Unpacking the

Standards
How

Do I Know
What to Teach
and How to
Teach It?

The Nature of
Standards

Standards indicators may contain one or more elements

State Standard

indicator

indicator

indicator

element

element

element

element

element

Be able to KNOW and

DO
Knowledge (Declarative)
What we want
students to know:
Vocabulary
Definitions
Concepts
Laws, Formulas
Key facts
Critical details
Sequence & timelines

Grant Wiggins, Jay McTighe, Understanding by Design, 2004

Skills (Procedural)
What we want
students to be able to
do:
Decoding, computation
Communication skillslistening, speaking, writing
Thinking skills compare,
infer, analyze
Research inquiry,
investigate
Study Skills notetaking
Group skills

Types of Memory
Eric Jensen

Uses language, text,

words, symbols.

Learn by doing, hands-on

experience.

Associating whats going

on with where you are.

Word association.
Repetition, rhymes,
mnemonics

Movement, position,
posture, tastes, feeling,
states or aromas.

Revisiting initial learning

conditions, locations, time
and circumstances.

High

Low-Moderate

Minimal

Unlimited chunking
uses short/long term
memory

Unlimited

Unlimited

Declarative and Procedural

Knowledge Networks

Kris Nei, 2000

Unpacking Standards
SS-HS-1.1.1
Students will compare and contrast (purposes,
sources of power) various forms of government in
the world (e.g., monarchy, democracy, republic,
dictatorship) and evaluate how effective they have
been in establishing order, providing security and
accomplishing common goals.

Unpacking Standards
Standard

Verbs (How
students will
show what is
required)

SS-HS-1.1.1

Students will compare

and contrast (purposes,
sources of power) various
forms of government in
the world (e.g., monarchy,
democracy, republic,
dictatorship) and evaluate
how effective they have
been in establishing
order, providing security
and accomplishing
common goals.

Compare
Contrast
Evaluate

Nouns (What
students are
required to know)
Forms of Government:
Monarchy
Democracy
Republic
Dictatorship
Order
Security
Common goals

Unpacking your
standard

In pairs, select a Core Content

standard

Circle verbs

Underline nouns

Create a graphic organizer

A quick look at Bloom!

Evaluation
Synthesis
Analysis
Application
Comprehension
Knowledge

Skill (Verb)

Blooms Taxonomy
Knowledge: defines, describes, identifies, knows, labels, lists, matches, names,
outlines, recalls, recognizes, reproduces, selects, states

Comprehension:

comprehends, converts, defends, distinguishes, estimates,

explains, extends, generalizes, gives examples, infers, interprets, paraphrases,
predicts, rewrites, summarizes, translates

Application:

applies, changes, computes, constructs, demonstrates, discovers,

manipulates, modifies, operates, predicts, prepares, produces, relates, shows,
solves, uses
Analysis: analyzes, breaks down, compares, contrasts, diagrams, deconstructs,
differentiates, discriminates, distinguishes, identifies, illustrates, infers, outlines,
relates, selects, separates
Synthesis: categorizes, combines, compiles, composes, creates, devises,
designs, explains, generates, modifies, organizes, plans, rearranges, reconstructs,
relates, reorganizes, revises, rewrites, summarizes, tells, writes
Evaluation: appraises, compares, concludes, contrasts, criticizes, critiques,
defends, describes, discriminates, evaluates, explains, interprets, justifies, relates,
summarizes, supports.

What about the

BIG

Ideas

Essential

Questions

Communicating Standards
Current research (Marzano, McREL, Ruby
Payne) reveals that communicating learning
objectives or goals clearly to students
increases student achievement and
motivation.

USING
STANDARDS
AS
A TEACHING
TOOL

Create a Graphic
Organizer

If done by teacher, can be used by

students as preview prior to
teaching.
If done by students can be used as
a word wall
Using word walls or graphic organizers can provide
conceptual frameworks as part of the content. Graphic
organizers give students the ability to identify main
concepts, assign specific labels to concepts, and sort
relevant and non-relevant cues.

Unpacking Standards with

Students!
Students will describe
the migrations and
settlements of
various ethnic groups
and explain their
impact on the
development of the
region.

WORD WALLS

SS-HS-1.1.1
Students will compare and contrast
(purposes, sources of power) various forms
of government in the world (e.g., monarchy,
democracy, republic, dictatorship) and
evaluate how effective they have been in
establishing order, providing security and
accomplishing common goals.

Social Studies Standard Concept Map

HS-SS-1.1.1
Forms of government

Monarchy

Dictatorship

Democracy

Evaluate effectiveness

Establishing
Order

Accomplishing
Providing Common Goals
Security

Republic

compare & contrast

Sources of
Power

Purposes

RD-05-3.0.9
Students will identify commonly used persuasive techniques
(bandwagon, emotional appeal, testimonial, expert opinion) used in a
passage.
bandwagon

Identify

Persuasive
Techniques

I can explain what the bandwagon technique is.

Emotional appeal
Testimonial

Expert Opinion

I can identify the bandwagon persuasive technique in a reading

passage. This means I can pick out places where the writer is using the
bandwagon technique to convince the reader

MA-04-4.1.3
Students will construct data displays (pictographs, bar graphs, line plots,
Venn diagrams, tables).
DOK 2
Construct

pictographs

Data Displays

tables

Venn diagrams

Bar graphs
Line plots

Ready to
unpack?