Translating Standards Into Student-Friendly Terms

I have been teaching English for 19 years. In those 19 years, I have been asked to evaluate a multitude of standards, and I can say that standards are terrifying. While I idealistically believe that each evolution of standards has brought educators closer to closing the achievement gap presented in A Nation at Risk in 1983, the standards consistently fail to show educators how to translate them into success criteria. Over time, I have come to understand that a major part of developing and designing an effective curriculum is first deconstructing the standards into clear criteria of success that I can communicate to my students.

WHY STUDENTS NEED TO UNDERSTAND STANDARDS

Most of the conversations I have had with students around standards reflect rote memorization and regurgitation.

Student: “The teacher told me, ‘Examine and analyze what makes a claim valid by determining if supporting evidence is relevant and sufficient’” (Priority Learning Standards R7 & 8, 11th–12th-grade English).

Me: “Great. What does that mean?”

Blank stare.

Unless students are able to understand specifically what the standards are asking them to do, they cannot properly perform the task to our expectations. We must view these conversations as ways for us to reassess how we teach standards to students.

UNPACKing THE STANDARDS

We hand back an assignment with a grade, probably even a standards-aligned rubric, circling the parts we thought were ineffective. The student looks at the grade.

We need to reflect: Did the student learn from the feedback you provided? Did the student understand the feedback? Did they understand the task? Did we provide masterful examples of the assessment—some by students, and one definitely by us? Were our directions absolutely clear? Did we outline and explain the standards in language where students could clearly understand and articulate success? Here is how I approach these questions.

Reviewing standards. I review the most recently published standards and study the specific skills, content, and learning targets. I start by reading the standards to look for repetitive language that could be confusing. For the last few years, I’ve translated it to these Power Standards and Learning Targets.

Crafting a learning task. As I craft a learning task that addresses Priority Learning Standards R7 & 8, I must first make sure students understand what “Examine and analyze what makes a claim valid by determining if supporting evidence is relevant and sufficient” means. I’ve noticed that educators toss around the word analyze with the expectation that this concept is clear. It’s not. Every time the standards address the word analyze (and that’s 23 references in the Priority Learning Standards for English Language Arts), we are asking students to examine details to elicit meaning.

Translating to action. I can translate it to “Students will investigate the information being presented in a claim to ensure that it justifies the main argument with evidence and reason.” Essentially, how will a student know they have been successful at this specific task?

• The student is able to identify the main argument (or claim).
• The student can identify and discern if the evidence supports the claim or if the evidence detracts from the claim.
• The student determines if the evidence is reasonable.

4 steps of Teaching standards to students

Teaching standards to students is a matter of process thinking. What are all of the necessary steps to achieve success and complete the task? A student must have the ability to speak to the standards being addressed in the learning task when discussing their own level of mastery of the topic. This is the ultimate goal that drives independent learning. If the student cannot understand what the criteria for success are, then they will probably have difficulty understanding your feedback. This is where you’ll find yourself giving the same feedback over and over again.

Step one. For example, before we read the day’s selection of Macbeth in class, I present students with the original NYS Next Generation Standard (9-10R4): “Determine the meaning of words and phrases as they are used in a text, including figurative and connotative meanings. Analyze the impact of specific word choices on meaning, tone, and mood.”

Step two. I ask students to pair-share-write their version of what they think the standard is saying. Example: “I can figure out what an author’s words really mean, not just literally, but what they make me picture, feel, or think. I can explain how an author’s word choices affect the meaning, tone, and mood of a passage.”

Step three. I introduce the day’s content, “imagery,” and how it applies to this standard. Imagery is descriptive language that appeals to the five senses to create a mental picture. Imagery is one way authors use word choice, often figuratively, to shape a reader’s understanding, their emotions, and the overall atmosphere, which directly ties to the meaning, tone, and mood in the standard.

Step four. Model it with an example: “Will all great Neptune’s ocean wash this blood clean from my hand? No, this my hand will rather the multitudinous seas incarnadine, making the green one red” (Macbeth II.ii).

• Literal meaning: Macbeth wonders if water can wash away Duncan’s blood.
• Figurative meaning: His guilt is so deep it cannot be washed away. In fact, it would turn the whole ocean red.
• Impact on tone: Macbeth feels remorseful.
• Impact on mood: Heavy, tense, heartbreaking.
• Imagery connection: The words “multitudinous seas incarnadine” help readers see his guilt—the ocean turning from green to red.

translating standards into success criteria

I use process thinking to demonstrate how I unpack standards into success criteria. This is the document I share with my students for Macbeth. In a lesson explaining the document, I share the learning standards, and then I ask students to define their own success criteria for the standards in the assessment.

For example, students defined the standard RL.9–10.2 (Determine a theme or central idea of a text and analyze its development), which is central to the assessment, as follows:

• I picked a topic I actually find interesting or can say a lot about.
• I can give at least three examples from the play that fit my topic.
• I checked that my examples connect to a theme or universal idea.

Or let’s consider the standards W.9–10.1a (Introduce precise claims, distinguish them from opposing claims, and create an organization that establishes clear relationships) and RL.9–10.1 (Cite strong and thorough textual evidence to support analysis of what the text says explicitly as well as inferences drawn from the text). Students defined them as follows:

• My thesis clearly answers the prompt and makes an argument.
• It names both what I’m proving and how or why.
• It connects my examples and the theme together.

Ultimately, the goal of success criteria is to create a clear outline that helps students to be reflective, independent learners. They should be able to identify their own areas of struggle so that they can look to you for strategies of improvement in those areas or use inquiry to discover pathways to guide them toward ultimate success.