Understanding and Applying Standards

This Unit was very helpful for me in so many ways. Aside from learning more about effectively creating and writing standards and objectives, I learn about some areas of weakness that I have in writing objectives. The one thing that I love about teaching students with intellectual and physical disabilities is finding creative ways to teach them. I spend a great amount of time in creating my lessons because they have to meet the needs of each of my students. In Unit 1: Standards a lot of different topics were covered: 1) Unpacking a Standard, 2) Standards and Backwards Mapping, and 3) Objectives and Standards. I look forward to implementing some of the techniques and skills that I learned in this unit into my teaching and planning. 

Unpacking a Standard

When I think about standards and how they are used to guide my instruction, I think about specific terms in the standard. Words such as define, identify, explain, describe, and compare. After I recognize specific words I think about ways to effectively teach my students how to execute the terms. I teach special educations, so I have to find multiple ways to differentiate the instruction so that all of my students are learning the same curriculum in a different but logical way. Activity 1: Unpacking a Standard helped me to unravel ways to effect dissect an objective by identifying the nouns (main ideas or key details) and verbs (what they students will be able to do). Once I have done that, now I can create my Big Idea based on the nouns and verbs in the objective. Now I can explain to my students exactly what they are going to learn and what their leaning expectations are. The specific words that I highlight in my objectives are words that I will define and display for my students to reference as they are working towards meeting that object.  

I want to make this a mini lesson in for my students. I want my students to embrace their learning experience and be able to effectively explain what they are learning and what they will be able to do at a specific point. I think if my students actually took the time to understand their standards and objectives they would see the value in what they are learning, and will be more eager to delve into their academics. 

Standards and Backwards Mapping

This lesson hit home for me because the theme at my school this year is “Begin with the End in Mind!” We (teaching staff at my school) selected this theme during pre-service week at the beginning of the school year. If you know what your end result will be them you can align all of your goals and objects to meet that end result. I learned a lot in this unit as well, because I haven’t effectively put this design into work. I usually have a lesson, and I know what I want my students to learn, but I plan based on what I currently want to know, not thinking of the end result. If there is one BIG goal that I want my students to accomplish at the end of a Unit all of my standards and objectives should be designed to assure that students will meet that objective. If a student struggles to meet that objective it is my job as the instructor to modify and accommodate that students learning needs and abilities. I have also learned from this unit that the activities, projects, and lessons all have to be designed to meet the academic goals of the course. There should always be clear, concise, and relevant objectives and goals for the students. Below are a few skills that I will begin to implement in my planning:

-          Establish goals

-          Establish what the students will understand

-          Essential questions

-          Students will know/students will be able to

-          Assessment

-          Learning Plan

Objectives and Standards

This activity was probably my favorite because it was the most challenging. This activity really showed me that there is more to standards and objectives than just the words. What I struggled most with in this activity was whether or not my objectives were too advanced for my students. Although I work with students with disabilities I want to challenge them. I want them to know that they have a teacher that care about their academic success. However, the challenge that I often run into is that as much as I simplify and scaffold information my students often times just don’t understand. So I am constantly trying to figure out ways for my students to learn and achieve their objectives. I felt during this activity that some of my objectives were very repetitive, which I don’t think is a problem with working with students with intellectual disabilities. I liked using the SMART objectives because it gave me a clearer vision for how my learners will reach their ultimate goals. When I display my goals for my students I would like to use the components of SMART objects. I want to do this so that my students can see exactly what they are learning, and how they will learn it.

Overall I am very pleased with this unit because I was able to unravel some areas of weakness. I have further learned how to use nouns and verbs within a standard to form the BIG IDEA. Furthermore, I thought that using SMART objectives although was challenging helped me to put a lot of things into perspective. It helped to me really understand what I am expecting of my students, and how I want them to reach their objectives. It also allows my students to be play an active part in their academic success because it captures specific skills and knowledge that they will learn and that they need in order to matriculate through the curriculum.