s, train er handb ook s, in service vid eos, and

c ourses.

Mill er, B , & Sin glet on,L.(1995) Pr eparing citiz ens:

Linkin g auth entic ass essment and instructi onin

civic/law-r elated e ducation B oulder, CO : S ocial Sci ence Educ ati on Con sortium.

Th e t arget a udien ce for thi s b ook i s middl e a nd hi gh

s cho ol so cial s tud ies t eachers Th e b ook mak es critical

c onnec tions b etw een c iv ic e duca t ion curri culum, in

-s truct ion , and a ssessment It includ es a c ollection o f au

-th entic t asks s upporte d b y assess men t proc edures a nd

e mph asizes th e u se o f rubric s in cl assroom in struction, includin g cl ear s te p-by-ste p in stru ctions f or d evelop -

m ent and r evi sion Ground ed sa mples, m ethods, a nd

s uggest ions for cl assroom in struction a re pr esented throu gh p ersonal e xperience c ase s tudies o f t each ers

wh o h ave u sed th em Th e t eacher r eflec tions and r

evi-s ions ar e es pec ially h elpful in g ain ing b etter in sight into

d esigning futur e ta sks.

N ewm ann, E W ,& A ssoci ates (1996) Auth entic

achi evement : R estructuring sch ools for int ellectual

quality. S an Fr ancisco, CA: [o ssey-Bass.

Thi s b ook pr esents th e findin gs of a fiv e-year s tudy th at

r esearched th e conn ection b etw een s chool r estruc turing

a nd s tude n t ac h ieve men t Th e bo ok includ es a cl ear di

s-cu ssion o f th e diff erences in cultur es o f chools who se

r estructuring e fforts f ocus on s truc ture , routin es, a nd proc edures v ersus th ose th at att end t o int ellectual qual-

it y b y a f ocu s o n s ta ndards Thi s b ook s hould b e r quir ed r eading f or an y s chool c ontemplating r estructur-

e-in g It asse rts th at d eep, m eaningful c ha nge o ccurs wh en

a s chool ad opts " a s ustaine d f ocu s o n int ellec tu al qu ality (l egitimacy o f c on te n t , a ccurac y, a n d a uthe n t ic ity ) a nd

a s trong prof essional c ommunity am ong s taff." T oo m any individu als int erpret r estructuring as r eor ganizing o n ly tim e and r esour ces, fo cusing l ess o n c h ang ing s ta ndards and cultur e Thi s work provid es vit al in sight int o wha t

i s n eed ed f or sc ho ols t o c h ange in s ubstan t ive way s.

Wi ggins,G ,& M cTighe,J (1998) U nderstanding b yd

e-sign. Al ex andria, VA: A ssoci ation f or Sup ervi sion and Curriculum D evelopment.

Th e a utho rs prop ose a " backward d esign" m odel; a fter

d et ermining what it i s that s tuden ts n eed t o kn ow and

b e a ble t o d o, assess men ts a re d esigned th at s ho w e v

i-d ence of thi s und erstanding R ead ers ar e tak en throu gh thi s d esign proc ess and provid ed with cla ssroom e xa m-

pl es a s w ell a s d esign t emplates.

Educators and researchershavebeen advoca

t-ing authe n t icassessmen tssince themi

d-1980s as amean stohelp studen tsengage

with real or plausibleprobl ems and challenges

Y most school programs are not con ducive to

authe n t ic learning experiences In fact , one

could argue that schools themselves, especia lly

high schools,are design ed tominimize authe n t

ic-ity.After all, howman y of us experience lifein

38- to42-minute segmen ts? This chapter defin es

the attributesofauthe n t icassessmen t, explains

how exist ingassessmentscan berefin edtomake

themmore"authentic," an d demonstr at eshowto

cons tructculmina t ing authe n t icassessmen ts It

provid es examplesofauthe n t icassessmen tsan d

guidelines forwhen and howtodesign them in

differentcontexts

26

What Is Authentic Assessment?

Anassessmen t is authe n t ic when itrequires that

st uden ts engage with real-lifeprobl ems,issues, or

tasksfor an aud ience whocares abo ut or has a

sta ke in what stude n ts learn.Authentictasks

enablestude n ts tomake sense ofand apply what

theyhavelearn ed an d to establish clear co

nnec-tionsbetween what they havelearned in schools

an d theworld in which theylive Such tasks

provide awonderful opportun ity for st uden ts to

demonstr at ewhat theyhavelearn ed in the

courseofaunitan dareofte n used as culmina

t-ingproject s.Thefollowingtasks are authe n tic:

• Following a stro ngstor m in the area, a group

of 4thgrade studen tsgo tothebeach to observe

theprobl ems associa ted with beach erosion They

readfiction an d nonfictionworks related to coasta l

environ men ts Theythendevelop a seriesof

pic-turebooksfor 1st an d 2ndgraderson theprobl ems

associa ted with beach erosion an don the act ions

the commun itycan taketopreventthem

• St uden ts useimagin gtechnologytocreat e an

autobiograph icalvisual coll agethat incorp orat es

imagesfrom a varietyofsources (origin alphot os of

famil y andschool life; origina lart work ;magazines

of interest ;Internet sites;an dscan ne dobjec ts )

Theywrite a sta te men tand elaborat e on how or

whythe imagesdepictwhothey are They compare

theirwritten sta te men tand visualswhen theypr

e-sen tand descri betheir collage

• After survey ing the loca l community tofind

out about the availabilityofsummer jobs an d in

-ternship s, studen ts meet withanofficer from a

local employmen toffice an dcomplete job a

pplica-tionsfor summer jobs,which they subsequen tly

mail toprospective employers

• Todemonstr at etheirunderstanding of the

ge-ograph yof Egypt an dof thereasonswhy theNile

Riverwas essen t ial tothe ancie n t Egypti an s, s

tu-dents crea te a game tobeplayed by children ages8

to 14an d market it to studen ts in themiddle

school

• St uden ts identify and conductresearch on

se-lect ed en viron men tal issuesthat can be addressed

at thelocallevel.They conduct extens ive research

on the availabilityofexist ing children'sliterature

on thoseissues.Theymeet with a ch ildren's book

publisher to discuss the specific publicati ond

e-mandsfor producing an d mark etingchildren'slit

er-ature Theywrite a ch ildren 's book on their e

nvi-ron men ta l issue an d test-mark et it in school They

revise their book basedon their test marketing an d

then submit it to achildren'sbookpublisher

• Studen ts use appropriate technologytodesign

aphonechain that will contact their classmat es in

case ofan emergenc y (assume aclass of 30).They

det erminehowlongit will take to calleveryone o

thechain if theyuse athree- ,four- , or five-person

chain, explain ing themethod used tomakethat

det erminati on.They cons ider the adva n tages and

disadvantages of usingcert ainnumberchains an d

explain theirreasoning.Theypresenttheir so

lu-tiontotheclassusing apersuasive argumen t The

class selects thebestproposal and submits it tothe

schooloffice

• Studen ts wat ch and discuss afilmon the

Holocaust.TheyreadNi ghtb ElieWiesel andwrite apersonalresponse tothe autho r Theythen

engage in aclassroom discussion on human b

ehav-ior andon thetend encies tha tsupported fascism

an d Nazism Studen ts readTh e W aveb Todd

Strasseror examine curren t dat a on extre mistgroups Theywrite aneditorialon the exten t towhich therights ofsuch groupssho uldbe pro-

tected.Finally, among theclass,they select two orthree of thebest edito rialsand submit themtothe

localnewspaper

• Studen tscreate a game tobeplayed b peopl eage 10an dolder The game will bemark et ed for

an internati onal corporation (predominantly

Fren ch,English , and Span ish ) The game has asits

themeliterary and historic alfigureswho crossn

a-tionalboundaries.It isprodu cedwith the ass

is-tan ce ofcompute r technology Studen tscrea te a

game description,rules, an dadvertising strateg ies

in bothEnglish an dano the r language.Theykeep a

journal of theirprogress, successes, failur es, and r

e-28 Becoming a Better Teac her: Eig ht I nnovations That Work

flections.Theyreviewcopyrightlawsthat apply to

their game.Theymanufacturethegame and offer

it for sale tothe studen t body.They selectacharity

that will receiv etheprofitsfrom thesale of the

game.Finally,theycommunicat ewith busin esses

whomightbeinterested in theirproduct

What Are the Attributes of Authenticity?

Authentic assessmen t taskspossess allor most of

thefollowingdistinct attributes Many of these

attributes would enhan ce any assessmen t task,

authe n t icor not

• R eal purp ose a nd a udience.Studen tssolvea

real probl emfor an invested audien ce beyondthe

classroom in awaythat ena blesstuden ts to

experi-ence thebenefits an d consequ ences of their work

• Integr ation o f co ntent and skill s.St uden ts build

uponpriorknowledge and apply knowledge and

skills from two or more naturallyrelat ed areas

• Dis ciplined inquiry/academic rig or.Studen ts

search for in-depthunderstandingthrough syste

m-aticresearch and inquiry using avariety of primary

andseconda rysources

• Expli cit standards a nd sco ring c riteria. Stude n ts

participat e in the identificati on of performanc e

sta ndards for thetask an d in its art iculat ion in the

form of rubricsthat effect ively distinguish the

lev-els of perform anc e;perform anc ecrit eri a guide

stu-dentsin evaluat ion an dgoalsett ing, an da variety

ofexe mplarsand ancho rs illustr at evariouslevels of

perform anc e

• Elab orate co mmunication. Studen ts

communi-cat ewhat theyknow and can do an d howthey

think through written, art ist ic,and oral

perfor-manc es an dexh ibit ions, an d through opport un it ies

toteach othe rs

• L evels o f thinkin g.Stude n ts usebasic and

high erlevels of thinkingin ataskthat callsfor a

combinat ion ofskillsan d form s of knowledge

• R eflection, se lf- and pe er-assessment a nd fe

ed-b ack.Stude n ts reflect on bothproducts an dprocessesthrough ongo ing andspecific questions,checkli sts, or rubrics.Theyform ally evaluate theirown and eachother's learningthrough ongo ing,elaborat e, and specificfeedback from boththeteach er an d theirpeers.Thisfeedb ack enco uragesstude n t revisiontoproducequality work

• Fl exibilityi nco ntent, strat egies, pr oducts,

a nd tim e.The assessmen t task allows for stude n gene ratedchoiceof content an dstrateg ies; timeallo tmen t isflexiblefordifferent stude n tsan dacco mmoda tes differences among theproducts orperform anc es selected

t-Teach erscan refin e existingassessmen t taskstoincorp orat ethese attributes Figure 4.1 on page 29showsanoriginalassessmen t task that aphysicaleduca t ion teacherused with his studen ts Althoughthetask-the devel opment ofapersonalresistanc etrainingprogram-is authe n tic in the sense that ithas areal-lifepurpose,it is rathe r narrowlydefin ed

an d lacksrigor and explicit perform anc ecriteri a.Figure4.2 on pages30-31 is arevisedversion ofthe sameassessmen t task.Therevisionincorpo-rat es several of the authe n t icassessmen t attributesthat werelackingin the origina l draft

A teacher, or a groupof teachers,mayproducetwo or threedrafts beforearrivingat ahigh-qualityfinalproduct.Man y school districtsbring groupsofteach erstogether in the summeror during othe rnonteachingtimestoproducetwo or threequalityassessmen t design modules

AppendixB providestoolstohelp teachersvelopor refin e an authe n ticassessmen t task.TheAuthenticAssessmentDesign Module is a step-by-

FI GURE4.1

DRAFT 1 OF AN ASSESSMENT FOR A PERSONAL RESISTANCE TRAINING PROGRAM

Assessment Task: What is the task that students

wiLL compLete that wiLL move them toward the

standards and that I can collect to assess their

achievement?

Students wiLLdesign and carry out a personaL

resistance training program in the schooL gym

Standards: Which standards do I teach to and

as-sess?

Health, Home Economics, and PhysicaL

Educa-tion Standard 1: PhysicaL EducaEduca-tion

(commence-mentLeveL)- St udents wiLL perform basic motor

and manipuLative skills attain competency in a

variety of physicaL activities .design personaL

fitness programs to improve cardiorespiratory

en-durance, flexibiLity, muscuLarstrength, endurance,

and body composition

Indicators: Which indicators of these standards

appLy to this assessment?

a Demonstrate proficiency in exercises that

provide conditioning for each fitness area

(muscu-Lar strength and endurance)

e Know the components of personaL weLLness,estabLish a personaL profiLe with fitness and weLL-ness goaLs, and engage in appropriate activities toimprove/sustain their fitness

f.Follow a program that reLates to weLLness

Teaching/Learning Opportunities: What do I need

to teach or engage students in before they work

on the assessment task and whiLe they work onthe task so that they wiLL Learn and achieve thestandards?

Before beginning, I wiLL teach the muscle ture, principLes of training, proper techniques, andsafety guideLines

struc-While students are carrying out their trainingprograms, I wiLL review principles, techniques, andsafety on an individuaL basis

Performance Criteria: What does a quaLity product

or performance Looks Like? What are the indicators(criteria) that wiLL form the basis of the checkList

or rubric?

None

S ource: D eveloped by D iane C unningham C apyright© 199 8by L earner-Centered I nitiatives, L td U sed wi th p ermission

stepguide through theprocess.TheRubric T

em-plat ecan beusedtodevelop the scorin g rubric that

ispart of theassessment.To identifythemeritsand

sho rtco min gsof the assessmen t itself,teach erscan

usetheRubric forAuthentic Classroo m A

ssess-mentTasks an dacco mpanying rating sheet asthey

design and refin e

AppendixB wasdevelopedtohelpteach ers assess

and revisetheir assessmen t tasks.Therubrics are not

meanttobeused as summativeshee ts where you

might add the scores to generatea grade Instead, the

rubrics sho uld beused asform ativ etoolswhereby

every rubric dimensionisindepend entfrom one an

-other Teach erscan assesstheirwork onone or more

dimension sif theywantto.Then/smeansn

on-scorable Thiscodeindicatesthat theteach er/author

hasnot included sufficien t inform ation ona specificdimension forit tobe scored