Aligning Standards, Curriculum, and Assessment

"The standards are an end point, a final destination. The standards are the what, without the how. My curriculum is the road we take to get there, and my assessment lets us know if we made it."
-- Matt Wayne

Video Contents

This is a follow up video to The Fishbowl. In The Fishbowl, Matt Wayne shows how he uses action research as an assessment tool. It is important to remember that students assessing each other is also an assessment tool for teachers.

In this video, Aligning Standards, Curriculum, and Assessment, Matt shows the viewer how he uses the standards to guide his curriculum; as well as the importance of using a variety of assessments in order to know whether your students "got there," that is, whether they understood what was to be learned in the curriculum. Some of the assessment tools he uses in this video are:

One-on-one Conferences
Holding individual conferences with students while the rest of the class is engaged in other work such as reading, the teacher will discuss specific topics related to the current lesson. For example, when the lesson has been on themes, the teacher may talk about what themes students are identifying in a specific story. This allows the teacher to get an idea of what the student understands about themes.

Watching Students Work in Groups
Using a checklist, the teacher can determine what may be the needs of individual students depending on how they participate in a group.

Students Responding in Writing
One of the literature standards states that students need to be able to write about and respond to literature. By looking at students writing every couple of weeks, the teacher can determine what each student may need in terms of writing skills. The teacher may look at the writing and ask the following questions: Does the student identify a theme in his/her story? How does he support the theme? Does he use several examples from the text? Are the examples the student gives specific examples, do they include quotations that illustrate a character? Is he making his own connections with this theme? What does the story say about his own life? With these questions in mind, the teacher will ascertain which skills need further improvement.

Additional Reading

For more information regarding aligning standards, curriculum and assessment please consult our best selling publication, New Teachers Handbook.