Goals Increase understanding of ‘big ideas’ Apply understanding of ‘big ideas’ to your own curriculum and identify evidence that will be collected to determine student understanding

Capturing your thinking…

Big Ideas An idea is ‘big’ if it helps students make sense of lots of confusing ideas and experiences and seemingly isolated facts. It’s like the picture that connects the dots and reveals the image (big Idea) by connecting the component pieces (key concepts).

Big Ideas At the elementary level, the idea that we are all part of a “food chain” of living and nonliving things is big because it links seemingly different animals and plant matter into a bigger, comprehensible “ecosystem” of energy exchange.

Big Ideas At the middle and high school levels, Newton’s laws of motion and gravity are four of the biggest ideas ever posed. Suddenly, thousands of seemingly unrelated facts and phenomena- apples falling, the motion and cycle of tides, seasons, the Moon’s orbit- have a meaningful explanation and can be seen as part of a huge coherent system.

Progressing Toward a Big Idea

Learning Progression: A learning progression is a sequenced set of subskills and enabling knowledge that, it is believed, students must master en route to mastering a more remote curricular aim. (Popham 2008) A Learning Progression Model: for a unit or kit

Key Idea! Keep a learning progression sufficiently lean so that it is likely to be used. The only building blocks to include are those for which you plan to collect assessment evidence. –Popham

All plants and animals have various external parts Different animals use their body parts in different ways to see, hear, grasp objects, and move from place to place. Animals have various ways of obtaining food and water. Nearly all animals drink water or eat foods that contain water. Living things have basic needs, and they meet their needs in various ways. Unit Big Idea Lesson Learning Target

Learning Cycle Within Each Building Block Initial Ideas about Learning Target Reflect on/ Revisit Initial Ideas Sense Making Gather Evidence about the Learning Target Lesson Assessment Students not successful. Replan instruction with help of PLC. Begin this lesson cycle over with sharing of initial ideas. Students successful. Proceed to next lesson in learning progression.

“Grain Size”

Clearly Identify the Big Ideas What are the big ideas in your unit? What building blocks make up those ideas? How can you make the big ideas clear for your students?

Practice in a classroom is formative to the extent that evidence about student achievement is elicited, interpreted, and used by teachers, learners, or their peers, to make decisions about the next steps in instruction that are likely to be better, or better founded, than the decisions they would have taken in the absence of the evidence that was elicited. ~Black and Wiliam

How can we assess student understanding of the building blocks of the big ideas? Where are the critical check points?

Step 1: Identify the big idea, from the standards, in your curriculum.

Step 2: Identify all necessary building blocks (concepts, knowledge and skills)

Insects have unique structures, behaviors, and basic needs. They are all related, yet have lots of variations and complex life cycles. Insects share some common features, yet vary in other ways. Building Block- True or False?

Insects have unique structures, behaviors, and basic needs. They are all related, yet have lots of variations and complex life cycles. Insects belong to the Animal Kingdom. Building Block- True or False?

Insects have unique structures, behaviors, and basic needs. They are all related, yet have lots of variations and complex life cycles. All Insects have characteristics that perform certain functions. Building Block- True or False?

Step 3: Determine how to measure the building block

Why assess the building blocks? Why not only assess the big idea?

Dylan Wiliam Washington Educational Research Association workshop June 2009 Good assessment tasks or questions cause thinking and provide data that informs teaching

Example: Jenna put a glass of cold water outside on a warm day. After a while, she could see small droplets on the outside of the glass. Why was this? a) The air molecules around the glass condensed to form droplets of liquid. b) The water vapor in the air near the cold glass condensed to form droplets of liquid water. c) Water soaked through invisible holes in the glass to form droplets of water on the outside of the glass. d) The cold glass causes oxygen in the air to become water.

When students are required to think about their own learning, articulate what they understand, and what they still need to learn, achievement improves. --Black and Wiliam, 1998

Step 4: Arrange all your building blocks in a structurally defensible sequence.

TIMSS 1996 Findings “[Teachers] emphasize familiarity with many topics rather than concentrated attention on a few. And they likely lower the academic performance of students who spend years in such a learning environment. Our curricula, textbooks, and teaching are all “a mile wide and an inch deep.” Schmidt et al., 1996

To promote durability of learning More than one context is needed. Learners need to know under what conditions, or when, to apply the knowledge or skill. How People Learn (Bransford et al 1999)

Pruning Too much content, too little time…

Prune activities or sub topics if… They do not clearly relate to the big idea or help students learn the key concepts The amount of time needed to teach it is out of proportion with its importance The topic is repeated in other years New Vocabulary… Should be limited to 3-5 terms in elementary, 6-8 terms for middle school and 8-10 for high school

Reflection How can learning progressions help focus you, and your students, on the big ideas in your curriculum?

I taught a great lesson but the wrong class came. Anonymous