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Breaking Down the Standards with Primary Learners

April 16, 2016 by Tamara

One of the things that I have become more passionate about over the years is digging into the standards. I’ve always been a standards based teacher, but in the last six years, I think I’ve worked on taking what I already do to a new level.  My old grade chair left our school two years ago to become a personalized learning specialist. She came back mid year to become our Curriculum Resource Teacher (CRT).  Basically, her job is to help teachers create lessons that are rooted in the standards and highly engaging. I am so excited about getting to work with her! Her old school was big into personalized learning and she’s sharing some of that knowledge with our staff now too.  I didn’t think I’d be all that good at it, but…after watching a few videos and a few encouraging chats with my CRT, I was ready to give a few things a try! 🙂  The first thing that I started to do with my kids was break down the standards.  Now, I’ve already DONE this work for myself…and frankly, I was a bit skeptical about what six year olds would be able to do with this…but…my kids are INTO IT.  #bigtime
I would say that in some primary classrooms, it might be best to start with the I Can statement and break that apart for deeper understanding.  In Kindergarten, I might model this most of the year with I Can statements and have them move towards independence on this in the fourth quarter.

Want to use this with your learners?  Click HERE for a copy of this for your class.

We use a lot of rubrics in my room and we talk about the levels of the rubrics often.  I tied that language into what I wanted to use with my students for digging into the standards.
Here’s what I did to implement this in my room.
1.) Review the standard ahead of time to see if it needs to be broken down into parts, or if it is short enough that a unit of study will be enough to teach it to mastery.
2.) Have the students write down the part of the standard you’re teaching, or print it on a label for them to use.
3.) Pull out the nouns and verbs for reflection.
4.) Have students develop their own I Can statements based on their understanding of the standard.

I don’t have unlimited copies, and so it was more practical to have the students write in their composition books for this.  I made a cuter sheet for presentations and the occasional observation, but…..most of the time, I just have my students write like what you see in the example.

I just use one small part of the standard at a time, based on what I am teaching.  So, for example, with what I put here, I’d start with making my main goal for instruction to be introducing a topic in an opinion piece.  Later on in the year I will add more of the standard and add to the goals. I have had students write the standard, but I’ve also typed it up on labels and stuck them on there too! 🙂 After we discuss the standard, then we pull out the verbs and nouns.  I go over the definitions of what the words mean and then help them to come up with an I Can Statement.  If you want to bump up the progress monitoring aspect, have them write 0,1,2,3,4 at the bottom of the page and circle where they are at the beginning of the lesson and then circle where they are at the end of the lesson or series of lessons to accomplish the goal.

My students have really enjoyed digging into the standards with me, and several of them are telling me that they want to be teachers!  When they have play time, some of them are practicing breaking down their own versions of the standards.  It’s pretty precious! 🙂 I have firsties, and they are able to do it…so, I think this strategy would even be more impactful with bigger kids…and especially kids who are at risk in their academics.  Try it in your classroom and let me know how it goes! 🙂

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    Filed Under: Common core, Professional Development

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    Comments

    1. Deldreqka Scott says

      July 2, 2016 at 7:47 pm

      I love this idea! I am going to use it for MYSELF! I am moving from Kindergarten to 2nd Grade, and I am having a difficult time digging into the standards because I was trained on K standards. I can not wait to get started! I have a question: Where can I find the colorful sheet that you have in the file? I LOVE IT! Thanks so much for this!
      Deldreqka Scott

      • Tamara says

        July 2, 2016 at 7:59 pm

        Under the black and white version there is a hyperlink for it. Click on the word HERE. You’ll see both the color and black and white version in the file!

        • Deldreqka Scott says

          July 3, 2016 at 11:23 am

          Thank you so much! I am also just finishing your article about flexible seating. LOVED IT! You rocked that out!

    2. Michelle Ebers says

      July 3, 2016 at 8:24 am

      I am moving to first next year and this may be a good time to make this transition. With first grade being much less independent how do you guide them in this process at the beginning of the year? I taught 2nd the last 2 years and I’m having difficulty with how much independence to give my first graders in the beginning.

      • Tamara says

        July 3, 2016 at 10:57 am

        At the beginning, I’d probably give them the I can statement and have them deconstruct that.
        Keep the activities very simple at the beginning. Don’t give a whole bunch of choices. Make the must do types of activities something where they are writing. The can do activities could be something where they can collaborate with others and manipulate tools. Give them LESS flexibility at the beginning. HIGH structure. Release that as they show you that they can work independently without interrupting the work you are trying to do in small group. I’ll see about getting an even more specific post on laying this out….but let your mind think on these suggestions for a bit.

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