Stanwood-Camano School District

STA
HEALTH SYMPOSIUM
NDA
RDS March 25, 2008
UNW
S TA R A P P I N
NDA G
RDS
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S TA W E R
NDA
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Standards--unlike so

Unwrapping the Standards many passing trends

in education--are
here to stay.
DEFINITIONS

UNWRAPPING
“Unwrapping” the standards means to identify
the concepts and skills found in both the
standards (the general statements of learning
outcomes--what students need to know and be
able to do) and the indicators (the grade-specific
learning outcomes. It means to examine the
standards and the grade-specific indicators
listed beneath them to determine exactly what
students need to (1) know (the concepts or
content) and (2) be able to do (the skills)
through a (3) particular context (what
educators will use to teach students the
concepts and skills).

CONCEPTS
Concepts can be defined as abstract ideas that
point to a larger set of understandings, (e.g.,
peace, democracy, change, patterns, power,
etc). Content refers to the specific information
students need to know in a given standard, its
related indicators, or in an entire course of
study. Often educators use these terms Unwrapping the standards is looking for the
interchangeably when they are “unwrapping” important nouns, adjectives, and verbs.
standards. To simplify the definitions, think of
the concepts or content as being the important
nouns and noun phrases, and the skills as being
the verbs. Unwrapping is looking for the
important nouns, adjectives, and verbs!

Working with standards

HEALTH SYMPOSIUM!
SELECT YOUR STANDARDS TO UNWRAP
๏ Select one particular grade in the
health curriculum. Look over the
standards and grade-specific indictors
listed underneath and decide which
ones you wish to “unwrap.”
๏ Start small. Choose one standard you
are familiar with to begin this process.
Ultimately, educators “unwrap” the
specific standards and indicators
targeted for an instructional unit.
UNDERLINE NOUNS, CIRCLE VERBS
๏ Carefully read through your selected
standard and related indicators, and as
you do so, underline the key concepts
(important nouns and noun phrases)
and circle the skills (the verbs).
Remember, the concepts are what
students must know, and the skills or
performance verbs are what they must
be able to do.
USING A GRAPHIC ORGANIZER
๏ A graphic organizer can be used to
support the process of “unwrapping”
the standards. It makes it easier.
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“UNWRAPPING” SEVERAL STANDARDS
๏ Once you become familiar with the
“unwrapping” process, it is a logical
next step to think about identifying all Once all the
the related standards and indicators standards and
one would target in an instructional indicators are
unit. For example, in a particular unit identified for a
on healthy choices and nutrition, you particular unit or set
often want to find all of the standards
and indictors related to those particular
of lessons, educators
topics, and collectively “unwrap” them. then collectively
“unwrap” create
๏ These standards may not always be their graphic
listed together in the standards organizer, and plan
documents, however. Often they
instruction and
appear in several places within grade-
assessment to
level or course-specific standards and
address all the
require “sleuthing” to find them all.
Educators do this because they want to concepts and skills
take a more holistic approach in their contained in the
instructional planning, not just teaching standards.
the standards in bits and pieces as they
randomly appear in the standards
documents or in the textbook, but
grouping related ones together for
more effective instruction and greater
student understanding.
Working with standards
HEALTH SYMPOSIUM!
Power Standards
IDENTIFYING THE STANDARDS THAT MATTER THE MOST
WHAT ARE POWER STANDARDS?
Power Standards are a subset of the
complete list of standards and
indicators for each grade and for each
subject. They represent the “safety” net
of standards each teacher needs to
make sure that every student learns
before leaving the current grade.
Students who acquire this “safety net”
of knowledge and skills will thus exit
one grade better prepared for the next
grade.
THE RATIONALE FOR POWER STANDARDS
There is a convincing rationale for
differentiating standards as either
“essential” or “nice to know.” The
consensus among educators nationwide
is that in-de pth instruction of
“essential” concepts and skills is more
effective than superficially “covering”
every concept in the textbook. Recent
research by Robert Marzano indicated
that we would have to change schooling
from K-12 to K-22 to cover all the
standards. He further indicated that
the sheer number of standards is the
biggest impediment to implementing
standards.
CRITERIA FOR POWER STANDARDS
When considering which standards and
indicators are “power,” think of the
ones that students need for success
according to the following three
criteria:
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1. What students need to know students become proficient on state
and be able to do in school this assessments.
year, next year, and so on.
2. What students need to learn STANDARDS, NOT STANDARDIZATION
in the way of life skills. The process of “unwrapping” is a
powerful technique for managing
3. What students need to know
standards effectively. In seeking to
and be able to do on all high-stakes
assessments. familiarize educators with this process,
the goal is not standardization of
ESSENTIAL AND NICE TO KNOW teaching styles and techniques; the
Make distinctions between which goals is to effectively teach students the
standards are “essential” and which standards. Educators may collectively
ones are “nice to know.” Teach the “unwrap” the same standard and
“essentials” for depth of student indicators in the same way, but they
understanding. Then teach the “nice to must always be encouraged to draw
know” standards as they relate to the upon their own individual talents,
ones identified as “essential.” creativity, experience, and expertise in
helping their students gain a deep
“UNWRAPPING” TESTED STANDARDS understanding of the concepts and
A question often brought forward is skills within the standards they have
“What if state assessment results “unwrapped.”
indicate that students are scoring low
on a particular standard or indicator
that has not been designated a Power
Standard?”
Whether or not it is a Power
Standard makes no difference, If,
according to test results, students need
more in-depth understanding of the
concepts and skills within a particular
standard or indicator, then what better
way for teachers to really zero in on
where students are having trouble than
by “unwrapping” that tested standard
or indicator? They can then plan
instruction and assessment to help
Working with standards
HEALTH SYMPOSIUM!
Big Ideas are Enduring Understandings: What will people remember for 40 years?
WHY BIG IDEAS
Do you remember any particularly
challenging high school or college exams on
which, despite their difficulty, you scored
quite well? If you were to take those same
test now, do you think you could do as well
today as you did then? Usually, once a test
was over, so is the retention of particular
information. For too many students,
information becomes “out of sight, out of
mind.”
Students need a large-scale mental
organizer--enduring understandings, or “big
ideas” to help them organize and make
sense of the myriad facts they are expected
to learn. The lessons from brain research
have acknowledged the fact that the human
brain organizes information according to
patterns. Unless educators deliberately help
their students connect the concepts and
skills being taught to prior learning through
some type of organizational structure, facts
will continue to come first with little chance
that some master pattern will eventually
emerge to bind the facts together in a way
that makes useful sense.
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THE DEEP END OF THE POOL
Big ideas are often called the “deep end of
the pool.” For the majority of educators,
Bid Ideas do not come easily at first. Why? Enduring
Because most confide that they themselves Understandings, or
were not taught to think in terms of Big Big Ideas are the
Ideas during their own educational important
experience. understandings that
Fortunately or unfortunately, it is not
enough simply to say to students, “Here’s
we want students to
the Bid Idea you need to know,” and then get inside of and
proceed to tell them what that Big Ideas is. retain after they’ve
If it were this easy, we could simply tell forgotten many of
students how everything relates to the details.
everything else and be done with the
challenge of helping them make these
discoveries on their own. We would never
see students engage in the struggle to make
their own connections between present an
past learning--the critical factor in the
learning process that begins with not
knowing.
Working with standards
HEALTH SYMPOSIUM! PAGE 5

What are Big Ideas, Anyway?

What exactly are Big Ideas and how do we determining your own Bid Ideas from the
help students realize them? Big Ideas are standards and indicators you “unwrap.”
what Oprah Winfrey calls “light bulb ๏ Will this Big Idea apply to more
moments,” those sudden flashes of than one content area of learning?
illumination when a student says, “Oh, I get ๏ Will this Big Idea
it!” and goes on to articulate the meaning apply to more than one
she/he has suddenly derived. grade in school?
๏ Will this Big Idea
endure? Will it be as
Here are several statements that attempt to important in the future as
define what Big Ideas are. They are in it is now?
bulleted for and isolated for reflective
๏ Will this Big Idea be
purposes only. Often the criteria overlap. one that students
๏ Big Ideas are those “Aha!” remember long after
realizations, discoveries, or conclusions instruction ends?
students reach on their own either
during or after instruction. ATTRIBUTES OF BIG IDEAS
๏ Big Ideas are key generalizations ๏ Brevity--usually five to ten words.
students can articulate after their ๏ Conceptual--cannot be answered
sudden grasp of the “big picture.” factually or with a yes/no statement;
๏ Bid Ideas are the lasting goes beyond content to conjecture.
understandings students will take with ๏ Open-ended--allows for multiple
them on their forward educational perspectives; no one “right” answer.
journey. ๏ Enduring--a “timeless” idea that
๏ Bid Ideas are personally worded may apply to other fields of learning.
statements derived from a deep
understanding of the concepts under
investigation. If we want students
๏ B i g I d e a s a re o p e n - e n d e d , to really understand
enduring ideas that transfer a concept, then we
understanding from one subject to need to focus on
other areas of study. only three or four
Big Ideas for a
GUIDELINES TO DETERMINING BIG IDEAS particular unit.
Here are a few guidelines adapted from
d i f f e re n t s o u rc e s t o a s s i s t yo u i n

Working with standards

HEALTH SYMPOSIUM!
ESSENTIAL QUESTIONS
Which engages student attention more,
questions or facts? Consider this fact:
“Fractions represent quantities less than,
equal to, or greater than one whole.”
Compare this statement to the following:
“What is a fraction?” “What is its
relationship to a whole number?” Which
invited students to think? Which clearly
advertised the learning expectations? Which
was a catalyst that will eventually lead
students to understand for themselves what
their teachers want them to learn?”
Essential Questions are no ordinary
questions. Because they are derived from
“unwrapped” standards and indicators, they
are, in truth, standards-based questions.
Thus, educators can represent the essential
concepts and skills embedded in the
wording of the standards as thoughtfully
determined Essential Questions and then
use these questions to drive both instruction
and assessment.
BIG IDEAS: THE ANSWERS TO THE ESSENTIAL
QUESTIONS
When educators pose the Essential
Questions to students at the inception of an
instructional unit, they are advertising
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upfront the learning goals they expect
students to meet. They then use the
Essential Questions and “unwrapped”
concepts and skills as instructional filters for
selecting lessons and activities that will
advance student understanding toward
those learning goals. As students move
through the lessons and activities, they are
developing their understanding of the
“unwrapped” concepts and skills and
formulating their responses to the Essential
Questions
Remember that the ultimate goal in
this regard is for students to be able to
answer the Essential Questions with
the Big Ideas expressed in their own
words.
WHY AND HOW
Not all questions are equal. The five “W’s”
and an “H” who, what, where, when, why,
and how are not weighted the same. The
first four are lower level thinking questions.
“Why” and “How” questions require the
learner to apply the information in any
number of ways. “Should” and “Would”
also make Essential Questions more
complex in thinking.
Working with standards
HEALTH SYMPOSIUM!
The “One-Two Punch”
ESSENTIAL QUESTIONS THAT GET STUDENTS TO THINK
The “one-two punch” is a two-part
question. The first part asks students to
demonstrate their recall of
information. It is the first four in the
five “Ws” and an “H”. It validates the
need to acquire a knowledge base. The
second part asks them to apply that
information. It communicates the
message that facts alone are not
enough; they must be utilized if they
are to be of real value. Here are a few
examples from various contest areas:
๏ What is the writing process?
Why do accomplished writers use
it?
๏ What is the difference
between oil and acrylic paints?
How does an artist decide which
medium to use?
๏ What are linear equations?
How can we use them in real life?
๏ What does “working out”
mean? How does it help you?
๏ What is musical notation?
How does it help a performer sing
or a musician play a particular
instrument?
๏ What are the elements of an
effective computer presentation?
Why is visual design important to
such a profession?
ESSENTIAL QUESTIONS AND BIG IDEAS
Big ideas might only be written as a
factual statement, or seem to answer
only one part of a two-part Essential
Question. Remember, the initial goal
when writing a Big Idea is to capture in
Working with standards
PAGE 7
one sentence the most important idea
students need to grasp about the
particular content they are studying. As
you review your Essential Questions
with their corresponding Big Ideas,
decide if an additional Big Idea is
needed.
Big Ideas cannot be reduced to a
“cookie cutter” process. There is always
room for improvement, and this
naturally occurs with continued
practice. The same holds true for the
wording of Essential Questions.
HEALTH SYMPOSIUM!
SAMPLE ENDURING UNDERSTANDINGS AND ESSENTIAL QUESTIONS
ENDURING UNDERSTANDINGS
✦ D i e t a r y re q u i re m e n t s va r y fo r
individuals based on age, activity level,
weight, metabolism, and health.
✦ Participation in lifelong sports
promotes physical and mental health.
✦ The comprehension of knowledge is
related to health promotion and disease
prevention.
✦ The ability to access valid health
information and health promoting
products and services impacts health.
✦ The opportunity to practice health-
enhancing behaviors can reduce health
risks.
✦ Health is influenced by a variety of
factors including culture, media and
technology.
✦ Health is enhanced by the ability to use
interpersonal communication skills.
✦ Health is enhanced by the ability to use
goal-setting and decision making skills.
✦ A healthy person has the ability and
desire to advocate for personal, family
and community health.
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ESSENTIAL QUESTIONS
✦ What is healthful living? What is
wellness? Why is it important?
✦ How does physical fitness relate to
health?
✦ What constitutes a lifelong sport?
✦ When is physical activity good and not
so good for your body? How do you
know?
✦ What strategies do the top performers
and teams use?
✦ Is pain necessary for progress in
conditioning? In athletics? To improve
health?
✦ How do you achieve greater power
without losing control?
✦ What type of feedback is best?
✦ How can you best use feedback to
improve performance?
✦ What does it mean to be healthy? How
do you know you are healthy?
✦ Why should people focus on mental
and emotional health? How is this the
same of different than physical health?
✦ What does it mean to be healthy?
Working with standards
 HEALTH SYMPOSIUM! PAGE 9
Established Goals (standard or standards):
All students will connect mathematics to other learning by understanding the interrelationship of mathematical ideas and the roles
that mathematics and mathematical modeling play in other disciplines and in life.

Stated or implied Big Ideas in the NOUNS and Stated or implied real-world performances in
ADJECTIVES: the VERBS:

★Mathematical modeling in various disciplines and life ★Examples of effective mathematical modeling of real-
life data or phenomena
★Critically review a mathematical model for its
appropriateness to a given real-life situation

Understandings (Big Ideas): Essential Questions:

Students will understand that...
★Mathematical models simplify and connect phenomena
so that we might better understand them.
★Mathematical models must be viewed critically so that
they do not distort or mislead.
★In what ways is mathematical modeling useful?
★How do you know if your model is a good one (for a
particular situation)?
★What are the limits of mathematical modeling? How do
you know?

Performance Task Ideas

★Have students create a mathematical model for a selected real-world situation (e.g., seasonal temperature).
★Have students critically review a mathematical model for its appropriateness to a given situation (e.g., the Mercator
Projection for representing the glove in two-dimensions).

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 HEALTH SYMPOSIUM! PAGE 10
Established Goals (standard or standards):

Stated or implied Big Ideas in the NOUNS and Stated or implied real-world performances in
ADJECTIVES: the VERBS:

Understandings (Big Ideas): Essential Questions:

Students will understand that...

Performance Task Ideas

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