Klein ISD - HQ Collaborative Teams - Collaborative Planning

Clarity

Collaborative teams engage in discussion to gain a common understanding of what students will learn within an instructional unit.

“Teachers who do the work to unpack standards are the ones who understand them. It is through collaborative conversations that we come to collective clarity on what we want our students to know and be able to do. When teachers unpack standards in isolation they are likely to interpret the intent and rigor differently resulting in an educational lottery for students rather than a guaranteed and viable curriculum.”

- Rebecca Dufour

What will this look like?

Teams utilize the resources within the curriculum container.
Teams engage in conversations during collaborative time to gain a clear understanding of the instructional content.
Teams record their understandings somewhere that is referenced throughout unit.

Klein ISD Backward Design Planning Template

Essential Standards

-Letting Data Lead, by Eileen Depka

Essential Standards...

help determine what concepts we are guaranteeing students know by the end of the school year.
are those that a response is essential and action plans for reteach are centered around.

Resource:

Within the Curriculum Container in Schoology, district defined Essential Standards can be found in the Planning Resources folder under each Grade Level.

Example: District Math Essential TEKS Document

Unpacking for Clarity

Benefits:

Keeps focus on ALL students learning at high levels
Leads to more intentional lesson design
Ensures alignment of standards to team-created common assessments & delivery of instruction
More efficient in identifying when students need intervention or extension

Sample Unit Overview found in the Klein ISD Curriculum Container

Klein ISD Unpacking Standards

Template | Exemplar

Learning Design Template for Pre-K

Field Guides from Lead4ward

Access information is located within Schoology Curriculum Container

Solution Tree Resources:

Vertical Alignment

New learning is constructed on prior knowledge. The more we understand about what students already think, and the more we help them engage their prior understandings, the more likely they are to learn well – and the less likely they are to misinterpret the material in our courses. - Excerpt from “Importance of prior knowledge” Article

Benefits:

Identifies what may need to be scaffolded within the lesson
Identifies ways to make connections to support a deeper understanding
Identifies what students needs to be prepared for during the next class

Resources:

Lead4ward Scaffold Documents

TEKS Clarification Document in Schoology

Learning Intentions

Learning targets come from standards. These statements tell students what the intended learning is for the lesson. They should reflect the intent, or part of the intent, of the standard. They include a verb plus an action statement. We can word them using a sentence stem like "I can..." or "We will..." - Article - Learning Targets and Success Criteria

Resources:

Learning Intentions within each Unit/Quarter Overview in the Schoology Curriculum Container:

Misconceptions

Anticipating common misconceptions will help ensure Tier 1 instruction addresses the standards effectively. Many times, misconceptions come from reviewing past assessment data.

Resources:

Curriculum Overviews in Schoology
Lead4ward Field Guides
Prior year common assessment data

Processes & Implementation

Collaborative teams work through the components of unpacking for clarity.

Read the standards as a team.
Circle the verbs.
Underline the nouns and noun phrases.
Determine the number of targets found within the standards.
Write as separate learning targets.
- Remember to keep the core language intact at all times.
- Do not omit any part of the standard.
Determine the depth of knowledge required of the standard.
Pull the academic vocabulary from the standard.
Identify possible misconceptions.

Unpacking for clarity happens before digging into how the standards will be assessed and taught.
Most critical component is the conversation generated and the team's understanding recorded

Pre-work can include teachers reviewing the TEKS and doing a brain dump prior to attending Collaborative Team Time.
Repeat every year, no matter if the team is new or returning - it is always important to review the unpacking process every year to ensure any new learning will be considered to improve instruction.

Collaborative teams can utilize templates, create posters or use digital applications to record the team's understanding of the TEKS as they engage in collective inquiry. See examples below:

3rd Grade Team Example

This poster was utilized to generate and spark collaborative conversation to ensure everyone on the team had the opportunity to begin internalizing the TEKS.

Collaborative team discussed various components such as vocabulary and identified “Knows” as the concept and “Shows” as the Context.

Zwink 3rd Grade Team (22-23)

Algebra Team Example

This Concept Map Activity (derived from College Board) was used to record findings from unpacking the standards for an instructional unit.

The graphic organizer was generated through conversations within a Collaborative Team to identify all the concepts required within the standards in a Unit as well as the context.

This is also a great tool that can be generated and/or shared with students prior to teaching a unit so they know where they are going.

KO Algebra 1 Team (17-18)

Assessment of Mastery

Collaborative teams should aim to have a clear understanding of what mastery looks like for students and develop high quality assessments to measure student progress and determine areas of need for both students and within our instructional practices. Gaining a clear understanding of mastery requires collaborative discussion around success criteria, proficiency levels, campus common assessments and formative checks.

Success Criteria

Solution Tree: Developing "I can" statements clarifies for students what they are learning - what they should know and be able to do - in language students can understand.

Corwin: Agreeing on Learning Intentions and Success Criteria together creates Teacher Clarity.

Additional Resource:

Why we need Learning Intentions and Success Criteria - John Hattie, Corwin

Strategy: Everyone brings poster paper to the collaborative team time. Team discusses the learning intentions and breaks it out into Success Criteria. Each teacher can create posters that can be displayed and referenced in their classroom throughout the unit.

Fox Elementary Classroom Example

Example of Success Criteria from a Unit Overview found in the Klein ISD Curriculum Container in Schoology.

Proficiency Levels

Solution Tree Resource for Defining Levels of Mastery

If utilizing the traditional performance levels,

What does Mastery look like?
What does Meets look like?
What does Approaches look like?
What does Did not Meet look like?

Additional Solution Tree Resource:

Common Assessments

Common Assessments can be traditional (multiple choice/interactive), rubric-based or a combination. The ultimate goal of a Common Assessment is to assess students within all classes, at the level of rigor expected from the standard and provide teachers and students with feedback to make decisions about how to improve student learning as well as instructional practice.

Planning for the Assessment

You have to have your blueprint before you start building!

Traditional Assessments

(Multiple choice/Interactive)

Performance Task Assessments

Resources for Creating Assessments

Eduphoria Item Banks are available for select grade levels. Click the image below to learn how.

Schoology Curriculum Container has Blueprints and sample questions to help with developing a quality assessment.

Implementation

Collaborative Teams should:

Work through the process to compile/ create their common assessments
Create exemplars of ideal student response for any performance task or open ended responses
"Take the test" prior to beginning instruction
- Discuss additional common misconceptions
- Double check alignment of questions to the rigor of the TEKS
- Review overall assessment for appropriate level of rigor
- Verify assessment is quality and accurate

Formative Checks

Formative checks should be created to appropriately and quickly assess the success criteria throughout an instructional unit. Formative checks allow teachers to know exactly which students need additional support and which students are ready to move forward BEFORE the Common Unit Assessment.

Determine how to appropriately assess each Success Criteria that was previously determined.

The learning intentions and success criteria from the example to the left was taken from the 3rd Grade Math Curriculum Unit Overview in Schoology.

A formative assessment was strategically chosen for each success criteria to accurately and quickly assess student understanding.

Additional Resources

Schoology Curriculum Container Resources:

Examples of Formative Assessments

Implementation

Best Practices:

Review a pacing calendar to determine when these formative checks should occur.
Plan instructional time to address misconceptions after each formative assessment.
Utilize formative assessments in which data can be easily reviewed.
Formative Assessment via observation is great, but be sure to utilize a tracking document.

Assessment & Data Cheat Sheet

Assessment, Data, Smart Goals and Response Cheat Sheet

Strategies

Sharing and modeling high leverage teaching strategies can improve instructional pedagogy amongst collaborative teams and prepare teachers for implementation of instruction in the classroom.

Modeling High-Leverage Strategies

What does this look like?

Teams share strategies for an upcoming unit
Teachers model for their team while gathering feedback to improve their strategy
Team members observe and ask questions to gain clarity and improve their own personal practice.
Teams calibrate on how content is being delivered

Math specialist, Kelsey Marino, at Kleb (2021) utilizes PLC time to model lessons that teachers can turn around and implement in their classes.

Teacher at Nitch Elementary (2022) models her "I do" lesson during Collaborative Team Time for an upcoming unit.

Implementation

Develop a safe place where teachers are willing to share and engage in a feedback loop.
Create a schedule of when a teacher will model and share in advance.
Remind the team that modeling doesn’t have to be perfect - the goal is make even the best strategy better!

Preparation

Planning ahead for anticipated misconceptions can save valuable instructional time with students. Utilize the success criteria and formative assessments to identify additional support, practice or strategies that may help to clear up misconceptions.

Exemplars for Instruction

The work of creating exemplars for activities, formative assessments, etc also provide teachers a chance to “do the work” themselves and think through possible misconceptions students may have so they can be proactive.

Creating an exemplar for the ideal student response ensure:

Collective understanding amongst teachers of what mastery looks like for classroom activities.
Provides teachers a guide throughout a lesson to check work against
Allows students to check their level of understanding

Math Example

Science Example

Social Studies/Reading Example

Planning for Differentiation

There are many pieces that make up a differentiated classroom—it is not the implementation of one strategy or idea. … Gregory and Chapman (2007) describe the following six elements of a differentiated classroom.

The climate is growth oriented...
The teacher knows the learner...
Assessment is part of the process...
Assignments are adjustable...
Instructional strategies are varied...
A variety of curricular models are used...

—From What Principals Need to Know About Differentiated Instruction (p. 11) by Gayle Gregory

Tools that help to plan for differentiation:

Personalized Learning

Pre-assessments

Pre-assessments will assist teachers to:

Gather information about each student's level of understanding for an upcoming unit
Lead to appropriate differentiation that accommodates each student's learning needs.

Learner Profiles

Learner Profiles will assist teachers to:

Design learning environments and opportunities that build on student interests and experiences to maximize engagement
Select curriculum materials and content that students will be able to access
Offer a range of options for demonstrating thinking and learning that will work well for students

Process of Unpacking TEKS

The collaboration during this process helps to reveal required skills and misconceptions that a single teacher may not have thought about.

This allows all teachers on the team to be better prepared to provide targeted instruction and plan for addressing the misconceptions up front.

NWEA MAP Growth

Academic Diversity

MAP Growth Class Breakdown (K-8, 9th at KFHS) allows a teacher to see the diversity of your class within a specific instructional strand. This helps to plan for timing adjustments and determine groups of students that may need additional support or extension throughout the unit.

Historical Data

Reviewing vertically aligned data from your student's prior year assessments in Eduphoria will help identify possible gaps that may need to be addressed before building upon concepts in more depth.

This can assist with planning instruction that includes connections to prior knowledge and support where needed so that students can access grade-level content.

In Eduphoria:

Select District Assessments:

Select the prior school year:

Choose the Student Learning Standard Breakdown View:

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