Section III: After the Learning

5.4

ensuring all students have access to a GVC. Teachers should record and retain their reflections until the section III debriefing session with a coach.

Section III: After the Learning

Next Steps and Follow-Up for Coaching Teams

Your goal as the coach is to support the team with deliberate practice around unwrapping the standards. Write the following standard where all members can see it and ask the team to work in pairs and unwrap the standard using the process the article outlines.

“Determine a theme or central idea of a text and how it is conveyed through particular details; provide a summary of the text distinct from personal opinions or judgments” (RL.6.2; National Governors Association Center for Best Practices & Council of Chief State School Officers, 2010).

This standard contains at least three separate and distinct learning targets. • Learning target 1: Determine the central idea of a text. • Learning target 2: Determine how particular details convey a central idea of a text. • Learning target 3: Provide a summary of a text distinct from personal opinions or judgments.

Using the example standard, a teacher would instruct students on how to determine a text’s central idea before exploring different ways authors use details to convey a central idea. Afterward, the teacher may deliver a separate lesson on how to use a text’s central idea to develop an objective summary. Teaching these separate learning targets allows the teacher to individually assess each target. If a student does not clearly understand how to identify a central idea, that student will struggle to write an effective summary. If a teacher delivers a formative assessment on central ideas before beginning instruction on writing summaries, the teacher can identify struggling students and intervene before moving on.

Many standards are bundles of skills and concepts students need to know and understand to attain mastery. Unwrapping the standards to reveal individual learning targets helps teachers plan direct instruction and design formative assessments that provide useful information about student learning. Just like opening a bag of M&M’s candies to reveal those delicious, colorful treats, unwrapping standards and intentionally teaching to the learning target level ensure students receive the instruction they need to master the standards.